BRINGING HISTORY TO LIFE

May 25th-St. George’s Day: Celebrating Our World Heritage

In 2009 UK UNESCO invited The St. George’s Foundation to participate in a pilot WHE programme entitled ‘Making Sense of Our Sites.’ The aim of the programme is to encourage or strengthen partnerships with the Ministry of Education in hopes of incorporating World Heritage Education into the local curriculum and providing students with a chance to learn and engage in the protection of our natural and cultural heritage.

Each year students are asked to submit and present entries (essay/article, script, poster/collage, poem, photograph, song, painting, video*, animation or podcast) on any aspect of St. George’s (family connections, architecture, historic places, traditions) history or heritage while exploring questions like:

• what is world heritage and why is it important?
• is there a connection between World Heritage and personal heritage?
• what can we do to educate, protect, preserve or promote our World Heritage Site?

During the half-day event at the World Heritage Centre judges (representatives from The St. George’s Foundation, Ministry of Education, and World Heritage Education Advisory Council) will ask students about their research and subject knowledge and later students will make a formal presentation of their work to the wider audience.

Primary and middle schools are encouraged to submit group entries (class or school) and senior students can work individually or in groups of no more than four students. Primary and middle schools are competing for the best in class award and senior school students are competing to become World Heritage Ambassadors and represent Bermuda overseas at the 2012 UK World Heritage Youth Summit.

All exhibits will remain on display at the World Heritage Centre until the end of summer.

We expect our World Heritage Education programme to produce engaged schoolchildren, enlivened educators and community partnerships whose enhanced knowledge of Bermuda’s history contributes to the development of a strong, and sustained cultural “glue.” The fruit of this understanding will be a respect for and appreciation of the diversity that is at the heart of the human stories that make Bermuda great.

*Video submissions for St. George’s Day may be used for our ‘A Day in the Life’ web series