Courageous Advocacy is the act of speaking out against an issue of injustice, often on behalf of those whose voice is not heard. Courage is needed to stand up for something or someone you believe in, especially when that choice is unpopular.

At The William Alvey, we strive for all our children to leave school with the skills to become 'agents of change', so they can make the world a better place, help those in need and stand up for causes they believe in. We believe it is right for us all to take on the responsibility of tackling injustice. 

The starting point for us on our Courageous Advocacy journey was for each year group to choose a Courageous Advocate. This happened in 2023/24. The children learnt about how these Courageous Advocates have tried to make the world a better place. This then led into a discussion about how our children could follow this example. 

The Courageous Advocates that were chosen are: 

YR - Andy Day

Y1 - Steve Backshall

Y2 - George McGavin

Y3 - Dolly Parton

Y4 - Harry Gregson

Y5 - Sting

Y6 - Malala Yousafzai

Courageous advocacy requires a willingness to be vulnerable and to take a stand, even when it may be unpopular or hard. It is a powerful way to effect change and make a positive impact on the world. As a school, this is a concept we want our children to learn about. We want our children to use the skills they learn about in their every-day life. This is something our children do. For example, our children have shown the courage not to walk past a problem (e.g. many have voluntarily helped to clean the River Slee, pick up litter in our playground or stop an unpleasant situation developing at playtime or in class). 

As a school community, we have focussed a great deal of energy on affecting positive change by focussing on homelessness. For example, our school community made a number of sleeping bags, out of crisp packets, for local homeless people, in summer 2024. We deepened this mission in 2024/25 by following Desmond Tutu's advice about 'there comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.' These are some of the steps we took to meet Desmond Tutu's challenge:

* Some of our staff took part in the 'Big Sleep Out' in March 2025. We repeated this in July 2025 when over 50 children, parents and teachers slept out on the school field. This gave us first-hand knowledge of how hard life must be for those who have to regularly sleep rough. 

* Our school community offered thoughtful gifts to local homeless charities in summer 2025. For example, we encouraged people to gift sanitary products. We discouraged donating shower gel and suggested donating wipes instead. 

* We teach our children age-appropriate life skills (budgeting for example) that will help them avoid homelessness later in life.  

We have plans to develop our understanding of Courageous Advocacy even further in 2025/26. This has begun with our children learning about many different, mainly non-famous, people who have taken a stand against injustice.  Each year group then voted for who they wanted their Courageous Advocate to be. This is who they have chosen:

EYFS - Andy Day

Year 1 - Steve Backshall

Year 2 - Julia Butterfly Hill

Year 3 - Lesein Mutunkei

Year 4 - Chico Mendez

Year 5 - William Kamkwamba

Year 6 - Memory Banda

It has been fascinating learning about what the people above have done and how they prove the point that we can all a positive difference.  

Word about the many things we are doing to promote Courageous Advocacy is getting around. For example, Steve Backshall sent us a short film in April 2025, which I share with you below.