Schools

World Orphan Week provides children with an opportunity to learn about other countries, cultures, religions and ways of life. Teachers can use our downloadable World Orphan Week lesson plans and resources which enables a real connection with issues on the school curriculum.

World Orphan Week at School

There are 145 million orphaned children in the world, and many millions more living homeless on the streets. World Orphan Week provides a great opportunity for schools to learn more about these children, and teaches them how they can help.

You can plan your World Orphan week whichever way suits you and your school: either arrange smaller activities to raise awareness of the plight of orphaned children throughout World Orphan Week, or go all out and dedicate a day of the week to fundraising and educational activities.

What it means to be a family

 World Orphan Week is a chance  for school children of all ages to learn more about the reasons why children become orphaned.  In addition they will be able to learn about what can be done to help these vulnerable children and to help prevent more children losing their family.

Looking at how SOS Children supports children and families, provides pupils with a chance to reflect on their own relationships and to challenge prejudices about how a family unit is composed.

To help encourage successful learning we have a list of links to the Curriculum, a Country fact file, as well as a number of lesson plans complete with resources available, which can be downloaded for free from our website.

Our lesson plans include:

•    Introducing an SOS Children's Village
•    The Rights of the Child – South Africa (KS3)
•    SOS Children in the USA
•    India (KS 2-3 and KS4 and above)
•    The rights of the child – Senegal (KS 2-3)
•    Child soldiers – Uganda (KS 4 and above)
•    HIV/AIDS – Malawi (KS 4 and above)
•    Build a Children’s Village – Angola (pre-school, KS1-3)

Curriculum links

See how our lesson plans link to the National Curriculum: here

SOS Children currently works in 124 countries and has access to a wealth of information about specific countries, cultures and ways of life. You can find an introduction to each country where we work in our sponsorship directory.

If you would like more resources including detailed information about our Children’s Villages, photos from the Villages and case studies about the children we care for, please contact our School’s Coordinator Helen: helen@soschildren.org

There are plenty of ways to take part in World Orphan Week:

•    Have a non-uniform day and wear something World Orphan Week in exchange for a £1 donation.

•    Put on a bake sale: if you sell 5 cupcakes for 50p each you’ve raised enough money for a mosquito net for a child in Malawi!

•    Do a sponsored walk for the same distance as it is from your school to the nearest SOS Children’s Village. It is in Calais, France, 93 miles from Big Ben! If all the pupils at the school hep out, how quickly can you cover the distance between you?

•    Arrange a World Orphan Week quiz, testing your knowledge of some of the countries where SOS Children work.

See our A-Z of Fundraising Ideas for more suggestions

Your school could make a real commitment to the future of a child or village through an SOS sponsorship.  Sharing in the lives of the SOS Village children through updates and letters helps your students personally understand a different culture and raises their awareness of our responsibility as global citizens.

Building these relationships can become part of the school culture and could even extend to your pupils and teachers visiting their supported SOS Village and experience being part of the global family.