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Tide~ talk ... online journal
| Planning for citizenship at KS3/4 |
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What is citizenship all about? Even when I ask colleagues, they often find it difficult to come up with a good definition of citizenship. I like to think that with Citizenship education we are enabling our young people opportunities ...
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My first trawl through the citizenship net was when I was asked to take responsibility for a new initiative at the Burton Borough School. This was an Active Citizenship course for the Y11 students. The course is part of the extension block and students choose from a range of subjects on offer. Four years on and the course is now even more popular and regularly over subscribed, due to a wide range of activities on offer.
Activities in the Active Citizenship Course at our school include:
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making Story Sacks to encourage young children to read; |
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visiting a range of ‘out of school’ placements where they can demonstrate active citizenship, eg supporting teaching staff in primary schools; |
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fund-raising eg Staff car wash for Cancer Research; |
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helping to organise the annual Senior Citizens Christmas Party. |
At the school I recently organised a Local Democracy Week in liaison with Telford and Wrekin Legal and Democratic Services. This included a referendum: ‘Should 16 year olds be allowed to vote?’ Years 9, 10 & 11 were invited to vote. There was also a BBC style ‘Question Time’ with a panel of experts, ie the local MP, The Youth Parliament MP, Councillors, The Borough of Telford and Wrekin Cabinet Members and a Chair Person. The questions were selected from the pupils and covered a wide range of issues, both locally and nationally. The event was filmed so that other schools in the area could also gain from the experience and it featured on one of the local radio stations.
Looking outwards involves planning resources around the Citizenship programmes of study, which are interesting, educational, and designed to develop the three strands of knowledge and understanding, skills of enquiry and communication, and skills of participation and responsible action.
The resources used must be stimulating and offer opportunities for all pupils to participate via a range of teaching and learning strategies. Assessment plays an integral part in this process, so that we can reward pupils’ progress and celebrate their success. Schools provide so many opportunities for citizenship; we just need to recognise this, encourage and reward achievement so that the citizenship education profile is raised within our communities.
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There are numerous ideas flooding through the web-site ether and the post box. Just find a few interested people to help organise events and the rewards are boundless. Our next initiative is a ‘Waste Watch’ week. Recycling, or to use the correct term, ‘Waste Management’ is something that the pupils find interesting and they are full of ideas to help combat pollution. The pupils are our major resource and we need to encourage them to think about our schools, towns and planet. Looking outwards, my aim is to help the development of citizens who have a cosmopolitan attitude and care for their community and country. "The pupils are our major resource and we need to encourage them to think about our schools, towns and planet." |
Senior Citizens working alongside students at Burton Borough School to develop their ICT skills. |
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