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Citizenship is a new national
curriculum subject that schools are required to teach at key stages 3 and 4
from August 2002. The citizenship programmes of study are light-touch and flexible,
allowing your school to plan and develop a curriculum that:
- enables you to build
on what you are already doing in a flexible and innovative way;
- is relevant to pupils,
connecting with their interests and experiences;
- encourages pupils to
investigate and think critically about issues of current interest, using problem
solving, reasoning and evaluation skills;
- relates to pupils' abilities
and backgrounds; and
- provides pupils with
opportunities to discuss and address real-life issues, and to see that they
can participate in activities that make a difference in their schools and
the wider community.
Citizenship is complemented
by non-statutory guidelines for PSHE at key stages 3 and 4. The programmes of
study for citizenship and the non-statutory guidelines for PSHE are published
in the National Curriculum Handbook for secondary teachers (order reference
QCA99/458), and are also available at www.nc.uk.net
How can citizenship help
my school?
Citizenship:
- involves pupils positively,
encouraging participation in school and community life;
- links schools with their
neighbours and community partners;
- supports inclusion and
promotes positive behaviour, equal opportunities, respect and responsibility;
- provides a focus for
celebrating and publicising school activities;
- contributes to the achievement
of the Charter Mark, Investors in People and Healthy School awards.
What do we need to do
to implement the new national curriculum subject of citizenship?
- ensure that staff appointed
to lead the development of citizenship provision have sufficient seniority
to coordinate a whole-school approach;
- involve staff, governors
and pupils in decision-making about needs, priorities and provision;
- plan citizenship provision
to meet pupils' needs, and ensure that it relates to other whole-school priorities;
- audit current provision
in order to build on what you do already, and decide which aspects of citizenship
to address through separately timetabled discrete provision and which to address
through other subjects;
- ensure that pupils can
participate in the life and decision-making of the school and wider community
as an explicit part of citizenship provision;
- identify other agencies
and partners who contribute to pupils' personal and social development;
- link with local and
national priorities, for example through contact with Community Safety Partnerships,
Drug Action Teams, teenage pregnancy initiatives, Connexions, Education Action
Zones; and
- meet regularly with
the citizenship coordinator and key staff to ensure that progress is being
made with the support of the senior management team (SMT).
How do the schemes of
work for citizenship help?
The schemes of work for citizenship
provide a starting point to help your school develop citizenship provision that
reflects the needs of pupils and other whole-school priorities. They enable you
to use the flexibility offered by the programmes of study for citizenship.
The schemes are made up
of:
- a Teacher's
guide, with practical ideas about whole-school planning, approaches
to and provision for citizenship, as well as suggested opportunities for teaching
citizenship through other subjects. The key stage 3 scheme of work also includes
subject leaflets. These provide a starting point for schools to discuss the
links between citizenship and other subjects. Schools need to decide which
opportunities to develop as explicit citizenship provision and which will
remain as implicit support for citizenship. The leaflets identify examples
of opportunities for citizenship and help teachers plan delivery through other
national curriculum subjects, RE and PSHE;
- exemplar teaching
units, with learning objectives based on the programmes of study,
suggested teaching activities to meet those objectives and defined outcomes
of pupils' learning. The units illustrate how the programmes of study can
be translated into medium-term plans. They are designed to be adapted by schools
to fit in with their provision and build on what they are already doing; and
- a booklet of
ideas about active citizenship, aimed at involving pupils in a range
of participative activities in school and the wider community.
Combine the units and activities
you select with other materials you wish to use, to provide coverage of the requirements
of the programmes of study.
What other information do we need?
| Information
on... |
Where
to find it |
Notes |
| Approaches
to teaching and learning |
Key stage
3 Teacher's guide page 11 and appendix 6 |
Teaching
approaches should be active. It is not enough for pupils to learn about
citizenship issues; they need to participate in them. The involvement of
pupils in the life and decision-making of the school is a fundamental part
of citizenship. |
Key Stage 3 National
Strategy and citizenship
|
Key stage 3 Teacher's
guide page 17 |
The
Teacher's guide provides information about the contribution of
citizenship to the objectives of the Key Stage 3 National Strategy. It sets
out how citizenship helps to raise standards achieved by all pupils through
raising expectations, ensuring progression, engaging and motivating pupils,
and transforming teaching and learning. |
Teaching
sensitive and controversial issues
|
Key stage 3 Teacher's
guide pages 44-46 |
The
Teacher's guide suggests strategies for handling sensitive and
controversial issues, and dealing with issues of confidentiality, such as
personal disclosure. A summary of the section of the 1996 Education Act
that addresses political and controversial issues is also provided. |
Assessing progress
in citizenship
|
Key stage 3 Teacher's
guide pages 13-15 |
At
the end of key stage 3, teachers are required to assess pupils' attainment
in citizenship. The first end of key stage teacher assessment will be for
pupils who complete year 9 in summer 2004. Schools should report pupils'
progress to parents from August 2002. |
Recognising
achievement
|
Information about
qualifications and awards will be included in the Teacher's guide
for the citizenship scheme of work for key stage 4 |
Consider
how to recognise the achievements of all pupils, and whether local and national
certificates and awards and the GCSE (short course) in citizenship studies
might contribute. |
Ofsted
inspection
|
Booklet Inspecting
citizenship 11-16 published by Ofsted in 2001 |
From
September 2002, citizenship provision will be inspected wherever citizenship
is reported as a subject under section 10 of the inspection framework. See
Inspecting citizenship 11-16 with guidance on self-evaluation,
published by Ofsted, 2001. |
Funding
|
www.standardsfund.dfes.gov.uk
|
Funding
is available to schools from the standards fund to support the implementation
of citizenship. |
ITT
and CPD
|
www.dfes.gov.uk/citizenship
|
From
September 2001, ITT courses will be available for specialist citizenship
teachers. The DfES citizenship website has information about identifying
and meeting the CPD needs of existing staff. |
Resources
and case studies
|
www.dfes.gov.uk/citizenship |
This
website provides a library of resources, links to other websites and case
studies of effective and active citizenship. An online toolkit will help
teachers assess their training needs, and an online course on how to run
a discussion or debate is free to download. |
Useful
contacts
|
Key stage 3 Teacher's
guide pages 50-51 |
Organisations
involved with citizenship who provide information or resources to support
schools. |
How do we plan a whole
school approach to citizenship?
The following questions are
taken from the key stage 3 Teacher's guide, and help with whole-school planning.
- What are the needs and
priorities of the pupils in this school?
- What are the particular
characteristics of our school community? (including geographical context,
diversity, inclusion, equal opportunities)
- How do these affect
all our pupils' needs, concerns and interests (including their personal
and social development)?
- Who has been consulted
about pupils' needs and priorities? - Pupils? Parents? School staff? Governors?
The wider community?
- How can the flexibility
of the citizenship programmes of study help the school to meet pupils' needs,
for example by varying the depth and focus of different aspects according
to the school's particular requirements?
- What are pupils already
learning about citizenship?
- What aspects of the
PoS are already addressed through:
- discrete citizenship
and/or PSHE programmes?
- other subjects?
- off-timetable events
and specialist days such as health weeks, industry days, environmental
projects and residential experiences?
- pupils' active participation
in the life of the school, for example through the school council, links
with other schools, involvement in community initiatives?
- individual pupils'
involvement with out-of-school activities such as volunteering, organisations
such as faith groups, community sports and other community-based and voluntary
organisations?
- What already works well
and meets our priorities?
- What do pupils and
staff think works well? How do they think it could be improved?
- Does it meet the identified
needs and priorities? Are there any gaps?
- Are all pupils' needs
reflected in the school's aims and ethos? In policies such as behaviour
and equal opportunities?
- How can we build on
what we are already doing?
- Can we:
- make some of the
implicit opportunities for citizenship in other subjects explicit?
- develop discrete
modules or individual sessions to complement other aspects of the school's
provision?
- develop more opportunities
for pupils to participate in school and community life?
- increase pupils'
involvement in off-timetable events and extra-curricular activities
by involving them in organising and running the events?
- extend opportunities
in assemblies and tutorial activities?
- improve methods
of recognising and valuing the contribution made to pupils' development
by activities they undertake in their own time?
- What do we need to change
or add?
- What timetabling and
staffing issues are created?
- How will training
needs be identified and met? (see www.dfes.gov.uk/citizenship for a training
needs analysis tool/resources)
- How will pupils have
opportunities to reflect on what they have learnt and put it into practice?
- How will we develop
assessment, recording and reporting of citizenship to meet end of key stage
3 requirements?
- Will monitoring, review
and evaluation systems allow coordination across the whole curriculum?
- Who can help?
Those involved in
other local and national initiatives such as the local Healthy School Programme
(information from LEA or National Healthy School Standard website*), Connexions
service, community safety plan or Agenda 21 (information from local authority),
and outside agencies and organisations, eg police, local council, health
promotion service, local and national voluntary organisations.
*see page 53 of key stage 3 Teacher's guide
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