Citizenship at key stages 1 and 2    (Year 1-6)

• Work with the children to collect materials for a classroom display about people in the community who help us. Use books, photographs and posters. Include images of members of the school staff. Discuss with the children the role of key individuals in the school and those from outside the school who help, eg What would happen if these people weren't there? Do they wear special clothes or uniforms? If so, why? What are the similarities between people's jobs? Ask the children to list people they know who wear uniforms.
• Ask the children as a class to think about the jobs they do at home, in class and around the school. Why do these jobs have to be done? What would happen if these jobs were not done? What skills are needed to do these jobs well? When the jobs are done, what effect do they have on other people?
• Using a range of pictures illustrating different people at work, eg teachers, fire officers, a school police liaison officer, bus drivers, nurses or health professionals, ask the children to list the types of duties they think each person has at work and what skills they need. The children make word cards to put alongside each picture.
• Create a word bank of relevant vocabulary and phrases, eg parents, carers, grandparents, friends, teacher, cook, secretary, community, responsible, job, uniform, police station, help, emergency 999, home, school. Ask the children to use the key words and phrases in creating a book or wall display about people who help us.
• Invite a member of the local community, eg the local community police officer, a school police liaison officer or perhaps a parent who is a special police officer, to come into school to talk about their work. The children prepare questions that they would like to ask the visitor about their work, their uniform, etc. Take photographs (the children could do this) of the visit, showing the visitor working with the children, eg talking in circle time, taking assembly, listening to a group reading session. Add these to the classroom display.
• During circle time, ask the children to reflect on what they have learnt. Can they identify adults in their community whom they trust and can go to for help? Encourage them to talk about what sort of help they might need and the reason for choosing which adult to go to for help.

• Use a story or video to illustrate how the police can help us when we are in need. Ask the children to discuss the work of the police and to express their ideas - verbally or through individual or group drawings and writing - about the role of the police, eg protection of the public, crime prevention, law enforcement.
• Discuss with the children how their property can be kept safe at school. Point out that lots of children own similar things, eg pens, pencils, rulers, coats, bags. What happens when something goes missing? Are there different reasons why this might happen, eg it gets lost, someone takes it by mistake, someone takes it deliberately? Make a class list of rules to keep property safe, eg taking other people's belongings is wrong, all property should be labelled, expensive things must not be brought to school, the classroom must be kept tidy, my personal property must be kept on my peg or in my store basket. Through discussion, identify the individual and collective responsibilities or actions needed to make the rules work. Encourage children to agree to the rules by a show of hands. The rules should be typed out and displayed in the classroom and could be kept in the children's own portfolio.

• Use a story or video to illustrate a situation where personal safety may be at risk, eg someone they don't know approaches a group of children walking home from school, friends are playing a game near a railway line. Ask the children to talk about what they should do in different situations, eg when they are lost. The community police officer may be able to talk to children and lead activities to explore personal safety issues and assertiveness skills, eg ways of saying no, road safety skills, water safety or other personal safety issues.
• Following the discussion, compile a class personal safety code.

• Arrange a class visit to your local police station. Before the visit, help the children to prepare by locating the police station on a map of the local area and asking them what they expect to see and learn during their visit. Ask them to write down three things to find out about during the visit, eg What crimes do children commit most often? What happens when a suspect is brought to the police station? Who looks after the police dogs?
• Before the visit, ask your local school police liaison officer (if you have one) to come to the school for a preliminary discussion with the children. Encourage the children to ask questions and, if necessary, gain reassurance about the forthcoming experience.
• Following the visit, reflect on what the children discovered about the role of the police in preventing crime and keeping the community safe. Ask the children to talk about three things that they found out about during the visit, then to design and make posters showing what they learnt. Display the posters in the classroom or elsewhere in the school.

• Ask the children to talk about the things they like and enjoy about their community and their school. Explore with them what happens when a problem arises in school or the community, eg an unpopular decision is taken. Emphasise the importance of communication and discussion.
• Begin investigations about local facilities that exist for young people. Ask the children to plot the facilities on a map, accompanied by fact files created by pairs or small groups, eg club name, address, telephone number, age range covered, aims and purposes, activities offered, skills that can be learnt, how it helps the local community and area, the main advantages and any disadvantages. Invite a representative from the club, or a child who is a member, to give a short presentation about the benefits of participating in that club.
• As a class, discuss the facilities and activities for young people and children in the local community, drawing on the results of the investigations. Do the children feel that certain facilities and opportunities are missing from their local area? Have facilities been damaged, vandalised or removed from their vicinity in the past? How do their facilities compare with those in neighbouring areas or elsewhere in the country? What do children spend their time doing without the facilities they would like? What else could they do? Encourage the children to think of ways of improving local facilities and of drawing attention to their views and opinions. Locally organised schemes run during the summer holidays, eg Community and Police Enterprise projects, may offer a range of activities at local venues for children to join in with, eg outings, arts and crafts, drama and dance, outdoor pursuits. Police officers and volunteers normally maintain these schemes.

• Compile a range of information sources about local issues and the involvement of the police, community groups and others, eg newspaper articles, stories, community leaflets, Neighbourhood Watch reports. Invite individuals and representatives with responsibility for aspects of community development and liaison to talk about their work, eg duties, funding issues and costs, planning, consultation, local and regional regulations, how children can become involved. The children may decide to raise awareness about issues on a wider scale, eg as part of a class assembly, or to generate a school campaign, eg by writing to local councillors.
• The children could form a Primary Action group to address an issue in their school or local community that concerns them. Pupils at key stage 3 or 4 could be involved in supporting the children in carrying out their plans.