Introduction to teaching Citizenship: Part 3

Join us for the final session in our three-part series designed to build your confidence and expertise as a Citizenship teacher. This session focuses on curriculum planning from multiple perspectives to deepen knowledge and improve recall. Even if you missed the earlier sessions, this session will stand alone as a valuable learning opportunity, with access to recordings of Sessions 1 and 2 provided for all attendees.

About this Event

This final session in the Introduction to Teaching Citizenship series focuses on the complexities of curriculum planning, helping you develop the skills and knowledge needed to create engaging and impactful Citizenship lessons.

Key focuses include:

• Planning for recall: Embedding strategies to ensure students retain and build on their knowledge over time.
• Curriculum perspectives: Exploring how to balance subject-specific knowledge with broader school priorities and pupil needs.
• Knowledge nuances: Understanding the distinctive knowledge base required to teach Citizenship effectively.

Guided by Professor Lee Jerome and Zoe Baker, this interactive session will provide practical advice, examples, and reflective opportunities to strengthen your teaching practice.

If you’re looking to enhance your understanding of Citizenship education or take your teaching to the next level, this session will equip you with the tools to succeed.

Who is it for?

• Experienced teachers who are new to teaching Citizenship
• Early career teachers
• Trainee teachers

Why attend?

By attending this session, you will:

• Build confidence in embedding subject knowledge across the curriculum for better student recall.
• Gain insight into effective and sustainable curriculum planning.
• Deepen understanding of  the nuanced nature of knowledge needed to develop a curriculum in Citizenship.

Connect with experienced colleagues and mentors to exchange ideas and strategies.

Links to the CCF and ECF criteria

This CPD will support the Initial Teacher Education Core Content Framework (CCF) and Early Career Framework (ECF), addressing the following areas:

• Discussing and analysing with expert colleagues how to identify possible misconceptions and planning how to prevent these forming.
• Linking what pupils already know to what is being taught (e.g. explaining how new content builds on what is already known). 
• Discussing and analysing with expert colleagues the rationale for curriculum choices, the process for arriving at current curriculum choices and how the school’s curriculum materials inform lesson preparation.
• Providing opportunity for all pupils to learn and master essential concepts, knowledge, skills and principles of the subject. 
• Discussing and analysing with expert colleagues how to revisit the big ideas of the subject over time and teach key concepts through a range of examples.

Standard 8: 

By attending the complete course participants will: 

Learn that:

1. Effective professional development is likely to be sustained over time, building knowledge, motivating staff, developing teaching techniques, and embedding practice.

2. Reflective practice, supported by feedback from and observation of experienced colleagues, professional debate, and learning from educational research, is also likely to support improvement. 
3. Teachers can make valuable contributions to the wider life of the school in a broad range of ways, including by supporting and developing effective professional relationships with colleagues

Develop as a professional, by: 

a) Engaging in professional development focused on developing an area of practice with clear intentions for impact on pupil outcomes, sustained over time with built-in opportunities for practice

b) Strengthening pedagogical and subject knowledge by participating in wider networks and as part of the lesson preparation process.

c) Seeking challenge, feedback and critique from mentors and other colleagues in an open and trusting working environment.

d) Engaging with research evidence by accessing reliable sources, seeking support for how findings can inform practice, and monitoring the impact of applications. 

e) Reflecting on progress made, recognising strengths and weaknesses and identifying next steps for further improvement.

This session is part of ACT’s CPD strand designed for anyone who is new to the subject – from ITE trainees, to experienced teachers who are teaching Citizenship for the first time. Introduction to Citizenship sessions help to develop your understanding of the core substantive knowledge of the subject, key concepts, and best practice in pedagogy. As outlined above, they have also been designed to support the CCF and ECF criteria, particularly in relation to subject, curriculum and classroom practice.