Celebrate World Teachers Day

One and a half years into the COVID-19 crisis, the 2021 World Teachers’ Day will focus on the support teachers need to fully contribute to the recovery process under the theme “Teachers at the heart of education recovery”. Find out more about the activities going on this week to celebrate World Teachers Day.

The last 18 months has had a huge impact on education across the world and we have witnessed teachers commitment and professionalism in ensuring that their students continue to learn, in the most difficult of circumstances. We made a short video to share some of our thoughts on teaching and learning. 


Evadne: Education. The opportunity to explore, express, engage and entertain. Through music, arts and drama. Education for all.


Adama:  I am a graduate from the university of The Gambia, bachelor’s degrees in English Language and Development Studies. Currently I teach in rural Gambia. I am passionate about girls’ education because educated girls make informed choices and informed decisions. They understand their value in life and in the future, they will play vital roles in the advancement of their communities and societies.


Helen: I feel very privileged to have been a teacher for over 30 years. I've enjoyed meeting and getting to know so many young people. As a secondary school teacher, it has been a wonderful journey to meet children when they're 11 and say goodbye to them, and wish them well in their futures, when they're 18 years old and young adults. It's always a great privilege to teach children, to enthuse them, so that they can developing new interests and learn new skills that will help them in their adult life, and skills that they will find very valuable. Also at the same time I enjoy learning from them. It's amazing over the years how much I have learnt. I remember some of my students taught me a little bit of British Sign Language. It's wonderful that teaching and learning are a two way process. It’s very important to recognise World Teachers Day.


Mary: Many years ago, my late husband Steve said to me he believed teaching to be the best profession in all the world. I too became a teacher in the 1990s, and only when I had responsibility for my own class of pupils did I fully appreciate what he meant. There can be no greater job satisfaction than knowing that you have had the opportunity to work with, and to help develop the minds of young people. It's a privilege to witness youngsters develop and blossom. Of going on journeys of discovery together with them, watching students take their learning forward, making links, embracing challenges, asking questions and testing new ideas. All of this can be exhausting, but it's also extremely exhilarating and exciting. On this World Teachers Day, let's celebrate the excitement of education, let's celebrate the role of teachers and learning.



We are working hard to support educators around the globe with our teacher training, resources for teachers, learning resource centres and digital classrooms.


We work with educators to develop projects that will help them to help their students to learn, like our Positive Periods Program, bicycles and solar radios for students, and books in a mother tongue. You can support all these projects in our gift shop. Thank you to everyone who has supported us this far.




Steve Sinnott • October 4, 2021

An Education Revolution

By Ann Beatty • April 6, 2025
This week while out and about in Hertfordshire and we visited the British Schools Museum. We discovered the first school opened by Joseph Lancaster, was known as the ‘Poor Childs Friend”, was in 1810. It was his lifelong mission that all children regardless of their circumstances, should benefit from an education. Apparently, Joseph heard a small girl say, “Oh that I could read!” and this inspired him to create a simple education system that eventually would benefit children across the world. Joseph was the tenth son of a poor man himself from South London. His aim was to offer free education for everyone. However, it would be 93 years before the U.K. government finally made education free for all. There are still many countries today where education is still not free to access and it is certainly not compulsory for primary and secondary age pupils. Joseph’s mission really resonates with that of the Foundation, to support access to education for all. We enjoyed our visit and appreciated the tour given by two of the Museum’s volunteers, Angela and Clare. They described some of the challenges faced in the early years of formal education and shared some of the rules that teachers and students had to abide by with us. 

Sparks Bristol

By Ann Beatty • April 4, 2025
Sparks Bristol is a collaborative community project initially envisioned by The Global Goals Centre, (GGC) more of which below. A few years ago, GGC took over an empty Marks and Spencer store and that’s how Sparks was born. Sparks is a department store with a difference, co-created by Global Goals Centre and Artspace Lifespace. On the ground floor is a huge range of shops, installations, events and more. Upstairs is a hub for local artists, it offers affordable studios as well as rehearsal and performance space. The Global Goals Centre is a Bristol-based educational charity inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs). GGC believe the SDG’s or Global Goals as they are sometimes known, can be reached, with imaginative solutions and widespread education and engagement. They work with partners to promote creative solutions and deliver ground breaking projects that work towards these ambitious goals. The Steve Sinnott Foundation supported the Global Goals Centre with seed funding when it first started over 5 years ago. This month we went to visit them to see how they are getting on and we were taken aback by the volume of work they have achieved since they started. It is amazing to see how though working together with other local community groups it has grown into the vibrant centre it is today. All of the creative projects they host are linked to the SDGs. They cover topics that tackle poverty, education, climate change, fashion recycling and upcycling, to name a few.

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.