Changing The World

Published by The Portsmouth Grammar School on Wednesday 22nd of March 2023

Imi, one of our PGS Journalists in Year 4 writes about people who have inspired the world, which has been their topic this term.

People who change the world aren’t always who you expect. They are ordinary people who believe in a better world. They speak out, act heroically and face hardships to hand us a world free from harm and where the colour of our skin, our faith and our class never tells us apart.  We look to them for inspiration, courage and what better way to honour them but by learning about them and from them. 

As part of Spring Term’s curriculum “Becoming a Global Citizen in a Modern World,” Year 4 have been learning about these pioneers of change. They are people of different faiths, different race, climate change activists, politicians and refugees. We invited them to leap into our classrooms from the history books and inspire us to believe like Malala Yousafzai that it can take just “one child, one teacher, one book and one pen to change the world.” 

We travelled the seas with Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale as they changed nursing and healthcare. We stepped back to the time of the American Civil War and became Harriet Tubman. Using an immersive audio story, we journeyed through the Secret Underground Railway to help enslaved people find their way to freedom.  We sat on a segregated bus with Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks in Montgomery Alabama when they refused to give up their seats for white passengers.  We campaigned through persuasive letter writing to prevent Rosa Parks being sent to prison. 

We used freeze frames in drama to act out scenes of KunKush the cat. His brave journey not only reunited him with his refugee family fleeing Iraq for a safer life in Europe, but brought the world together in hope. It is this hope that the Dalai Lama speaks of in his “Art of Hope” message broadcasted to millions this January, a hope that in “this world, we have to live together.”  A world that climate change activists like David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg fight to keep safe for our children’s children. 

This Spring we learnt about how these amazing people changed our history and handed us the key to change our future. Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr both dreamt of a world without prejudice and just like all of us, began “life as a child with a dream.” 

By Imi, Year 4 Junior School Journalist.