Citizenship at key stages 1 and 2    (Year 3-6)

• Carry out a 'treasure hunt' activity, giving the children different items, articles or sections of a newspaper to find. Younger children could look for photographs and headings, while older children could be asked to read articles to look for specific facts.
• Working in groups, the children select an issue or story of interest to them and extract relevant articles from a range of newspapers published on a particular day. Ensure there is a mixture of newspapers - tabloid and broadsheet, national and local. The children look for agreement and disagreement between the papers as to the facts of the story. Encourage them to devise and answer questions, eg when? who? what? where? why? how? They look for similarities and differences in the way the story is presented by the papers, and distinguish between fact and opinion in the reports. The groups share and discuss their findings with the whole class.
• As a class, compare and discuss the headline stories in the different newspapers the children reviewed. What are the main news stories of the day? Is there agreement on the main stories? Why? Why not? What is 'news'? Is there any evidence of bias in the reporting? What do we mean by bias? Is bias wrong in a news item? Why?
• Show the class a children's TV news programme from the same day as the newspaper articles. Are the main stories the same as those in the newspapers they reviewed? If not, why not?
• Ask the children to write a short article on a local issue or on an issue that interests them that would be suitable for the front page of the local newspaper. Encourage them to think about the heading, the main issues or events, the people involved and how the community has been affected.
• Extension activity: The children could compare and discuss news on the same topic from a variety of news sources, eg local or national newspapers, radio, television, the internet. The discussion could focus on an issue such as the right to privacy.

• The children work together to prepare articles and present school news on a school website or in a school newspaper. Ask the children to think about different ways of organising the news and information, eg by date, event, topic, class. Contributions could be sought across the school community, with pages allocated to different groups. The children need to agree how editing decisions will be made and what information to publish, perhaps by electing an editorial board.
• Invite a journalist from a local newspaper or radio station to come and talk with the children about what they do, so that the children gain an understanding of the processes involved in providing a news service. Alternatively, the class could visit a local newspaper (or radio or TV station).

Either

• The children use video and audio equipment to create their own news programme. They should discuss editing strategies and decisions with their peers and, perhaps, supporting adults. The final production could be shown to the school and copies could be made for parents.

Or

• The children collect ideas, news and views concerning the class members over a term, and then produce a class news sheet for other classes and for other members of the school community, eg parents, governors.

• Explore a relationship issue, eg friendship, bullying, risk-taking. Ask the children which soap operas they watch, and ask them to identify themselves with a character, eg If you could be someone in a soap, who would you be? Why? The children explore differing values and attitudes by thinking about the actions of some of the characters they have chosen or by watching a recent video clip from the programme. Why does character X behave in that way (what is their motive)? What are the consequences? Could the character have chosen a better course of action? What might the consequences have been? Why is this a better outcome? Where appropriate, discuss why honesty, loyalty and respect are important in relationships.
• Ask the children to consider the different viewpoints that people (and cultures) might have on a particular issue raised in the soap opera, and make a list of those they identify. Drama techniques such as 'hot seating' and 'conscience alley' may be useful here.
• Ask the children to write a letter, using persuasive language, to encourage a soap character to take a particular course of action. The children could use a range of resources for ideas on what advice to include in the letter.
• Extension activity: The children could research how other media (eg magazines, newspapers, factsheets, school resources) address relationship issues. They consider which of these media give them accurate information, realistic scenarios, help and advice. They could go on to produce a magazine article/storyboard/video/audio recording/puppet show/short play on a specific issue that concerns them.