An announcement by three leading UK education leaders – British Council, Peace One Day and Promethean – will set the stage for Peace Day, which is scheduled for 21 September 2013. This joint effort seeks to advance the mission of Peace One Day to create a more peaceful and sustainable world. The collaboration joins Promethean Planet’s 1.7 million educators and the British Council’s international network of 40,000 schools with Peace One Day efforts to launch the largest worldwide peace conversation. Jeremy Gilley, founder of Peace One Day, acknowledges this incredible opportunity by stressing, “We want young people to truly become the driving force behind the vision of a united and sustainable world. Joining forces with Promethean and the British Council throws the doors wide open for a much larger conversation. We are thrilled by the opportunity to make this September 21st the biggest Peace Day in history.”
In order to achieve this, an international class activity for ages 11-18 has been developed that combines technology, purpose and connectivity. The activity will kick off with a 21-question survey seeking opinions from young people; their responses will support “The Peace Conversation” in classrooms. The activity will be promoted internationally through the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms project, a global education programme, which offers funding and resources for institutions, teachers and students, and connects the UK to schools in more than fifty countries around the world.
Joining The Peace Conversation is easy. Educators simply sign up on Promethean Planet and access extensive resources on Promethean Planet and the Peace One Day website, including materials in six languages, films and Skype talks with founder Jeremy Gilley. In the spirit of giving, Promethean will donate 21 cents to the Haller Foundation for each participant, with a goal of 21,000 supporters.
Jim Wynn, Chief Education Offer at Promethean called on teachers everywhere to join the effort: “We are honoured to once again support the efforts of Peace One Day. Our hope is that by inviting the thousands of educators within the Promethean Planet community to join us, we can help reach the goal of getting over 600 million people to celebrate Peace Day on Sept. 21st.”
David Martin, Head of Schools Programmes at British Council said: “We are delighted to collaborate with Peace One Day and Promethean on this initiative. The British Council Connecting Classrooms programme runs in more than fifty countries around the world and many of those countries have experienced conflict. Education is a vital means of helping the next generation understand conflict and what it takes to create peace.”
Last year, a report by McKinsey & Company estimated that Peace Day 21 September reached over 280 million people, or 4% of the world’s population. For more information about previous Peace Day activities, watch this 3-minute film presented by Jeremy Gilley.
To view the Peace One Day resources, visit Promethean’s website at www.prometheanplanet.com/POD
Notes to Editors:
About Peace One Day
In 2007, Jeremy Gilley and Jude Law travelled to Afghanistan to spearhead an initiative that has resulted in the vaccination against polio of 4.5 million children following Peace Day agreements by all parties in the region in 2007/8/9. This work forms the culmination of Gilley’s feature documentary “The Day After Peace”. Others who have supported Peace One Day include Sir Elton John, Annie Lennox, Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon, Angelina Jolie, Lenny Kravitz, Kasabian, Pixie Lott, Imelda May, Newton Faulkner, Guillemots, Razorlight, Eliza Doolittle, Bryan Adams, Peter Gabriel, Yusuf (Cat Stevens), Patti Smith, Charlie Winston, Youssou N’Dour, Jonny Lee Miller, Joseph Fiennes, Kate Nash, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dave Stewart, Jimmy Cliff, Faithless, James Morrison, -M-, Yodelice, Vanessa Paradis, Ayo, AfroReggae, Wonder Villains, Flawless, English National Ballet and millions of people across the world.
For more information about Peace One Day, visit www.peaceoneday.org or www.facebook.com/peaceoneday
About Promethean
Promethean (LSE: PRW), a global education company, harnesses the power of existing and emerging technologies to advance learning and teaching productivity. Our feedback-driven learning environment engages students and provides teachers with tools to simplify and deliver differentiated instruction. Headquartered in the UK, Promethean World Plc is listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. For more information follow @ActivNews or visit www.PrometheanWorld.com.
About the British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. We work in more than 100 countries and our 7000 staff – including 2000 teachers – work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year teaching English, sharing the Arts and in education and society programmes.
We are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. A publically-funded grant-in-aid provides less than a quarter of our turnover which last year was £781m. The rest we earn from English teaching, UK exams and services which customers around the world pay for, through education and development contracts and from partnerships with other institutions, brands and companies. All our work is in pursuit of our charitable purpose and creates prosperity and security for the UK and the countries we work in all around the world.
For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org. You can also keep in touch with the British Council through twitter.com/britishcouncil and blog.britishcouncil.org
Peace Day 2013 Celebration and 24-hour Live Global Broadcast. For tickets to the 21st September Peace One Day 2013 Celebration in The Hague, please visit Ticket Master.
The Ticketmaster site is available in both the English and Dutch languages. The most comprehensive and up-to-date information on the celebration line-up is available online at: www.peaceoneday.org/. There, you will find full information on the content of the 24-Hour Global Broadcast for Peace, bringing live content from all around the world, including a series of exclusive interviews from some of the world’s leading actors and specially-created music videos and interviews with top acts. Anyone can be a global broadcaster on Peace Day 21 September. To get the “PeaceCode” and host the player for the concert and 24-hour broadcast, visit: www.peaceoneday.org/peacecode.