Registration Opens for 2018-19 GSL Global Goals Student Competition

This month marks the third anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Global Goals, a set of 17 Sustainable Development goals with the power to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and stop climate change by 2030. It also sees the launch of the 2018-19 Global Social Leaders (GSL) Global Goals Competition, our ground-breaking free programme, which develops young peoples’ leadership skills and understanding of Global Citizenship through active engagement with the Global Goals.

The initiative challenges young people aged 11-17 to plan and lead a team project which addresses one or more of the Global Goals, to enable global change on a local scale. Future Foundations externally support teams with free provision of project planning frameworks, resources and bespoke feedback as they develop and implement their project at their school.

This is the second GSL Global Goals competition with last years’ event attracting entries from over 50 of the world’s leading schools. Both we and the independent panel of judges were hugely impressed by the quality of projects in 2017-18 with teams exhibiting a great breadth of skills, leadership and social consciousness.

Our 2017-18 finalists’ projects ranged from working with Refugees in the UK to cleaning the ocean in Thailand with participants demonstrating the power of engaging with the SDGs in a creative, experiential way – both on a personal level and for the community as a whole.

This years’ winning school will be announced at the Festival of Education at Wellington College on 20th June 2019, with over 4000 teachers and wider education stakeholders in attendance. The winning team will receive a transformational GSL Catalyst Programme for their school and all participants in the competition will receive a named certificate and expert feedback on their project.

It was a great journey for our students, opening them up to new experience and empowering them to be leaders in the community…accessing this professional framework, guidance and constant feedback was vital both for students and teachers – and was really helpful in developing the project and making sure students fulfilled their potential.

We enjoyed this service learning project so much, it was such a great experience for students and staff and we are proud to see that we made a positive contribution to our community.

This project allowed us to work really well as a team and it was amazing to see all the development and improvement we made throughout the years. It was nice to see other schools who work with different subject matters and this allowed our group to open up to different subject matters.

Future Foundations believes the Global Goals will only be met if the world works together and we create the opportunity both inside and beyond the classroom for young people to lead positive change in their own lives and in society.

This competition is part of our Global Social Leaders (GSL) programme, creating inspiration and skills training to connect and power a movement of socially conscious leaders. In addition to engaging with the competition, schools are invited to take part in the GSL World Summit and Catalyst programmes  which take place throughout the year. GSL  student conferences are designed to bring together teachers and young people aged 13-17 from around the world to exchange ideas, consider different leadership models and discuss how they can make a positive impact on their local community.

To register your school or find more information visit the Global Social Leaders website. If you would like to explore these opportunities please contact social.leaders@future-foundations.co.uk.