Several schools have been taking part in Imagining Futures, the new collective imagining programme designed and supported by Caritas Westminster. The programme uses Catholic Social Teaching to encourage audacious collective imagining in schools, to create ambitious visions for the future, and small steps for personal and society change and activism, through heads, hearts and minds.
St Michaels Primary School in Ashford, which opened up the project to the whole of KS2, report that:
‘The children have been creative in portraying their ideal futures through art, models and written work. It has given them the opportunity to really think about how we can make our world a better place. The children have understood and used the Catholic Social Teaching Principles to think about their ideal futures and what they can do as a school to help those in need. It has made them think about the small steps they can take towards an ideal future.’
Their Caritas Ambassadors even got the chance to share some of their ideal future projects and what they would like Ashford to look like in 10 years time with their local MP Kwasi Kwarteng, when he visited, as can be seen in this Tweet:
Meanwhile children at Holy Rood School in Watford:
“enjoyed speaking passionately about our call to protect our world and to impact the world to be a place everyone is proud of and where all feel valued and loved. This project has facilitated them to be able to verbalise this more clearly but also to share their specific wishes for our future world.”
These children worked in groups to put their ideas together in planning sheets:
Meanwhile at St Paul’s in Cheshunt, children in nursery and reception decided that we need more electric cars on the road. The teacher reported:
“When we researched this idea further we discovered that electric cars do not produce harmful fumes into the air that we breathe. We made this electric car using a big box, lollypop sticks, paper plates, stickers, paper, lots of fun and even more mess.”
The images below show the range of work done at these schools.
