info@teachingcitizenship.org.uk 020 7566 4133
ACT membership follows the school year, so unless your LA pays for your school, you need to renew by 1st September 2009.

Young people are already conversant with ICT. They are engaging with the world around them through bebo, facebook, online news, online forums and much more.
In Citizenship it's our role as teachers to equip these young people with the necessary skills and knowledge to play active roles in society. Campaigning for change is an inherent part of this. And the internet is an essential tool for any campaign.
It's up to you to guide your pupils through creating a campaign for something they believe in and that means online campaigning.
02 July 2009
Explore the link between poverty and human rights through a case study of a slum community in Nairobi, Kenya - DVD, assembly, lesson plans, powerpoints plus guidance notes and resources for students to take action.
01 July 2009
ACT is delighted to welcome Jan Newton OBE as our new president. Jan replaces Professor Sir Bernard Crick who died at the end of last year. Jan was a member of the advisory group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools chaired by Bernard Crick. She was awarded the OBE in June 2003 for services to citizenship education and democracy in schools.
30 June 2009
The fully updated second edition of Learning to Teach Citizenship in the Secondary School is an essential text for those wanting to improve their practice in Citizenship education and for students training to teach Citizenship as a first or second subject...
> read through MORE NEWS ITEMS
01 Jul 09 - 08 Jul 09
Institute of Education, University of London
04 Jul 09
The Movieum, London Southbank
06 Jul 09 - 10 Jul 09
Houses of Parliament
09 Jul 09
London, venue tbc
11 Sep 09 - 13 Sep 09
University of Northampton
A teacher recently said to me "My head teacher is a Citizenship education sceptic. What can I do to convince them that Citizenship is about school improvement and not a burden on teachers, the timetable or pupils?"
Millicent Scott
Lets start with the facts; Citizenship is a statutory subject at KS3 and 4, and may get a subject inspection by Ofsted. Student voice is part of a school’s self-evaluation form. Now go on to share the information below in an SLT or Governors meeting.
At the heart of new initiatives in education lies Citizenship; just look at the Big Picture diagram from QCA. The new secondary curriculum aims to develop young people who are successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.
Citizenship builds Personal, Learning & Thinking Skills. Citizenship is an Opening Minds competency. Student voice is at the heart of Personalised Learning.
Citizenship can contribute to the major school policies, for example the Duty to Promote Community Cohesion. Making a positive contribution is central to Every Child Matters.
It is s a subject in its own right. There has been a short course Citizenship Studies GCSE since 2002, AS & A levels from 2008, and there will be a full course GCSE from 2009.
Citizenship pedagogy builds motivation and engagement and happiness! Research shows that students feel most ‘intellectually engaged’ when they have a say in their learning and do things that had an impact on the real world. The ‘World Expert on Happiness’ says happiness is “a sense of participation in determining the content of life.” It also supports human rights and democracy: “All children have the right to a say in all decisions that affect them.” so says Article 12, UN Convention on Rights of the Child.
It improves standards. A study of 12 ‘participative schools’, concluded that they achieved higher GCSE results and lower numbers of exclusion. A school in south east London achieved a 33% improvement in GCSE results after adopting Citizenship as a whole school initiative.
Citizenship’s Role is central in in transforming education. It is a subject which demands specialist teachers like all other subjects. It has a pedagogy charactised by student voice and action and it is more than a subject with the potential to transform the school ethos.
Chris Waller and Pete Pattisson, ACT