Blogs

Daryl Henderson, Head of Citizenship at Wyvern Academy in Darlington talks with former pupils to find out why they chose GCSE Citizenship Studies as an option at key stage 4 and would they choose it if they had their time again.

As I sit here on a rainy Thursday morning, enjoying a relaxing (if not a little boring) half term holiday, I can’t help but think of my fantastic students. I do miss them. I miss seeing their faces look elated when they grasp a difficult concept, I miss hearing them laugh at my terrible attempts to draw a map of the UK under the visualiser and most of all, I miss hearing them debating with each other, using all of their newly found knowledge and emotion!

So wrote the late Professor Sir Bernard Crick architect of the Citizenship curriculum introduced into secondary schools in 2002. I worked with Bernard at the Department for Education and Employment where he was David Blunkett’s Special Adviser for Citizenship.

A Map of Women’s resistance in the UK 

Explore women’s rights with the British Library’s map of women’s resistance in the UK and ACT’s accompanying Citizenship lesson activities.

Lessons are organised into three themes:

his article from Liz Moorse is helpful in framing the discussion in this special edition and emphasising the importance of media literacy for citizenship teachers. Liz demonstrates how access to media (and media literacy) is a right of all children and then illustrates how this has featured within the Citizenship curriculum, from its inception in 2002 to current Citizenship curriculum, GCSE specifications and RSE and Health Education requirements. Liz Moorse is ACT’s Chief Executive.

The Five Nations 20^th Anniversary in Belfast

by Camilla Bell-Davies

Review of “Disarm the Base” Board Game by https://disarmthebase.com/

Education resources 

VE Day 75th Anniversary and Citizenship 

By Zoe Baker, Citizenship Teaching

On 8th May, were it not for fighting the outbreak of Covid - 19, many schools would be hanging out bunting and arranging tea parties with students and staff in 1940’s clothing or wearing red, white and blue. Assemblies would be held, and History classrooms would remind students of what VE Day was and why it is important to remember. 

After a 2 hour drive from our hotel to Long Island we arrived on campus at Stony Brook University.  It is one of four university centres of the State University of New York system and was established in 1957. It currently has 26,236 students enrolled.

Association for Citizenship Teaching members from across England have made the trip across the Atlantic to participate in a Media Literacy Exchange in the United States. In a programme sponsored by the US Embassy in London and facilitated by global development and education organisation, IREX, teachers will be visiting Washington DC, New York and Boston in order to expand their knowledge and practice in media literacy. Ben Miskell, Citizenship teacher from Sheffield, is one of the ten participants.