Get Your School and Send My Friend in Your Local Media!

Press pack

Get your school and Send My Friend in your local media!

If your school is taking part in Send My Friend to School, do let your local media know; it’s a great way to speak out for the campaign and at the same time show your community what you’ve been doing!Here are our top tips…

Choose one of the press releaseson the pages below.Tailor the press release and add contact details so that journalists can easily contact you or someone involved.

Photo-call. Add a time to the press release when photographers can come and take pictures of the most photogenic moment, such as a display of your 3D world leader figures or when your local MP or a VIP is coming in.

Find out details of your local media. Your school marketing officer may have a list or you could find details on the internet. Include local papers, BBC and independent radio stations and local magazines. Send to the news editor.

Email the press release to your chosen local media. Paste the press release directly into an email and send it out about 1-2 weeks in advance.

Follow up each contact. Phone them to check that they have received the press release and that the date is in their diary! If they haven’t, send it through again!

Invite the journalist/photographer along. If you are holding a special assembly or other event with a VIP, journalists and photographers may wish to come along.

Make sure you take your own photos - If a newspaper can’t send a photographer along, they may still print the story afterwards if you send them some good images. Find out who is the best photographer in school and be imaginative with the picture – take a look at our action ideas gallery for some inspiration:

Publicise your activities at school and to everyone you know! Use the images at to make the most of your displays, websites, blogs, newsletters and Twitter feeds, and link to the campaign website

Good Luck!

Template press release 1:

‘MP visits school to hear from budding world leaders’

Please tailor the text marked in red with your event details

Date of issue: xxx

[xMP] visits [x] school in [xarea] to hear from budding world leaders what they would do to get 58 million children into school

Date of event:xxxxx

Time:xxxxx

School address:xxxxx

[Insert name of MP] is going back to school at [insert name of school] on [insert date and time] to hear from pupils what they would do to get the remaining 58 million children worldwide into school. Hundreds of MPs are expected to take part inthe Send My Friends to School campaign during 2015, which will involve thousands of young people across the UK.

2015 is an important year - world leaders will gather this September in New York to decide how to tackle global poverty over the next 15 years. The Send My Friend to School campaign is this year asking young people to ‘step into the shoes of world leaders’ and tell their local MPs how they would deliver a better future for the world’s children.

In 2000 world leaders promised universal primary education by 2015, but 58 million children are still out of school, and girls, children in conflict areas and children with disabilities are missing out most. At the current rate of progress it will be 2086 before every child worldwide gets an education.

[Insert name of teacher] at [x School] said:[“Class x/the whole school have been learning about the barriers to education for millions of children in the developing world. [Please insert what you want to say about your pupils for e.g…] It’s been fantastic to see how much they’ve enjoyed stepping into the shoes of world leaders and trying to make a difference for children that don’t have the opportunities they have.”

[Please insert what activities your school has done/will be doing when the MP comes in, for e.g…]“They have now created 3D figures of themselves as world leaders and have covered them with ‘If I were a world leader..’ messages to tell politicians what needs to be done to get education for every single child worldwide. They will be giving these to x MP to deliver to No10 to remind the UK government of their promise of universal primary education.”

Taahra Ghazi, Head of Campaigns for the Send My Friend to School campaign said: “We are delighted that pupils at x school have invited x MP in to hear their passion and determination that world leaders should keep their promise to get all children into primary school by 2015. Last year over 4,300 schools got involved and spoke out for every child’s right to go to school. We are expecting MPs to be inundated with thousands of these 3D figures!”

More schools are invited to sign up now for a free schools pack to teach about this important global issue

Notes to Editors:

For more information please contact:

Karen Garvin, Global Campaign for Education UK, 07971 576917

1. The Send My Friend to School campaignis a schools based campaign organised by the Global Campaign for Education UK. Twitter: @sendmyfriend

2. Key facts on global education

Negative:

58 million children are not in school today.
1 in 10 primary aged children are missing out on education.
More than one in four children in developing regions entering primary school is likely to drop out.

Nearly half of the 58 million out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas.
There are still 31 million girls of primary school age who have never been to school
If the current pace continues it will be 2086 before all children are in school and learning.

Positive:

Over the past 15 years, 50 million more children have enrolled in school across the world
Rwanda has the highest primary school enrolment rates in Africa. For both boys and girls, it is on track to achieve universal access to primary education by 2015.

3. The Global Campaign for Education is a coalition of international aid agencies, teachers unions and civil rights groups. It was formed in the year 2000 to hold world leaders to the Millennium Development Goal promise of education for all. This network is now active in over 100 countries.

4. The GCE UK partners are:ActionAid UK, Action on Disability and Development, Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), Christian Aid, Consortium for Street Children, Comic Relief, Deaf Child Worldwide, Handicap International UK, Link Community Development, National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), National Union of Teachers (NUT), Oxfam GB, Plan UK, RESULTS UK, Save the Children UK, Sense International, Sightsavers, Steve Sinnott Foundation, University and College Union, Voluntary Service Overseas.

Template press release 2:

‘Local pupils step into the shoes of world leaders’

Please tailor the text marked in red with your event details

Date of issue: xxx

Schoolchildrenin [xarea]step into shoes of world leaders to help get 58 million children into school

Pupils at [insert name of school]are stepping into the shoes of world leaders to tell them what needs to be done to get the remaining 58 million children worldwide into primary school. Thousands of schools across the UK are taking part inthis year’sSend My Friends to School campaign, which is expecting to involve around half a million young people.

In 2000 world leaders promised universal primary education by 2015, but 58 million children are still out of school, and its girls, children in conflict areas and children with disabilities that are missing out most. At the current rate of progress it will be 2086 before every child worldwide gets an education.

[Insert name of teacher] at [x School] said:[“Class x/the whole school have been learning about the barriers to education for millions of children in the developing world. [Please insert what you want to say about your pupils for e.g…] It’s been fantastic to see how much they’ve enjoyed stepping into the shoes of world leaders and trying to make a difference for children that don’t have the opportunities they have.

Taahra Ghazi, Head of Campaigns for the Send My Friend to School campaign said: “We are delighted that pupils at x school have shown their passion and determination that world leaders should keep their promise to get all children into primary school by the end of 2015. Last year over 4,300 schools got involved and spoke out for every child’s right to go to school. We are expecting MPs to be inundated with thousands of these 3D figures!”

More schools are invited to sign up now for a free schools pack to teach about this important global issue

Notes to Editors:

For more information please contact:

Karen Garvin, Global Campaign for Education UK, 07971 576917

1. The Send My Friend to School campaignis a schools based campaign organised by the Global Campaign for Education UK. Twitter: @sendmyfriend

2. Key facts on global education

Negative:

58 million children are not in school today.
1 in 10 primary aged children are missing out on education.
More than one in four children in developing regions entering primary school is likely to drop out.

Nearly half of the 58 million out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas.
There are still 31 million girls of primary school age who have never been to school
If the current pace continues it will be 2086 before all children are in school and learning.

Positive:

Over the past 15 years, 50 million more children have enrolled in school across the world
Rwanda has the highest primary school enrolment rates in Africa. For both boys and girls, it is on track to achieve universal access to primary education by 2015.

Help us spread the word on social media!

Twitter

We’d love to hear what your school is doing for Send My Friend to School – so please do tweet about your events and activities!

Use the hashtag #sendmyfriend2015 so that we can easily find your tweets - and we’ll retweet as many as we can!
Include photos of events and classroom activities – so everyone can see what you’ve been doing.
Please do retweet our campaign news, facts and figures on global education and what other schools and our Young Ambassadors are doing, and encourage other schools to join our growing global movement!
Find the Twitter account for your local MP and connect to them – hopefully they will follow you and find out the amazing work you are doing for Send My Friend to School.
What ‘If I were a world leader….messages’ are pupils in your school writing on their 3D figures? – do tweet them to your MP and to @sendmyfriend so that we can hear what crucial decisions young people would make if they were in power.

Facebook

Like us on Facebook at

If you are posting on your Facebook page, don’t forget to tag us using @Sendmyfriend.
Use the hashtag #sendmyfriend2015 so we can find your posts easily!
Include photos or videos of what you have been doing in your posts – these will show up more in people’s feeds.
Encourage other people to share your posts with their friends, teachers and other schools.
Visit our page and please Like, Share or Comment on our posts!

Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, Vimeo…

Wherever you are on social media, use our hashtag #sendmyfriend2015 and we’ll find your posts!
We’ll post any photos we find on social media in our online gallery, so keep checking back at

Thanks for your support!