Adapting and Achieving during Covid

In the last year a lot has changed. You’ve heard that a lot.

People have changed, education has changed and so have organisations. Have you noticed that some organisations have really stepped up in the last year and gone out of their way to help?

Uber and Pret have been offering free rides and meals for NHS staff, Nike supporting the safety precaution with their ‘Stay at home, play at home’ message. Burberry repurposed factories to make masks, helping toward the vaccine and have helped charities too. Many small local charities and community organisations have been providing meals to NHS staff and neighbours, checking on the vulnerable and elderly with daily calls and getting shopping for the people who have been shielding. Teachers have gone out of their way to offer support to their students, learning new technology and how to teach through it, working all hours to make sure every student is engaged and involved, some teachers have cycled round to check that children have food, and found ways to get technology and internet access to others.

Various apps like Zoom have been keeping us connected, and many others providing us with a bit of pleasant relief from the restrictions. Organisations such as Thinking Classroom have been hosting free Zoom Schools to get us all up to speed with online connectivity. As organisations have jumped to offer their services online this has actually increased access to some who have internet access but can’t travel.

We would like to share how we have also stepped up to help out over the last year too, and these are 5 ways that we have been helping a wide range of people in different parts of the world directly in response to the pandemic. Responding to the pandemic to further strengthen the support we offer in our three key areas of Access to Education, Resources for Educators, and Education Dialogue.

1. How we provided access to education support in response to Covid

We connected with our partners to see what challenges they had from Coronavirus that we could help directly with. It turned out that many students in the countries we work with did not have access to any education whilst in lockdown due to the digital divide. So we provided solar powered radios so that children in those remote areas could listen to their lessons which their governments were broadcasting by radio.

We also discovered an increase in violence against women, so we worked with our partners to set up Gender Based Violence workshops to bring this to light and work on ways to make women and girls safer in school.

In Cuba, women delivered the Positive Periods Programme via WhatsApp, connecting 20 women’s organisations who were learning new skills together during lockdown.

2. How we supported the Covid Stay Safe message with resources for educators

Lockdown has awoken a lively discussion about education and school. This is good for us as we are always keen to promote and foster conversation about education, and access to it. In support of the Coronavirus Stay Safe message, we published a resource pack called ‘Learning from Home’ which helped lots of parents and educators by pulling together all the useful resources they could be using for home learning into one place. We also used Social Media to connect with parents and educators, ask questions and offer practical support through our posts.

3. How we increased access to education online

As we were not able to attend events and give talks, we developed a Life Long Learning webinar series (free or by donation). We linked this webinar series to raising awareness of the digital divide, as not everyone in the world has access to online learning.

People across the globe were at home and were looking to learn about new things online.

We hosted storytelling sessions “Myths and Stories” with students from The Gambia, Haiti, Sierra Leone and the U.K. working together on-line to strengthen understanding between cultures. We also encouraged students in the UK and Poland to share poetry with each other.

4. How we helped people stay connected through an education dialogue

We thought at first that the webinars would just be informative, but we allowed ourselves to experiment and discovered that the post popular webinars were those that gave people the chance to be actively creative in ‘creating together’ webinars. In addition to webinars about Human Rights and Safeguarding we hosted webinars where the participants wrote poetry together, made art and showed each other what they had made, had discussions, watched films together with a live Q&A after. This has helped to build and strengthen our ‘Education for All’ community.

We have also created some Digital Charity Gifts for people to buy and share with their loved ones, this gives more people access to supporting us in a fun way, with a completely environmentally sound gift. We’ve had some lovely feedback to say that it has already helped people to connect, smile and say thank you.

5. How we helped people smile and gave hope

We increased our social media posts during lockdown to keep the conversation going about the positive impact we are having through the work we do. Our aim was to spread hope and positive messages about the successful impact we have been having to counteract some of the depressing statistics we have every night on our TV screens. We also posted ‘Smile Posts’ of children smiling and novelty treats like stop motion, and time lapse videos with positive quotes, so that there would be something to make people smile when they saw our feed. We now have a Good News email that is designed to encourage everyone to share positivity and hope. Ultimately, we need hope, and positivity, to make our dreams of education for all a reality.

The main point is this, Covid has been difficult for many, but many of us have made a stand for helping others and spreading hope and positivity. There are actually many fantastic things happening in the world right now. Many organisations, as well as us have been working away all year to make great things happen, because we want to encourage people to smile, have hope and most importantly continue learning and connecting with each other.

Thank you for reading and please leave a comment to let us know what was the best thing you saw happen last year.

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Steve Sinnott • April 28, 2021

Spring is Here! Looking Ahead!

By Ann Beatty • March 28, 2025

Spring is definitely here, daffodils, blossom and crocuses are all basking in the bright sunshine. There is still a chill in the air in the shade but it's happening and all the seeds that were sown over the last few months are coming to fruition. At the Foundation, we have been planning the year ahead and our Positive Periods and Prevention of Gender Based Violence programmes got underway this weekend in Haiti and Ghana. These projects will have a long-lasting effect on the lives of the women and girls who take part: tackling the root causes of gender-based violence and enabling girls to attend school every day when they have their period, to feel safe at school and know how to take action when they are faced with violence. These are the first of many projects planned for the year ahead as we continue to work towards Education for All children everywhere.

Igniting a movement for education for all

By Hannah Frisch • March 7, 2025

The outlook for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) on global education is far from rosy. But a gloomy future isn’t inevitable. Disappointing statistics are the result of political choices that can be shifted and there are thousands of youth, grassroots activists and civil society organisations across the UK advocating for global education to make these changes. We need more people involved to build the momentum, we need to make a difference in challenging circumstances. You can help! Here’s how; Making global education a UK priority The UK is an important donor and champion for global education. However, education has been gradually deprioritised on the development agenda. Global education spending has plummeted from 13.5% of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2013 to just 3.5% in 2023, and education was one of the sectors hit hardest by the abandonment of the 0.7% gross national income (GNI) target for ODA. With Labour’s annual budget confirming another reduction in the aid budget, funding for global education is under threat of being cut even further unless we stand together to say this can’t happen. While education is a domestic priority for the new Government, it has yet to emerge as a strong theme in their development agenda. As the Labour Party continues to develop their approach there is a unique opportunity for advocates to connect these dots and make the case for why education must be a key part of the Government’s international plans. For the Government to take action it needs to hear demand for change. There are many issues MPs recognise are important, but if they do not hear about these issues from constituents it can be hard for MPs to be vocal about them in Parliament. Following an election where many parliamentary seats were won with tight margins, MPs need to hear from the people they represent that global education must be on their agenda. With over half of MPs elected for the first time this year, many are actively looking for a steer on what issues to work on. We can give them one! How to Get Involved Write to your MP about why global education needs to be a bigger priority for the UK Government and encourage members of groups you are a part of, such as your union branch or a local community group, to do the same. This can have a real impact on your MP’s interest and ability to act for global education. You can also connect with other grassroots activists and get resources for taking action from international development advocacy organisations like Results UK. You can learn more about Results UK’s grassroots network on our website. If you are a teacher, get your school involved in the Send My Friend to School Campaign (SMF). Send My Friend is a UK civil society coalition advocating for SDG4 which supports a mass UK schools campaign to amplify student voices calling for universal quality education in solidarity with their peers around the world. Free campaign packs are available on the SMF website for primary and secondary levels with everything teachers need to run the campaign in their school. Parliamentarians can learn more about education issues and how to act by joining the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Global Education, a cross-party group that brings together Parliamentarians interested in the right to education and provides them with knowledge and resources to be champions of the issue. By joining our voices through collective action, we can make a real difference in moving the needle on this issue. Together we have a chance to rechart the course for the realisation of quality education for all. BIOGRAPHY Hannah Frisch is the Senior Policy and Parliamentary Advocacy Officer for Education at Results UK and a Co-Chair of the Send My Friend to School Policy and Parliamentary Working Group. She is a policy advisor for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Global Education in the UK Parliament.

Supporting work for The Federation of Drama Schools

By Melanie Lavery • March 3, 2025

Last year the Steve Sinnott Foundation supported the work of The Federation of Drama Schools by providing financial aid to new graduates, enabling them to take part in an industry showcase at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The showcase is an annual event for Irish graduates who have completed a professional training at one of the Federation’s partner conservatoires in the UK, introducing young actors to the industry they hope to work in. The Federation of Drama Schools partners are institutions that provide conservatoire vocational training for those who want to be professional performers, theatre makers and technical theatre practitioners. The courses they offer are for students of eighteen years and over, who have completed their school level education. In November (2024) fourteen young Irish graduates took part in the showcase and the SSF provided financial support to two graduates who may not otherwise have been able to take part in this showcase, which is a bridge between training and their professional career. Melanie Lavery from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama is one of those who benefitted from this support. Melanie writes of her experience. I would like to say a huge thank you to the Steve Sinnott Foundation for the support I received, making it possible for me to take part in the Dublin Showcase 2024. The opportunity allowed me to work with graduates from across FDS schools and widen my contacts in the industry. Coming from a socio-economically deprived area, I’ve often missed out on opportunities available to my peers. I have had to spend a lot of energy during my three years in drama school working to support myself and this has meant I often don’t have time to follow up network opportunities. In receiving this sponsorship and taking part in the showcase I have been able to connect with other Irish creatives - the people I am acting opposite, directors, casting directors and agents in the industry. These industry showcases are so important for graduates. It gives us the possibility of networking with industry professionals and hopefully the opportunity of taking that first crucial step into the profession we have trained for. As I studied in Wales, it gave me the chance to return to Ireland and to reach out to creatives there. The Foundation gave me this amazing opportunity to kick start my career in my home country. On the day of the showcase, I had such pride watching my fellow Irish peers performing on stage at Ireland’s National Theatre. Working together throughout the rehearsal period, I got to know them individually and we all helped each other to grow as performers. This showcase has helped me to create my own community of actors around me. When it came to talking with other creatives after the show case, I became so much more aware of how large and welcoming the industry is in Ireland and how much work is being produced here. I think this show case is so important as it highlights how vibrant and growing the industry is in Ireland. I feel so lucky that I was able to take part thanks to the help of the Steve Sinnott Foundation. For more information on the Federation of Drama Schools, professional industry showcases, and it’s partner schools please visit www.federationofdramaschools.co.uk