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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.
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Why join your subject association?
ACT membership provides an outstanding opportunity for professional development.
Members of ACT:
- Keep their subject & professional knowledge up to date through newsletters, journals, CPD etc
- Receive specialist advice to support their teaching,
- Can attend regional ACT-accredited CPD free of charge,
- Have networking opportunities with discounts on regional & national ACT workshops and conferences.
More information or JOIN ACT NOW
Back to School
Use today’s news to teach Citizenship, bringing your lessons bang up to date
Use Youtube, newspapers, filmclips and websites to bring current affairs and Citizenship lessons alive.
This month ACT has two lesson suggestions for you on the Labour leadership contest and the allegations of cheating in international cricket.
Your pupils will prefer to talk about something that’s happening now than something that happened two years ago when they were “young children”, but make sure you relate the news to your pupils’ lives!
Remember the importance statement from the Citizenship Curriculum "Citizenship encourages them [pupils] to take an interest in topical and controversial issues and to engage in discussion and debate."
All the latest citizenship news & info
Summer recess-take action to tell MPs about Citizenship education
01 September 2010
We believe that education about rights and responsibilities, the law and democracy should be fundamental elements in every young person’s education and in the coming months will be asking all political parties to commit to keeping citizenship education in the curriculum, no matter what kind of reform happens in the future.
We want to show politicians that teachers really care about citizenship and that it can make a positive difference in young people’s lives and in schools.
You can do two things to help us with this.
1. Write to your MP and tell them about Citizenship education in your intstitution-explain how it is the only entitlement that young people have to gain political and legal understanding and that Citizenship education is all about the 3 C's of Citizenship education-the importance of the curriculum, the culture of the school and the partnership with the community. You can find out how to contact your MP via this list of MPs
2. Add your name to our growing list of supporters at www.democraticlife.org.uk and help us make the case for citizenship!
Updated news about the completion of the CPD Certificate 2009-10
01 September 2010
Candidates for the DfE Citizenship education CPD Certificate should be ready to hand in their portfolios on September 27th to their HEI tutor. The tutors for each region can be found on the ACT Regional pages.
Candidates should also be preparing to make their final presentations on a chosen aspect of Citizenship education to the rest of their group. Dates, times and places for these can be seen on the ACT regional pages. Presentations should be kept to 5 minutes in duration and cover a significant aspect of the subject-one that the candidate has ideally developed during the CPD course. Candidates should ensure copies of their presentation are available for other course members.
For more information on the Masters, expand this item.
Make a film about your community
24 August 2010
BT are running a competition for KS3-5 pupils to work in teams to develop their ideas for how to improve their communities and make a film to share their stories. This is a film competition about Citizenship issues, so you can work with your media and/or English departments if you want help.
The 36 best proposals will get support and £1,000 to help them make a brilliant short film.
> read through MORE NEWS ITEMS
Forthcoming Conferences & Events
22 Sep 10
Poverty to Prosperity
Penrith CREA
29 Sep 10
Poverty to Prosperity
Preston
08 Oct 10
Tackling Global Poverty Together - Oxfam active global citizenship conference
London - The Holloway Resource Centre
08 Oct 10
PSHE Association workshop: working with young people who self-harm
CAN Mezzanine, 1 London Bridge, London SE1 9BG
11 Oct 10
Active Global Citizenship Conference
Liverpool University
12 Nov 10
Takeover Day
Nationwide
15 Nov 10
Primary teachers' event with ACT and PSHE Association1
British Library, London
19 Nov 10 - 20 Nov 10
Education and Citizenship in a Globalising World
Institute of Education, London
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
