Citizenship at key stage 3    (Year 7)

• Pupils talk in groups, asking each other about their primary school. Which school did they attend? What was it like being a pupil at that school? How were their primary schools different, eg in terms of uniform, school rules, facilities, school grounds, subjects, teachers, sports, food, school council?
• Ask pupils to make a list of different experiences they have had as part of a school community, including how they joined in the life of the class and school, and whether anything made it difficult for them to do so.
• Summarise the main areas of discussion on the board or a flip chart, then ask pupils to talk about and divide the list into positives and negatives. Positives might include teachers they like, interesting work, being on the school council, creating an environmental area, having friends, being able to play football. Negatives might include hard work, being bullied, not being allowed inside when the weather is cold at lunchtime.
• Ask pupils to think about and list things that make school a good place to be, eg fun activities and lessons, being with friends, being able to get on with your work, teamwork. They then agree what actions they could take to make school a better place for everyone, eg through a class council.

• What are ground rules for discussion and why do we need them? Ask pupils working in pairs to talk about what makes it difficult to contribute to a class discussion, eg other pupils stating their opinion forcefully, being ridiculed, being interrupted. The pairs contribute to a whole-class list. Using this list, the pupils identify what rules the class should have to enable everyone to contribute, eg taking turns to speak, not making fun of others, not using put-downs, listening to others and not interrupting. Use this activity to illustrate the link between rights, responsibilities and rules.
• Identify an issue about which pupils could make a decision, eg where they sit in class. Ask them should they always have to sit in the same place or should they be allowed to change round? If they are allowed to move places, should they be able to do this regularly or only occasionally? Pupils briefly discuss the pros and cons and then vote on which system to implement. Alternative issues could relate to lunchtime arrangements, classroom responsibilities or other aspects of school life.
• Ask pupils how decisions were made at their primary school. Were they involved in a school council? What did it achieve? Was everybody in the school involved? How else did pupils contribute to the school's life and organisation? Why was it good to be able to contribute to class and school life? Who benefits and in what ways? Ask pupils to consider how their new school gives all pupils the opportunity to contribute to the review and development of school policies, eg policies governing behaviour.
• Ask pupils what issues in the news - local or national - are of concern to them and list these on the board. Pupils suggest why these issues are of public or local interest and discuss which are most important to them. Ask them to vote for one issue and discuss it as a class, to develop a questioning approach, eg why is this issue a problem and who is affected by it? How could the situation be improved?

• Describe a 'desert island' scenario in which a group of people have been thrown together in difficult circumstances and have to cooperate (become a community) to survive. In groups, pupils consider various situations, eg someone has been found to have a weapon which they are refusing to hand over to the group which could be a danger to the community; a parent with hungry children has been found stealing from the dwindling food supply; too many people are criticising the group's decisions and this is undermining the spirit of the group. These situations could be written onto cards and handed out. Ask pupils what should be done in such circumstances and why?
• Drawing on their involvement in the scenario, pupils consider the following issues:
• What is a community? Ask pupils to form a circle or small group and talk to the pupil next to them about things they have in common and ways in which they are different. How many communities do they think they are part of - locally, nationally, globally? Ask pairs of pupils to join up with other pairs and repeat their discussion. Share discoveries as a class, eg was it harder to find specific things in common as the group got larger? What do all pupils in the school have in common?
• What are rights? Ask pupils to identify the rights of individuals and the rights of the community as a whole. They consider when the rights of the individual might conflict with the rights of the community. Where do these rights come from and how should they be enforced? Why is it necessary to safeguard some rights, eg to survive as individuals, to help others, to protect the weak? Who has duties and responsibilities in this regard?
• What are responsibilities? In groups, pupils discuss and decide whether some members of a group should have greater responsibilities than others. If so, why? What if they do not accept these responsibilities or they clash with rights? What is the link between the rights and responsibilities? If someone neglects a responsibility, does this mean that they lose all their rights? When is it acceptable to take away someone's rights? When is this unacceptable? Are there some basic rights that should never be taken away or violated?
• What is fairness? Ask the class to think about how the group of survivors in the desert island scenario might develop fair ways of doing things, like making rules, punishing offenders, distributing welfare, allowing freedom of individual conscience, eg in religious and moral beliefs. Ask pupils to reconsider some of the decisions they have already made. Are they fair to some people and not to others? Can unfairness be avoided? Ask pupils to suggest situations when ideas on fairness can be applied at home, school and in the local community and wider society.
• What is democracy? Who has power and authority? Using the desert island scenario again, encourage pupils to imagine how the group of survivors might plan for the future in case they do not get rescued. Pupils discuss and consider how decisions will be made and who should have authority. Explain democratic processes in this context, eg choosing a leader, everyone voting on decisions, a group being elected to make decisions on everyone's behalf. What are the pros and cons of these different positions? Ask pupils to think about democracy in their own communities, eg who makes decisions and how? Are they involved? How?

• Ask pupils to visualise a new-born baby. Does it have any rights? What responsibilities does it have? Who takes responsibility for protecting its rights? How does this change as it grows older, eg at the age of 5, 10, 15, 18?
• In pairs, pupils produce a timeline to identify the changes that will take place in their rights and responsibilities between now and when they reach the age of 19. For example, they show when different laws come into effect, eg the legal age for working, driving a car, voting, buying alcohol. Using the timeline, pupils discuss how rights increase with age, and why, but also how responsibilities grow with them, and why. They then consider issues they will face as they get older - employment, budgeting their money, how to spend their free time, eg on sport, leisure, volunteering. How does all this link to the kind of society they want to live in?
• Pupils identify what kind of roles they will have, eg worker, consumer, taxpayer, family member, community member, voter, lifelong learner, and what rights, responsibilities and skills will be useful to them as they take on these roles. They think about the reasons that could prevent them from being active citizens, eg lack of information, confidence, interest or money; discrimination; peer pressure.
• Pupils read the programme of study for citizenship at key stage 3 and key stage 4. Ask pupils to reflect on how the three strands - developing knowledge and understanding about becoming informed citizens, developing skills of enquiry and communication, and developing skills of participation and responsible action - will help deal with different challenges, choices and decisions and enable them to play an active role in their school and communities.
• Ask pupils to reflect on what they have learnt during this introductory unit and to identify three things about citizenship that are similar to what they learnt at primary school and three things that are new or different. Pupils record these similarities and differences in their portfolio.