Create 4,000 UK Young Leaders from Deprived Areas

With the summer holidays fast approaching, we are so excited to celebrate the successful implementation of our first year of a PeaceJam-RotaKids Club at St Michael's Church of England Primary School in Bournemouth. With the support of our GlobalGiving donors, PeaceJam UK has partnered with the Rotary Club of Westbourne to empower Key Stage 3 (KS3) students aged 7-11 to take positive action in their school and in their wider communities through the delivery of PeaceJam curricula and resources and the engagement in local and global Rotary projects.

For example, students this year have been gardening and renovating a large green space in the school playground that had become overgrown and fallen into disrepair. For the majority of pupils, as most do not have a garden at home, learning about planting and then being able to use gardening tools and organic material was a new experience. Students now have a greater appreciation and relationship with their local environment, this can be seen in their plans to grow food at the school to be used in the cafeteria or by students in need. Over the last three years the Rotary Club of Westbourne has supplied 150 food parcels to help families at Christmas and now students are already engaged in how they can support their community from September.

Students also worked in small teams to take action, working outside of their normal year group peers and learning life skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication as well as project skills such as budgeting and fundraising. However, one of the most important foundations of the PeaceJam-RotaKids Club has been providing positive role models, through our volunteers, but most specifically through our resources and stories of PeaceJam’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.

This year, because of your support, we have been developing a Reading Passport project for KS3 students to engage in our Laureates life stories and learn how any person can have a big impact. With colourful illustrations created by artists based in Salisbury, flags from the Laureates home countries and a short glossary for students and teachers to explore together, students can read across the globe. Our aim has been to show how reading can be both a passport to new places and experiences and for students to reflect on how they can take action like their role models.

Our pilot trials with the PeaceJam-RotaKids Club have been a huge success. St Michael's currently has over fifty three registered languages spoken by families across the school, and students were excited to engage with Laureates connected to their heritage, discuss Maps and geography while also reflecting on how these inspirational changemakers have overcome the obstacles they have faced. Building students self-esteem, resilience and emotional literacy. The impact can be seen at the end of every session where students are encouraged to nominate and give out our ‘Proud of you’ stickers to themselves or their peers for what they have done that day. Over each term, students have gained confidence and displayed increased thoughtfulness in their nominations and support of each other.

Overall, forty pupils took part in the PeaceJam-RotaKids Club over the academic year and on the 3rd of July, they all received a certificate and an official Club hat at their very own celebration assembly. We are so excited to continue the Club next year and to keep supporting St Michael's to develop their inspiring young peacemakers.

We also cannot fail to mention not one, but two, successful PeaceJam Slams that have taken place in 2026. Our second PeaceJam Manchester Slam in March and our first PeaceJam Romsey Slam in June. With our first York Slam provisionally scheduled for November, we are thrilled to be reaching youth across the country, connecting young leaders from deprived areas to the resources and opportunities to create change. Thank you for making all of this possible!