UNESCO ASPnet schools’ contribution to the UK

The Foundation has been working in partnership with UNESCO since 2015 and Ann Beatty our CEO is the UNESCO ASPnet Co-ordinator in the UK. There are 145 schools in the programme and Coventry City is currently supporting all schools in the city with the opportunity of accreditation. In January, Warwick University and Coventry City Council hosted an event at the House of Commons to celebrate UNESCO ASPnet schools’ contribution to the UK.


Saarah Rahman who helped organise the event, is currently studying at the University of Warwick in her final year, reading politics and international studies. Saarah shares her thoughts on ASPnet and her personal journey in education.


I believe that being a part of UNESCO ASPNET and the Hidden Heroes project will help to lift hundreds of schoolchildren out of educational deprivation. This is an issue that I have personally grown up with my entire life. Educational deprivation is a very personal topic for me, as someone who originates from Tower Hamlets and as a British Bangladeshi Muslim, I am already socially and economically hindered.


I went to your average underperforming state school, where I was never able to take part in programmes which helped to improve my confidence and critical thinking skills, as well as deepen my awareness of the world around me. I was always stuck in a bubble at school, believing that students like me would never be able to leave Tower Hamlets; that my whole life would only start and end here, in this small pocket of London.


From not having a laptop until I was seventeen and being on Free School Meals when I was younger, I have faced the brunt of deprivation in education. It was when I got into The University of Warwick that I realised the deprivation gap between me and my classmates was much greater than it seemed.


My classmates had opportunities to take part in initiatives such as Model UN at school, Pupil Parliament, and so many other extracurriculars that they had at their disposal, because of the type of funding their school during sixth form and secondary had received. Meanwhile, I had to scout for my extracurricular opportunities during school, alongside the challenge that they had to be free.


The disparity gap is prominent in who runs for execs or higher student positions, and the common denominator between these types of students is they had leadership positions and extracurriculars handed to them during their time in compulsory education. They were given the confidence at an early age to apply for these roles inside and outside of the University, which will ultimately lead to them being in a better position to take up opportunities.


This is why I am a massive advocate for initiatives such as UNESCO ASPnet, because giving young people the confidence to explore social issues alongside critical thinking skills, will boost their confidence in academic and nonacademic settings.


Working-class, underprivileged students are always in competition with students who have been given the resources to enrich their education throughout their lives, which shows in their confidence in applying for and receiving opportunities throughout their time inside and outside of higher education.


Hopefully, with initiatives such as Hidden Heroes and UNESCO, we finally give underprivileged students the stepping stones they need to get out of their comfort zone and take up opportunities.


To find out more about UNESCO ASPnet in the U.K. and how your school can join, visit https://www.stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk/unesco-aspnet


BY SAARAH RAHMAN • July 8, 2024

In Harmony With Peace Concert

By Ann Beatty • June 1, 2026
On Friday evening ( 29 May, 7.00 pm The Actors Church Covent Garden) we had the pleasure of listening to this very special concert, bringing together the Choir of King's College London and the Princeton High School Orchestra in a celebration of international friendship, collaboration, and shared values. This project reflects a commitment to peace, sustainability, equality, and cultural exchange, uniting young musicians from the United Kingdom and the United States through the universal language of music.

36 Bicycles. Countless Futures in The Gambia.

By Ann Beatty • May 20, 2026
How a simple act of practical solidarity is transforming the journey to school in The Gambia’s Central River Region North Policies have been written. Schools have been built. Yet for many children in The Gambia’s Central River Region North, access to education is still measured in kilometres, not opportunity. 

Education for Hope in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous Times

By Laura Griffin • May 13, 2026
‘In a single hour vast tracts of shaded woodland became a jumble of torn trees and upturned soil, exposed to the glare of the summer sun. Such land-clearing events are rare, but forests exhibit remarkable resilience in the face of disaster. I’m told that the Chinese character for ‘catastrophe’ is the same as that which represents the word ‘opportunity’. And, the blowdown, while catastrophic, presented opportunities for many species.’ (Wall Kimmerer, 2003: 89). In the context of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world (Stein, 2021) what kinds of education for hope might support children’s and young people’s critical engagement in local and global issues? In the spirit of exploring the possibilities of hope further, this short article focuses on the area of global citizenship and sustainabilityrelated education. It will briefly open by sharing commonalities across pedagogical approaches that take up the concept and act of hope more critically, and close by offering reflective questions for educators, with suggestions for further reading. Perhaps it is a kind of hope that is grounded in the present, in future reimagining(s), in ethical solidarity, and an acknowledgement of our deep entanglement with the living metabolism of planet earth 1 our singular home (UNESCO, 2021); a hope that engages with complex root causes and lived realities of multiple overlapping crises in critically reflexive and contextually relevant ways. As McCloskey notes, ‘Hope can fire our collective imagination and critical consciousness as a mainspring to activism and intervention in the world.’ (2025: 3). Commonalities across critical pedagogical approaches to hope include: Acknowledging the context of a ‘seamless single story of progress, development and human evolution’ (Andreotti, V.D.O., 2021b Relating to social and ecological justice and the wellbeing of people and planet Using participatory, action-orientated and inquiry-based learning processes Exploring diverse worldviews and perspectives Practising grounding in the present with opening up possibilities for change (relational, embodied, response-able 2 ) Experiencing ‘struggle’ in different forms (dialogical, selfreflexive, open-ended) Engaging individual and collective agency, action and activism Looking for lifelong and life-wide learning and unlearning. 1 See ‘Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness’, in Machado de Oliveira Andreotti. 2021a 2 See ‘Crossing Borders’ in 2 Depth Education “Depth Education and the Possibility of GCE Otherwise, 2021b. Source: Andreotti, V. 2021a & 2021b., Atif, A. (2025)., Bourn, D. 2021., Bryan. A. and Mochizuki,Y., 2024., Giroux, H.A. 2025., Meade, E. 2025. Whilst engaging in the concept and act of hope more critically reflect upon: What kinds of education for hope might you explore further and why? How might you provide generative spaces for engaging in diverse worldviews and perspectives? In what ways can you facilitate individual and collective agency? How might you support learners’ practice grounding in the present in order to relate differently? In what ways can you support learners in navigating complex root causes and lived realities of local and global issues? As Chief Ninawa Hini Kui affirms, ‘The future depends much less on the images we project ahead than on our capacity to repair relations and build relationships differently in the present.’ (Andreotti et al, 2023: 73. An invitation for further reading: Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future . d’Abreu, C., Belgeonne, C., Bourn, D. and Hatley, J. (2025) ‘Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future’. DERC Research Paper 24. London: UCL Institute of Education. Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism. Machado de Oliveira Andreotti, V. (2021a) ‘Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism’ , London: Penguin Random House. Development Education and Hope . McCloskey, S. (2025). (ed) ‘Development Education and Hope’. ‘Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review’ , Vol. 41, Autumn. Centre for Global Education, Belfast. Link to and download the full reference list here