info@teachingcitizenship.org.uk 020 7253 0051
ACT : Association for Citizenship Teaching
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.
Main Menu
- Home
- About ACT
- ACT E-Membership
- Citizenship News & Info
- Conferences & Events
- This Month's Theme
- Theme Archive
- Teaching Case Studies
- Ask the Experts
- Links
- Become a Member
Info Pages
- How do I become a Citizenship education teacher?
- Citizenship education explained
-
Citizenship education in the National Curriculum
- Citizenship education in the Secondary Curriculum
- Importance of Citizenship Education
- Key Concepts of Citizenship Education
- Key Processes in Citizenship Education
- Range and Content in Citizenship
- Curriculum Opportunities in Citizenship
- Eight Level Scale KS3
- Eight Level Scale KS4
- How to implement a Citizenship education curriculum and develop assessment
- National Curriculum - Primary
- CPD Modules
- ACT's Journal: Teaching Citizenship
- Teaching Resources (Secondary)
- Citizenship education outside England
- Teaching Citizenship Survey
- Quality Standard Award
- ACT Conference 2012
Members Only Area
Why join your subject association?
ACT membership provides an outstanding opportunity for professional development more info...
Justice, Rights & Diversity
What do your pupils know about Stephen Lawrence?
Stephen Lawrence was 18 years old when he was killed because of his skin colour. It took over 18 years for his racist murderers to be sentenced.
How can you teach under-18s about justice and the legal system in this climate?
All the latest citizenship news & info
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day
27 January 2012
The theme for 2012 asks us all to Speak Up, Speak Out to create a safer, better future.
The theme asks us to think about the rights, responsibility and duty we all have to speak up when we see or hear something which we believe to be wrong. It challenges us to learn about what happens when we don’t speak out and what can happen when we do use our voice.
HMD 2012 looks at how we make a choice when to speak up and considers the dangers in both choosing to speak out and not speaking up and asks us all to speak up against injustice and hatred today.
Shape the future of education
26 January 2012
At a time of change in education, your voice is critical to shape how schools can support students to engage with and meet the challenges of the 21st century world. Click here to have your say in the Oxfam Schools Engagement research project.
Compete for the Chance to be Chancellor
26 January 2012
Citizenship Foundation’s Chance to be Chancellor competition gives 14-18 year olds a chance to create and defend their own budget for the nation!
Young people take the challenge of stepping into the shoes of the Chancellor by making decisions on spending and taxation. Their decisions will form the Youth Budget 2012.
For a chance to win, entrants must make a case for their decisions. They could win an iPad, visit the Treasury and make the news!
The deadline for entries to the competition is 20th February 2012
> read through MORE NEWS ITEMS
Forthcoming Conferences & Events
01 Dec 11 - 31 Dec 11
World Days in December
Useful for assemblies and class discussions
25 Jan 12
Booking school visit to Paliament
Houses of Parliament
27 Jan 12
Holocaust Memorial Day
Your School
08 Feb 12
Helping your pupils make sense of the world - teaching controversial and sensitive topics
Manchester
25 Feb 12
Expressing Citizenship
University of Leeds
Ask the Experts - Your Questions Answered
Featured Question :-
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
