Being a Humanitarian Leader is one of the newer leadership roles open to Year 9 students.  Working alongside Mrs Johnson, the Leads have the opportunities to get involved in ethical issues. Their first initiative was to raise awareness of Human Rights Day in December last year, which they did through a number of activities supported by a display in the atrium. They put together a Kahoot quiz which was played in form time and learned to play John Lennon’s “Imagine” in orchestra. Three of the leaders also carried out a sponsored silence for a humanitarian charity in recognition of those who do not have freedom of speech. In addition, there was a competition with prizes for Years 7-9 to recite as many of the articles on the Declaration of Human Rights as they could remember! The group also collaborated with the NHEHS Amnesty Youth Group who raised money for Amnesty’s ‘Families Together’ Campaign. This campaign put pressure on the UK government to change the law, to allow child refugees in the UK to have the automatic right to be reunited in the UK with their parents.   

Despite being in lockdown, the Humanitarian Leads put together a week of initiatives in February to support Fairtrade Fortnight, including an ethical quiz and Fairtrade-themed dress up day. The group also audited the school to track how aware we all are of Fairtrade and the products we currently purchase. The Year 9 work in this area resulted in NHEHS achieving the first of the School Fairtrade awards, ‘the Fairaware award.’ The week also saw a remote Fairtrade baking competition and sharing of top Fairtrade shopping tips in the Charities Newsletter.

In the summer term, our Humanitarian Leads also visited the Harrow Club to learn about their work with young people in the area.

We asked two of our brand new and one of our outgoing Leaders about being Humanitarian Leads and what it meant to them: 

Beatrice C, Year 9

“I decided to sign up to become a Humanitarian Representative because I want to raise money for important causes and give a voice to those who do not have one. I love to help out at fundraising events such as bakes sales, food collections and sponsored sports, and becoming a Humanitarian Rep is an amazing opportunity to do this. In addition to this, being a Humanitarian Lead means that I can take steps in creating a better world for everyone and lots of these small steps will eventually lead to a huge positive impact. In this role I want to make people aware of the problems in the world today and the solutions that we can all help to achieve. I am excited to help organise events and plan awareness campaigns in this role, and I am very grateful for this opportunity.”

Areesha A, Year 9

“I decided to sign up for the Year 9 Humanitarian Lead role because I believe that volunteering and charity are very important in life. I am hoping to achieve raising a lot of money for charity as well as raising awareness about the many charities and good causes. Additionally, I want everyone to have a better understanding about how other people, around the world, have very different lives to ours and how much harder they must work. I am very excited for all the upcoming events and assemblies that I will get to be a part in.

Jemima H-J, Year 10

“I signed up because I believe we all need to play our part. This year I enjoyed taking part in our meetings, sharing ideas to help others and also giving a speech in assembly. The hardest thing I found this year was trying to plan events that would attract as many people as possible and encourage them to make a change. My biggest learning was that if you want to change something, knowing that you must start with yourself.” 

Mrs Johnson and Miss Newman are looking forward to working with our five new Year 9 Leaders who will be working on achieving the Fairactive Award, organising and running activities around the school for Fairtrade Fortnight, a Fairtrade collaboration with our partner school Notre Dame de Nemours (USA), a school cultural day as well as raising awareness and encouraging ethical living.