Manor Primary School
PHSCE Year 5: Its’ their world too: Animal Rights
Overview of the Learning:In this units children will investigate that animals have rights as well as humans and how these two link. They will think about the need to care for pets at home and then looking wider at the welfare of animals around the world. They will learn to investigate and debate some key issues around animal’s welfare, including hunting and animal testing.
Children will consider the impact we are having on animals habitats as we continue to build and create pollution.
Core Aims
Provide children with:
- accurate and relevant knowledge
- opportunities to turn that knowledge into personal understanding
- opportunities to explore, clarify and if necessary challenge, their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities
- the skills and strategies they need in order to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced lives.
Health and Wellbeing
what is meant by a healthy lifestyle
how to maintain physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing
how to manage risks to physical and emotional health and wellbeing
ways of keeping physically and emotionally safe
about managing change, such as puberty, transition and loss
how to make informed choices about health and wellbeing and to recognise sources of help with this
to identify different influences on health and wellbeing
Relationships
how to develop and maintain a variety of healthy relationships, within a range of social/cultural contexts
how to recognise and manage emotions within a range of relationships
how to recognise risky or negative relationships including all forms of bullying and abuse
how to respect equality and diversity in relationships.
Living in the wider world – Economic wellbeing and being a responsible citizen
about respect for self and others and the importance of responsible behaviours and actions
about rights and responsibilities as members of families, other groups and ultimately as citizens
about different groups and communities
to respect equality and to be a productive member of a diverse community
about the importance of respecting and protecting the environment
Expectations
Children can:
- understand that animals have rights
- explain what an animals basic rights are
- define and explore what animal cruelty is
- debate key issues surrounding animal welfare
- explore the effects we have on animals habitats
Learning Objectives / Suggested Learning Opportunities
- to explore animals rights
- to think about why an animals needs rights
- to show respect for other living things
Ask children to identify any pets that they have or that we can have in this country. Are some easier to look after than others? So some need specialist care?
Give children the statement It’s our right to have an animal isn’t it?
What do children think about this?
Is it us that have the rights when it comes to animals or do animals have right’s to? What do we mean by this?
Ask children to create their own list of rights relating to animals.
Then share:
In 2007 the law relating to the welfare of pets in England and Wales changed. Under the Animal Welfare Act anyone who is responsible for a pet now has a legal responsibility to meet the five basic welfare needs (the five freedoms). These are:
- A proper diet (including fresh water)
- Somewhere suitable to live
- Any need to be housed with, or apart from, other animals
- Allowing animals to express normal behaviour
- Protection from, and treatment of, illness and injury.
Why do you think the government needed to create a law about the welfare of pets?
Can children explain what the Animal Welfare Act is and explain what this would look like for different animals- how is it different for having a hamster or a horse or a reptile?
Link to Fundamental British Values: mutual Respect- Does this just meal humans or other living things?
- To define animal cruelty
- To think about our responsibility to care for animals
- To explore charities who respond to animals cruelty
What is animal cruelty? What does this mean to us? Share the different definitions of Animal cruelty.
- Deliberate cruelty - intending to do something that hurts an animal
- Neglect - failing to do something, which means that an animal suffers
- Not meeting an animal's needs - not providing an animal with the things it really needs.
Allow children to research animal cruelty being mindful that resources are appropriate. What statistics can they find? Is it common?
What do they think should be done about this? Is it acceptable?
Look at the job that the RSPCA are doing already to try and help these animals. Which other charities do we know are trying to help these animals? Why is their job so important?
Do we have a role to play in all of this?
- To define animal cruelty
- To think about our responsibility to care for animals
- To debate key issues around animal cruelty
- To create our own views on animals rights
Recap the learning from previous weeks. What do we class as animal cruelty? With this in mind children will investigate whether animal cruelty is happening all around us. Ask children to use the 3 rules to define whether animal cruelty is taking place.
Each table could investigate different cases
Look at animals and us resource as a starting point in the planning folder
-Zoos: Prison or Paradise?
-Animal testing: A sacrifice worth making?
-Fashion: Is it really that bad?
-Food: A human’s basic need?
-Hunting: Is it just a sport?
Fox Hunting Pro’s and Con’s in planning Folder
Children could research their question and find information to feed back to the class. Children could create debates or presentations in order to share their findings of each issue.
Has this changed our view of animal cruelty? What can be done about it?
Make an important point particularly with food that the answer is not to stop eating it but to find ways where the animals are ethically raised and still enjoy their lives first. Also with zoos- there may not be a straight forward answer of whether it’s wrong or right but how do we ensure we care for the animals?
Encourage children to question these ideas.
- To think about how we care for animals
- To understand the impact of modernisation on animal habitats
- To think about the responsibility we have for animal welfare
Show children some images showing all the new things we have in the world- lots of new housing estates, new technology, and transport. What do children think about these things? Does it show that society are progressing?
Does this come with a cost?
Introduce some issues relating to our affluent life, increasing population and our need for pleasure.
Climate change – the temperature in our world is getting hotter, meaning conditions change for animals like the polar bear who need there to be more ice in the Arctic.
- Loss of habitat – when humans need to move to new areas to build homes and villages, that means an animal somewhere has a little less space to live than they used to.
- Cutting down trees – lots of animals live in forests, and when the trees are gone then their forest home disappears.
- Over-hunting – this means that an animal that’s hunted for food doesn’t have enough left to replenish its population.
- Poaching – this means hunting and killing animals illegally, such as killing a rhino for its ivory horn. Ivory is worth a lot of money, which is why poaching still happens
What should be done about it? Are their charities that are already working on these issues?
Manor Primary School – Make Poverty History