Blog
Apps for Girls – Opening of 2nd CDI Community
Posted by admin on September 6th, 2010
We are very pleased to announce our second CDI Community Partner:
Central Foundation Girls’ School (CFGS) in Tower Hamlets, East London
Central Foundation Girls’ School is a large, oversubscribed and inclusive inner-city girls’ school in Bow, London with 1,400 students age 11-18, 72% of which are Bangladeshi with 75% Muslim and 60% with a home language other than English. Already a Performing Arts Specialist School, it has now developed a second specialism called “Voice” which focuses on communication, empowerment and democracy through the subject areas of English and Citizenship. It aims to educate tomorrow’s women by promoting their development as leaders, champions of environmental sustainability and active citizens.
More than 40 girls applied for a place on the Apps for Good course, but only 20 of them will be able to attend the course, where some of the former Apps for Good students will now be working as educators.
The lessons will take place twice a week as part of the Central+ programme. Central+ is an activity project for after school hours developed by CFGS, which offers the girls the opportunity to follow different activities such as learning street dance, joining a cinema club or going horse riding, among others.
Ben Cole, Head of Community at CFGS told us: “All the girls who applied for the course want to achieve something and they see this programme as a real opportunity for them. They see themselves as privileged kids because they are getting an education and Apps for Good has given them the chance to put their passion for technologies to the service of the community in a practical way by developing apps that will solve specific problems around them.”
If you want to celebrate the launch of our second community with us you can register here: appsforgirls.eventbrite.com
TeachingLeaders – A call to action: educate critical minds!
Posted by irislapinski on August 29th, 2010
Last Friday I went up to Nottingham since Sharath Jeevan from TeachingLeaders had asked me to give the final address and call to action at their 2010 Cohort Residential at the National College for School Leadership.
Just in case you are unfamiliar with TeachingLeaders: Set-up in 2009, they train and develop outstanding school leaders (e.g. heads of department) in challenging inner-city schools, so as to directly raise pupil achievement and aspirations. They have got off to a rapid start with strong support from the government and the major political parties and are now in 87 schools across the South East of England. You can find out more about them on the TeachingLeaders website. Beyond the National College key partners are TeachFirst, ARK and FutureLeaders.
Initially I struggled to come up with a meaningful call to action, but then 2 weeks ago I stumbled across a short article in the Evening Standard mentioning that teachers were protesting very narrow exam frameworks, which did not really allow pupils to learn critical skills. With CDI’s educational inspiration Paulo Freire in the back of my mind I had my call for these 80 aspiring leaders in schools: to go beyond narrow learning targets and to enable young people to think critically and to set and achieve their own ambitions.
We will be launching in Central Foundation Girls’ School in 3 weeks time and I’m very excited to see if CDI Europe and Apps for Good can help to make this call a reality 
… more about this in our next blog post. (You can already register online via our Eventbrite page)
The full presentation can be viewed here:
Are Brazilian prisoners getting what they deserve?
Posted by admin on July 23rd, 2010
As in other countries, inmates often come from broken homes. They have little education and few skills that could get them a regular job. For many, crime is not a career choice, it is the only thing they know how to do… Recently Mark Gregory, BBC Worldwide reporter, met a man who has devoted his life to creating an alternative. Read more…
Your Big Year is supporting us!
Posted by admin on July 22nd, 2010
Your Big Year is supporting a total of 24 charities through the fund-raising done by the competitors. 12 Charities have been chosen by Your Big Year with Rights and Humanities as the lead Charity and CDI is one of them! Find out more at www.yourbigyear.com
Follow Your Big Year and CDI Europe on Twitter.