Agents of Change

Our new Agents of Change programme has arrived

Each half-term, children are set 3 home challenges to do. They are designed to be straightforward and achieveable, but do require effort and thinking about others!

For each AoC home challenge a child does, they will earn a special AoC card. Collect these across the year, and they’ll receive a special bronze, silver or gold award!

Bronze – for doing 12 challenges, including the 6 class challenges
Silver– for doing 18 challenges, including the 6 class challenges
Gold (Graham Robins Award) – for doing all 24 challenges, including the 6 class challenges

Class Challenges- How are we doing so far?

Year 1 Looking after our World

In Year 1, we thought about our world and how we need to care for it.
We have lots of ideas that we are going to promote such as: picking up litter, using less water and turning off lights.
We know this will help us to make our world a better place and will help us to look after the Polar Bears. We are finding ways to share the best things to do to make a difference.

In Year 2, we thought about lots of different things that concern us in our world.
We decided that we really wanted to focus on looking after wildlife.
From our research, we learnt that minibeasts are essential to a healthy ecosystem because they are food sources, pollinators and help aerate the soil. So, we decided that we would like to build some mini-beast hotels to support wildlife in our school grounds.
We have written to Mr Applegate to ask him to let us build some mini-beast hotels on the school grounds. We will build these in the summer term.
We are also going to write instructions about how to build mini-beast hotels so that we can share these with others in our community so they can make them at home. In this way, everyone will be able to help our wildlife!

We have researched and found out lots about Fairtrade- what it is, what it does and how we can help- listen to our videos.
We have made posters and leaflets to promote Fairtrade. We have put some up in the staffroom to encourage staff to buy more Fairtrade and a group of Year 3 children independently went to FOSM to ask if they could have a Fairtrade stall at the Easter Egg Hunt, where they shared about fairtrade, gave out leaflets and raised money for Fairtrade.
Some children have also written to local companies to encourage people to sell more Fairtrade products. We are now just waiting for responses.
In the Summer, the children are organising a Fairtrade event and are inviting in parents and representatives from local interested groups.

In Year 4 we are looking at the impacts of pollution. We look at river pollution in our Geography unit on rivers but we decided we wanted to find out more about other types of pollution too.
In 4SB we are concerned about light pollution. We completed light surveys to see how much energy was wasted when lights were on but no one was in the room. We are also concerned about the impact of light pollution on animals and nature. See our posters below.
In 4M we thhought about water pollution and discovered that one of the key culprits was plastic. With summer and holidays coming up, we want to make sure that everyone takes their litter home from the beach so we are are finding ways to share our concerns with others to ensure that everyone takes their rubbish home with them.
In 4C, we think noise pollution is a real concern, especially with so much building work in our area, as it can impact our concentration and disrupts people’s sleep. We have written to our local councillors to share our concerns.

We have researched the impacts of climate change and know that it means that the Earth’s blanket is getting thicker due to green house gases like carbon dioxide.
This impacts people and animals across the globe causing severe storms, hotter weather, melting ice caps, loss of habitat and much more.
We have identified ways that we can help, including turning off electrical appliances that we aren’t using, walking more, recycling, planting trees and flowers, using less water and taking care of nature. We have made posters and leaflets to share with people.
A few children have identified other ways that we could help: One is making comic strips to share the problems, another is making seed pouches to give out seeds to plant.
In the summer term, we are going to create our own garden in the school grounds and will invite in others to share our ideas and encourage others to speak out about climate change. Even small changes can make a big difference.

We used the book The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry to begin thinking about the impacts of deforestation.
We researched deforestation to find out more about the impacts. We were particularly concerned about the impact on wildlife, with many habitats being destroyed.
We decided to sponsor a monkey in each class via Monkey World. We raised money by hosting a cake sale for the school and used this to sponsor our monkeys: Kiwi, Sibu Jr and Chocolat. We even stopped to visit our monkeys on the way to our Year 6 residential!
We are researching who to write to so that we can try to influence and make a positive impact to reduce deforestation both locally and abroard. We will be writing these letters very soon and will also be sharing all that we have learnt in what else we can do to reduce deforestation, including using less paper in school, supporting Christian Aid and reducing meat consumption.

Spring 2 2026 – Challenges to do at home!

Year R

Teach someone in your family about ‘don’t hold on to what’s wrong’ and what can you do at school to practise this.
Make a friendship card or picture to give to a friend.
When reading stories at home, look out for characters who need to remember ‘don’t hold on to what’s wrong’ (forgiveness)

Design a pretend ‘kit’ with drawings like a heart bandage, a kindness glue stick, and a listening ear. Use it to talk about hurt feelings.
Make a paper fortune teller with kind actions or phrases inside like ‘say sorry, give a hug, share a smile, say something nice.’ Use it with friends to practice forgiveness.
Sit in a circle with friends or family. Take turns saying something nice or something you appreciate about the person next to you. .

Create a family kindness jar to record positive messages about the people and pets in your home.
Create a reconciliation rock- a visual reminder of how to restore relationships- and leave it somewhere for people to find.
Pick one of the ‘rights of a child’ to research and create a presentation on why it is important.

Download the leaflets

Questions!

Can I do the home challenges in any order?

Yes!

What happens when my child has done a home challenge?

Your child will receive an AoC card which they can take home. We keep a record of this in school so we can count how many they’ve achieved.
You’ll also have a copy of the challenges to keep at home so you can tick them off.

How do I tell a teacher that a home challenge has been completed?

A few options. The pupil or parent can tell a teacher, they can bring it in to school, or they can email the year group – you could include a photo if you’d like to.

If I need any resources, can I speak to the teacher about this?

Yes, and we’ll help out as much as we are able to.

When are the bronze, silver and gold badges presented?

This will happen at the end of the year.

Do they get 6 AoC cards automatically?

Not quite! Each half-term, the children are working on a project in school regarding being an Agent of Change. When they complete this each half-term, they will get a card.

Agents of Change

At St Mark’s CofE Primary School, we believe it’s crucial that our children see themselves as those who make a positive impact on our world. We help them to see themselves as “Agents of Change”, making our world a better place through their simple actions. We have to be the change to see the change!

This may start at school- for example, in the classroom, on the playground, bringing a smile, sharing resources, or playing together.

It also impacts our local community -for example doing a litter pick, writing a letter/email to cheer someone up, leaving surprise flowers at residents doorsteps, raising money for St Michael’s Hospice, or sending cards to local residential homes.

We also look wider afield. Over the past year, we have been working hard to help our children to become courageous advocates, who use their voices and actions to bring about positive change in our world. We want the children to feel that they have the power to move beyond simple fundraising, to use their voices to raise awareness of issues impacting others in our community and across the world. We have been working with Christian Aid’s Global Neighbours Project to help us understand this more and to develop our understanding of global citizenship. Through this we have carried out actions such as: writing to local companies to encourage more environmentally friendly ways of working, advocating for Fair Trade, supporting Foodbank and developing connections with the children from The Mud House Children’s Foundation, our partner charity in Tanzania.

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