CAFOD LiveSimply School Action Plan Owner’s Manual

Catholic Agency for
Overseas Development

The LiveSimply action plan

We’re here to help you every step of the way on your Live Simply: journey. Read through the instructions below to start planning your Live Simply actions. with the planning form. Then, when you’re ready, send in a copy of your completed action plan to receive your registration certificate to display in your school.
This Schools Action Plan serves as a guide to help you with your planning process. Before you start, make sure that you have read the Live Simply . schools guide (left), which gives  an overview of the award, as well as having viewed the short animation explainers.
When you have read through, download and fill out the Live Simply . Action Planning Form (right), and email to CAFOD . ‘
The award is based on Catholic Social Teaching (CST), and requires evidence of faith inspired — actions relating to each of the core principles to live simply (personal transformation), live sustainably (caring for creation), and live in solidarity (caring for the human family). Every action must consist of a faith, learn and act element. We are interested in the journey that led to the action, just as much as the action itself – this is part of the integral ! approach to the Live Simply award.
STEP 1
Does your planned action relate to one of the core principles of the award?
Does the action link to living simply, sustainably or in solidarity with the world’s poorest?

STEP 2
Does your planned action include faith, learn and act elements?

Punning a reducing waste and recycling scheme in your school is great. But have your students learnt why we need to recycle and reduce? Do they understand how this relates to their faith, and why we must protect our common home?

STEP 3
Is your action a main action?
To qualify for the award we will need to see evidence of three main actions, where you “go big”. Does the action include people outside the school, not just within the school itself? This may include pupils’ families, the local parish or members of the local or wider community. If so, this qualifies as a main action. Please note, the difference between a main action and a standard action is primarily about the inclusion of people outside the school in the action, not so much the scale of the action (i.e. setting up a prayer garden may be significant work for the school, but if it does not reach out and include others it does not qualify as a main action).
STEP 4
Which community is the focus of your action?
Each action has a focus on different communities: school, local or global. A school based Fairtrade group, or CAFOD campaign/ fundraiser will focus on the global community. Supporting a local foodbank, helping with the homeless, supporting a local environmental activity, all have a local community focus. A school-based recycling scheme, eco-committee, live simply pledges, all have a school based focus.

GETTING STARTED

Use these questions to help you plan your actions: How will your students be involved? Why are you taking this action? Which community will benefit? What difference will it make? Who will be involved in making it happen? Do you have a group to help you? When will you do it by? Be realistic.

EVIDENCE REQUIRED

What evidence will you need to provide to gain the award?
We want to make the process of getting this award as simple as possible, where you put more energy into doing great things with your students and less time filling out detailed forms. We will need to see evidence (photos, videos, photocopies, screenshots of social media, etc) for all the actions. When you are ready to be assessed we will ask you to provide a powerpoint presentation/video of evidence. We hope that this can also be used by your students to present to the wider school community on what they have achieved throughout the Live Simply journey 2

To help your school work towards an integrated and holistic vision of tackling the ecological crisis, we have created the following planning template to assist you.

NUMBER OF ACTIONS

To achieve the award you will need to provide evidence of 3 main actions, and 6 standard actions.
Main action = Actions that ‘go big’ and include others outside of the school. This may include parents taking action, an action with the local parish, or any other action that includes the local community (e.g. foodbanks, open days, big fundraising events, etc). Each one of the three main actions must align with a live simply, sustainably or solidarity action.
Standard actions = These include internal actions such as eco-clubs, creating a prayer garden, recycling or live simply initiatives for students. They can also include actions such as litter picking in the local area or setting up a relationship with a local care home, etc.

Any live simply, sustainably or solidarity action.| MAIN ACTION 1 live simply action Go Big! Include others outside of the school.| MAIN ACTION 2live sustainably action Go Big! Include others outside of the school| MAIN ACTION 3 live in solidarity actionGo Big! Include others outside of the school
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ACTION 4 any action| ACTION 5 any action| ACTION 6 any action
ACTION 7 any action| ACTION 8 any action| ACTION 9 any action

All actions must evidence a faith, learn and act element. Any action without evidence of learning or links to faith does not qualify for this award. For example, a non-school uniform fundraiser, where students give, but are not engaged with what they are fundraising for, nor how this relates to their faith, wouldn’t qualify.

ACTION FOCUS

All actions will have a focus, on the school community, local community or the global community. This is to ensure that we keep a balance between personal, community and global community transformation. All three are equally important. First make a plan of your 9 actions using the planning form.
Planning example

GLOBAL I MPAC|   Engage with CAFOD Lent fundraiser on cilobal food proverty| Set up fairtrade stall or group for school| Engage with CAFOD’s latest campaign
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LOCAL IMPACT| Set up links and create a school action with the local foodbank.| Joint parish and school reduce, reuse and recycle scheme.| Create a family led eco-promise activity, where parents take action.
SCHOOL IMPAC| eate a live simply pledge wall and actionsCr.| Set up eco-club, and target sustainable actions.| Create a prayer garden to pray and reflect on living simply.

When you have your plans in place, decide what to scale up to a main action (an action that can “go big” and involves the wider community). The main actions will include a live simply action, a live sustainably action, and a live in solidarity action. For example:

Choose your three main actions

GLOBAL IMPACT| Engage with CAFOD0 Lent fundraiser on global food poverty.| Set up fairtrade stall or group for school.| Engage with CAFOD’s latest campaign.
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 LOCAL IMPACT| set up links and create school action with the coI rocs:honk| Create a live simply Nille pledge wall and actions.| Joint parish and school reduce, reuse and recycle €_–chor-r,e
 SCHOOL IMPACT| Set up eco-club. and target sustainable actions.| Create a family led eco-promise activity, where parents take action.| Create a prayer garden 😮 pray and reflect on living simply.

Main actions example:

1. Live simply – we will scale up the live simply pledges, we will reach out to parents and the local parish with a call for everyone to make a live simply pledge. We will display these pledges in the parish to help engage the wider community.
2. Live sustainably – we will set up an eco-club, but with some take-home actions for parents, as well as engaging with local environmental schemes. We will include a display outside the school, and will make a media splash to get into the local paper.
3. Live in solidarity – we will fundraise for CAFOD’s Lenten appeal, but will hold a joint parish and school Mass where we promote the importance of fasting and giving things up for Lent within the parish Mass.

Here are some further examples and some more details on the criteria to help you in your planning process. Remember the core purpose of the Live award is that we are looking for faith inspired actions, where there is evidence of a link between the action itself and the faith/learning aspect.
It is important that we : ie excellent work that your school may arr be doing in relation to the CHIC is ar tnis award. But in order to achieve the Live HI award we need to look at both the breadth and depth of the actions uken by your school. He.- !.. come examples and whether they qualify.
School has an existing eco-club which encourages the school to turn off lights recycle and to find other ways to refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle.
In order to qualify you must show the links between learning (what educationo resource you used) as well as links to faith – how we need to look after God’s beautiful world (KS1), how we respond to Pope Francis’ call to undergo an eco- conversio- ;KS2•), linking to Laudato Si’ and prayer life of the school.
School has installed solar panels.
Does this qualify? Not necessarily.
If the school has installed solar panels, how were the students involved in bringing about this change? Did they campaign for them? Or was this a local government initiative? Was the solar panel installation part of a faith, learning action? Or did it happen independently of these’ Actions must be the result of student activity.
School invites a CAFOD speaker to come into school to give a presentation on CAFOD’s work.
We are looking for evidence of actions, not just inputs (visitors coming into school). If the school, as a result of the visit does an action, whether it is fundraising or campaigning, with clear links to faith and prayer, then yes this qualifies.
School donates food to local food bank as part of Harvest Assembly
Does this qualify? Not always.
Schools may already have a tradition of giving food to loco .eLess centres or foodbanks for Harvest. This is to be celebrated! However to qualify for the award we would like to see evidence that this is part of a stronger link to learning and faith development for the students, rather than an initiative carried out and organised by a teacher/parent. How did the students get involved in this? What did they learn about poverty in the local area? Was there a visitor to help explain? Was there a link to scripture and faith?
Each action targets a different audience: school, local or global. To understand what qualifies for school, local or global impact we have some examples here to help you. All examples assume that faith engagement and learning has taken place.
School creates a prayer garden to encourage a place to reflect and pray.
Community impacted? Most likely school, possibility of local.
If a school creates a prayer garden, the direct impact will be on those who attend the school. But if the local parish or others in the wider community got involved with the making and using of this garden, then it would qualify for community impact.
School creates a Fairtrade stall, selling Fairtrade goods.
Community impacted? Global.
The supporting and selling of Fairtrade goods has a direct impact on members of our global family. But remember, we would need to see links to faith and learning for this action, as well as student participation.

Fundraising for charity.
Community impacted? Local or global, depending on charity.
Community fundraising is a great way to bring the wider community together, and fundraising for CAFOD has direct impact on the members of our global family. Fundraising for environmental charities will qualify, but you will need to evidence the
link between faith, learning and action. This will need to be provided and evidenced by the teacher.

School promotes a walk to school scheme.
Community impacted? School.
While reducing carbon emissions does have a global impact, in this instance this activity qualifies as a school based action. The school is the focus of the action, and they are the primary target. If you involve the parish or wider community in ways to reduce carbon emissions, then this would qualify as a local community impact. Other key criteria to be aware of:

• Fundraising or campaigning for other non-faith based charities qualify for this scheme, but evidence will need to be provided on how engagement with them was a result of faith input and learning.
• Environmental and global citizenship education is important, but to qualify we need to see actions, not just learning inputs.
• School links with schools overseas do not qualify for this scheme, as school linking is an educational relationship.

The Live Simply planning process is designed to help you develop an integrated and balanced approach for your school to respond to the call to live simply.

Aim to get a good variety of actions to reflect the 3 core principles of living simply, living sustainably and living in solidarity across your 9 actions. Once you have identified your 3 main actions provide some additional information on each of them on the next
section of the form. Complete the final section with your  schools details and submit for registration  to schools@cafod.org.uk. We will send you a registration certificate to acknowledge your plan has been registered. This document is a working document, which you can return to and update any time.
We appreciate changes may occur throughout your journey, that’s fine. When it comes to the final submission to receive the award, we will look at the evidence you have collected at your assessment. Please note, we are unable to accept handwritten copies.
The LiveSimply action planning form
PLANNING ACTIVITIES
Please refer to the LiveSimply action planning guide for details on how to fill out this planning document.

Remember that you are not alone. Hundreds of schools across England and Wales are also on their LiveSimply journey. When you register we will provide you with regular updates, guidance and links to new resources and ideas you may wish to use.

EXPLAINING ECOLOGY

Just a reminder that Live Simply is not an environmental award. When we hear the word ecology we may automatically think of eco-clubs, environmental activities, recycling, switching off lights and caring for our environment. Ecology is the study of all living things and their environment. So in its broadest sense, ecology includes people, wildlife and planet, as well as the social and economic structures that support us. Together these all make up one integrated ecology.
The Live Simply award is designed to bring this balance with an equal focus on personal and spiritual transformation (live simply), caring for the environment (live  sustainably) and caring for the human family (live in solidarity). When planning, you will need to consider how your school can respond to all three aspects of the LiveSimply award.

MORE INFORMATION

Understanding the scheme
We have a range of animations, videos and other materials to help you get started on your LiveSimply journey. Go to cafod.org.uk/LiveSimplySchools to find out more.

For educational resources visit cafod.org.uk/schools for a wide range of practical resources to use with your students. These include liturgies, workshops, animations prayer reflections, as well as a range of activies and actions to help your students to take faith inspired action on environmental and social issues.

CONTACT US

Please get in touch with any questions:
CAFOD education team
Romero House,
55 Westminster Bridge Road,
London, SE1 7JB
020 7733 7900
schools@cafod.org.uk
For all educational content visit cafod.org.uk/schools
To sign up, get informed, get connected and to find out more about the LiveSimply award head over to
cafod.org.uk/LiveSimplySchools

References

• cafod.org.uk/LiveSimplySchools
• cafod.org.uk/schools

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