Croydon College the first to achieve the ACT Quality Standard Award for Colleges and FE
Croydon College's commitment to Citizenship Education.
Blog – Hans Svennevig
Hans is the Vice Chair of ACT Council. He is the Head of Teacher Training at Croydon College and currently serving a secondment as the new Head of Citizenship and Progression.
For several years the ACT Quality Standard has been awarded to schools that have worked hard to embed and incorporate citizenship education. It recognises the value the subject has in the curriculum and beyond and is of particular use when Ofsted come a knocking.
As a Further Education practitioner at Croydon College, I am really pleased that ACT has enabled us to apply for the award through a modified Quality Standard process and self-evaluation toolkit, to develop our Citizenship provision and demonstrate our achievements.
Over the last two years, we have sought to further develop our teaching of controversial issues within citizenship education. While piloting the ACT Quality Standard for FE and Colleges, ACT provided CPD training sessions to all college tutors. This has empowered them to increase students’ critical inquiry and knowledge of a range of contemporary issues such as those encountered in the ACT Building Resilience Project. I’ve seen this encourage a proactive approach to the Prevent duty in the classroom and the discussion of fundamental British values.
Citizenship education has been further developed through a decision by managers to include all of these elements as part of Croydon College’s ‘Citizenship Values’. All staff must deliver these throughout study programmes as individual activities while further embedding them in schemes of work.
In July 2017, ACT visited Croydon College to review evidence collated as part of the self-evaluation. I’m delighted that the conclusion of this visit led to Croydon College becoming the first Post-16 Further Education College to achieve the award.
“Croydon College, its staff, students and leadership are to be commended for their foresight in looking at Citizenship through the lens of values, and then translating this into real experiences, events trainings and contexts. This is highly desirable in educational establishments but rarely seen.” Chris Waller, ACT Professional Officer, July 2017
If you are interested in applying for the ACT Quality Standard Awards for Schools, Colleges and FE, or know an institution that would benefit, get in touch with ACT. Staff are happy to provide advice and guidance on the process.
