Citizenship at key stage 3    (Year 7-9)

• Ask pupils to review their agreed ground rules.
• In pairs, pupils discuss the different groups to which they belong. How do they describe themselves? Where are they from? What are they like? What do they like doing? What are they good at? What are their beliefs? How do they describe themselves to other people - at school, to friends, on their passports, abroad. Ask them to make a 'belonging tree' to illustrate their discussions.
• Stimulate discussion by getting pupils to bring in special objects that are representative of something about their own identities. Can they produce an emblem to represent their identities, eg religious identities? Create a class display showing their similarities and differences.
• What are multiple identities? Pupils consider multiple identities - the idea that we are all more than one thing, eg Geordie-athlete, Black-Catholic, London-musician, British-Asian, Anglo-French. What identity combinations, allegiances and loyalties does the class have and how is a combination distinctive to each individual?
• Pupils think back to how they saw their identity one year ago and five years ago. They look ahead and consider how their identity might change in five years or ten years, eg their changing roles such as worker, parent, voter, etc.
• Identity and belonging are universal human rights - show pupils the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• Ask pupils to form a series of groups, according to, for example, their favourite music/food/sport/television programme, gender, languages they speak, beliefs, where they were born, etc.
• Were they born into these groups, or put in them? Do they change their behaviour depending on who they are with? Do they belong to different groups at different times?
• Pupils reflect on the different groupings. Are there any surprises? How does it feel to belong to a large group? What about small groups? Are any pupils on their own?
• How are our experiences the same or different? What about experiences of health care, education, the police, leisure facilities? Ask pupils to consider how they might learn from the experiences of others. How do they behave towards others, and how do others behave towards them? Does everyone get the same treatment? Is different treatment the same as discrimination?

• Use interviews, photos, the local library, newspapers and community organisations to research local communities. Why do people live here? Have people migrated here from other places or countries? Why? What is the composition of the community population? Compare this with that of the school and of Britain. Have the reasons for people living here changed over time? What events and festivals do the community groups celebrate? Have these changed over time? Display the research in class.
• Make a time capsule that represents the local community.
• Follow up this work by considering how the class and school community reflects the local community.
• Discuss equal opportunities in the school. Ask pupils to take photographs which they feel illustrate equal opportunities in action in the school community. Make a collage of the results into a poster for the school. Ask pupils to think about why they chose the images. Is there anything missing, that they would like to add?

• Using a photo pack of images of Britain (or England or UK) discuss the images and how they might not tell the whole story. Ask pupils to consider designing a photo pack to illustrate life in Britain. What images would they include, eg elderly people, children, wheelchair users, people with different racial characteristics? What impression would be given?
• Build on the class display of individual identities and the local community. Does it reflect the cultural diversity of Britain? Why is it important to recognise and celebrate all identities?
• Debate issues relating to diversity, eg the rights and responsibilities of different communities, what it means to be British, attitudes towards refugees.

• How are different ethnic groups represented in the news? Using a range of media sources (newspapers, recording of TV and/or radio programmes, websites, etc) ask small groups of pupils to analyse news stories from a specified day or week. Ask pupils to divide their findings into positive and negative. Are any stereotypes used? What is the ratio of positive to negative? How could negative headlines or statements be turned into positive ones? Discuss and identify the reasons why the media portrays people differently, eg to make stories more interesting, to sell news.

• In pairs, pupils discuss what makes a global citizen. Follow up the discussion as a class and develop a set of criteria.
• In groups, pupils choose someone of international standing, eg personalities from sport, religion, the Royal Family, popular culture, and test them against the criteria. To what extent is he or she a global citizen?
• What can pupils learn from other countries? Use case study material from different cultures to look at themes such as how other communities treat old people and the role of extended families.
• How do events in other countries impact on their communities? Consider cross-cultural fusion in music and art.
• What is globalisation? And what is its impact on local and national communities and cultures? Has the community responded to change or been influenced by change? How? Is the community under threat or can it adapt?
• What part do pupils play in their community?

• Identify issues with global impact or implications.
• Ask pupils to research local and national pressure groups and their work. What does the group hope to achieve? How does it campaign? What works and what doesn't?
• What is the government policy on particular issues, eg changes to law, new initiatives, financing research or community projects? How is government policy developed and consulted upon?
• What local, national or global issues would pupils like to change?
• How would they influence change? Use an influence tree to illustrate their ideas.
• What is the role of charities? Is giving money to charity the best an individual can do to make a fairer and more sustainable world?
• Pupils in groups share reactions to activities and what they have learnt about diversity in Britain. They identify ways in which they show respect to others and how they challenge discrimination. They discuss what positive steps they would take to celebrate diversity in their own life, at school and in their communities.