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ACT : Association of Citizenship Teaching
Supporting Practioners and Facilitating Citizenship in Schools
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ACT is the professional subject association for those involved in citizenship education. This website offers resources and information to help you deliver excellent citizenship education
Citizenship Established?
Ofsted's report on Citizenship education
Last month Ofsted published their latest report on Citizenship education: Citizenship Established? Ofsted’s previous report ‘Towards Consensus?’ (2006) painted a picture of a subject at the ‘developing’ stage, only grade three on the four point scale of the ‘Citizenship self evaluation tool’*. ‘Citizenship Established?’ (Ofsted, 2010) leaves the reader with a question mark- but if the answer is yes, then citizenship is moving into grade 2 territory.
All the latest citizenship news & info
report from Citizenship seminar online
10 March 2010
The 2009 Nuffield-ACT seminar on Citizenship education has been published online. The seminar, looking at the contribution to schools, communities and individuals by Citizenship education includes commentary from the Lib Dem and Tory House of Lords spokespersons-both of who took part in the seminar.
Spring Day for Europe
08 March 2010
The aim of Spring Day for Europe 2010 is to “organise activities that help students think about Europe and express their views. The Spring Day web portal provides teachers with a rich package of supporting material that can easily be adapted to lessons. Schools can organise one or more Spring Day events and share their experiences through the portal.
Citizenship curriculum programmes on BBC
04 March 2010
Democracy in Action is a series of programmes made for BBC Learning, which aims to bring politics to life for younger audiences and explain complex issues in an engaging way. The programmes use teenage contributors wherever possible and much of the content has been filmed in the style of a "fly on the wall" documentary.
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Forthcoming Conferences & Events
11 Mar 10
New Secondary Curriculum Regional Cross Curricular Conferences
Wooton House, Dorking
13 Mar 10
Big Saturday for South/South East and North East Region
various-see Regional pages
16 Mar 10
2. Time for Change
Station Hotel, Newcastle
17 Mar 10
New Secondary Curriculum Regional Cross Curricular Conference, London
London, Marriott Maida Vale
19 Mar 10
Youth Producing Change
The Ritzy, Brixton Oval, London
Ask the Experts - Your Questions Answered
Featured Question :-
How do I organise meaningful active Citizenship projects that involve a whole year of students?
It can be daunting organising active Citizenship projects with a whole year group but it can also be incredibly satisfying. The key to making this an entitlement for all students in a year group is to build these opportunities for action into schemes of work – if they are only run as after-school clubs you’ll never be able to involve everyone. Active citizenship should not be an add-on to Citizenship; it is the very essence of Citizenship!
There are lots of manageable actions students can do, here are some ideas:
Inviting decision makers from the local community into school to watch presentations by students
Making presentations to Senior Leaders or the School Council
Running campaigns in school (you can use a prominent notice board to publicise them)
Organising a Citizenship assembly (with relevant visitors) where all students are given the opportunity to give their opinion (make sure they are prepared)
Writing a letter/email to a local MP, company or organisation
Ideally, the schemes of work should have three components; students voice, students action and student reflection. The most compelling learning experiences in Citizenship:
- Give students a voice or choice in the learning process and/or content (but I wouldn’t recommend you leave it completely up to them!). For example, you might offer students three local issues to investigate, of which they must choose one.
- Give students the opportunity to DO something that aims to have an impact outside the classroom. Sticking up posters on the classroom wall will not help children feel politically powerful. You will only feel politically powerful by having a powerful experience of acting politically. That’s why the examples above are so important.
- this action builds the students’ sense of agency
- Give students the opportunity to reflect on how effective their action has been and why.
As with many things you’ve got 2 options; start with something that you are comfortable with, or jump in at the deep end and learn from your mistakes! Don’t forget that you can model your own learning to the students.
One project that I have found works well is ‘Your streets, Your say’ where students reflect on and find examples (taking photos) of things they like and don’t like about where they live. You could set this as homework over a holiday and get them to carry out a survey of family and friends who live in their area. If the students put this into a powerpoint presentation you could then either invite a local councillor in to watch the presentations or email/send their findings.
Give it a go and if you have any good ideas for manageable and meaningful active Citizenship projects don’t forget to post them on the ACT website.
Alice Carlisle, East Midlands RSA
