CITIZENSHIP RESOURCES

This page archived in August 2008

Citizenship is here, like it or not, and Geography teachers often find themselves delivering it as either a form tutor, or as part of a team who are involved in delivering the key concepts. Citizenship relates to the legal right to belong to a country, and accepting the responsibilities of being a citizen. This usually forms the basis of the first lessons in the subject: rights and responsibilities. There are 3 main areas involved in the teaching of Citizenship:

Social and moral responsibility

Community involvement

Political literacy

I went to the QCA CITIZENSHIP site to download the Schemes of Work. These contain all you would need to know about the topic, and can be broken up so that useful chunks can be used for particular sections of time. Citizenship is now something which OFSTED are very interested in, and we all know that it won't be long before they come a calling...

Citizenship is often to do with politics.

"Geography teachers are the ideal people to expand the concept of 'Citizenship education' to encompass global citizenship, starting with a better understanding of our globe, and of humankind's place in the universe"

David Wright

USEFUL CITIZENSHIP SITES

TIME FOR CITIZENSHIP

YOUR TURN - HOW TO SPEAK OUT AND CHANGE THINGS

CITIZEN21 - ONLINE CITIZENSHIP RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS

INSTITUTE FOR CITIZENSHIP

DfES Citizenship site

LEARN.CO.UK - excellent materials on a range of topics

THE CITIZENSHIP FOUNDATION - this has some useful resources, including 'A Friend for Farouk' which I used, and which my colleague Mr. Dixon was particularly impressed with...

HANSARD SOCIETY

Noel Jenkins, who produces the HAMPSTEAD SCHOOL site recently alerted colleagues to the MESSENGERS site, which was organised by one of his students, who raised the funding and organised the posting of 10 000 posters in London with a message about the number of hungry people in the world, and tried to bring the issue to the attention of people to coincide with the Earth Summit. It is a nicely laid out site with some good quotes and an inspiration to those of use who would quite like to do something but aren't sure what...

There is a new section of Citizenship materials available on the TEACHER NET website.

There is also a useful site called GLOBAL GANG which may be useful. You can find out what life is like for children all over the world: including issues such as Child labour. Try the TRADING STANDARDS site ASK CEDRIC for more on consumer education.

Then try CITIZENSHIP GLOBAL which looks at the Global dimension of Citizenship education. They provide some useful links to information on:

FIRST AID information on the BBC site. The ST. JOHN's AMBULANCE will usually be keen to get involved at reasonable rates. Get out the 'Resusci-Annie' as I have on numerous occasions..

RE-SOLV looks at Solvent information for students. This is maybe left for slightly older pupils, but these days you never know..

Some free materials have been produced by ACTION AID. There are FREE resources on Uganda which are available to download from the website. Click on 'Schools and Youth'. This is a 6 week series. Each week a new PACK will be uploaded which includes an Interactive game, 5 A4 photos and teachers' notes. Materials on HIV/AIDS are already there.

There are more Citizenship materials at 2 BBCi based websites.

ONION STREET has some materials for School Work Support.

Try also CITIZEN X which has some rather good materials. There are 3 areas covered on the site: POLITICAL LITERACY, COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. The latter for example has some useful materials on CRIME which would also fit in with our new Year 8 Scheme of Work. These have Flash games and are rather good.

Try GET GLOBAL. This is a PDF download which makes up a very useful teacher guide produced by ACTION AID.

Some materials from EDUCATION QUEST.

This year, REFUGEE WEEK runs from the 16th to the 22nd of June.

Learn about the budget process at RED BOX.

WWF are offering a book called "Citizenship for the Future" - cost £11.99

Why not get out and JUST DO SOMETHING. This site is called 'The Citizens Connection', and has a range of materials. If you go to the TEEN ZONE of the site you'll find some GAMES. I explored some of these:

Europe uncovered is quite good for students learning the member countries of the EU

Play the magistrate takes you through a court case and looks at the different roles of people in a court.

Chaos: a person is walking along a street. Turn some rules on and off and see whether he makes it to the end of the screen alive.

Try some of the others too....

A recent site is called RIZER. This is a Government funded site which is aimed at keeping kids out of trouble. It shows how the Criminal Justice system works. It uses Flash a lot, and follows 4 teenagers and the consequences of their actions. Apparently 40% of all crimes are committed by young offenders, so it's an age group that needs targeting.

If you're in WALES, or even if you aren't why not check out CEWC.

CEWC-Cymru (Council for Education in World Citizenship-Cymru) is an educational charity working with young people to promote 
active global citizenship in Wales.
Thanks to Martin Pollard for alerting me to the site.

RESOURCES I HAVE USED WITH MY FORM (Year 8)

Giving Nation have a downloadable pack of materials on the ideas of CHARITY and the importance of giving.

BT have started to consider the issue of the vandalism of public payphones. They have put together a good section of their site called PAYPHONE CITIZEN which includes a competition that school children can enter (closing date in May 2003) - it has a useful quiz on the issues around vandalism of call boxes. Apparently over 150 000 were vandalised last year, but in 2001 over 2 and a half million 999 calls were made from them. The next time you need one in an emergency it may have been damaged.

The next issue I looked at was CHEWING GUM. This is not a problem if disposed of properly, but I would assume about 99% of it isn't judging by the underside of the desks in most school classrooms and the streets of every town in the UK. Just take a walk across a car park or open tarmac area with your group and point out the 10 000 blobs of gum they'll be likely to see.

A useful article on the BBC website has news of NON STICK gum which could be on the way, perhaps as a response to moves towards making the gum manufacturers pay for the clean up, or place a tax on chewing gum (how about making it £5 a packet ?) A link also to the site of WRIGLEY the chewing gum manufacturers (who have their own association apparently)

There's also the issue of PETTY CRIME and the various effects of a ZERO TOLERANCE policy, or perhaps having fixed penalty notices which was introduced by Government as an idea last year. The idea of marching youths to the cash-point to pay their instant fine was soon seen as perhaps a little difficult to implement. Some useful materials from various interested parties were suggested in an article in the Guardian in March 2003. There was a link to the TOPICAL resources section of LEARN.CO.UK which is always worth dropping in on from time to time to see what has been added.

There are some good FLASH games which can be used as an end of term treat (as I did for Easter 2003 in fact).

First of all try GLOBAL GANG: this is run by Christian Aid. It has a series of good games which also have a message involved. My group liked the PACMAN style game where you have to rescue children from Child labour in a carpet factory. They also liked the Snakes and Ladders game looking at Globalisation where the Snakes attack unless you answer questions about global products correctly. Finally, they enjoyed the Minefield game, which looks at the issue of Landmines, and the thousands of people killed and injured every year.

The second site I visited was the CBBC NEWSROUND SITE. This has all the latest news headlines, but also a GAMES section which has some amusing ones with a purpose in mind.

First of all try YOU MAKE ME SICK. This is rather graphic but has some good sound effects, and I like the vomit running down the inside of the monitor.

There are other useful games from here including a geographical based game called NERVY NAVIGATOR.

Try the LIFEBYTES site too (see Alcohol section)

PERSONAL SAFETY

Milly's Fund is a fund-raising effort set up by Sally and Bob Dowler: parents of Milly Dowler. It is aimed at spreading the message of the importance of personal safety.

The WEBSITE is part of their campaign to promote personal safety. It has several celebrities assisting in promoting the message.

ALCOHOL

This is part of our PSE programme.

There are some useful pieces of information at various Health websites.

A useful site is the BBC's NEWSROUND which has some articles such as 'Boredom is making kids drink alcohol'.

There are, of course, some dedicated organisations which provide useful materials and links.

The best site I found though, and the one I'll use with my form was at the LIFEBYTES site. This is designed for Key Stage 3 pupils, and has materials on several areas, not just alcohol.

The alcohol area of the site has some useful FLASH sections which are interactive to a degree, but allow students to follow through a sequence of collecting information about key areas of alcohol information.

A good site produced in association with the NHS is CHILDREN FIRST. This has health advice and lots of other material.

DRUGS

The Government's new DRUGS advice site is called TALK TO FRANK.

Several staff have taken their forms into the computer suite and just searched for 'DRUGS': that's not a recommended strategy. Target some particular sites and check them out first...

CITIZENSHIP and GEOGRAPHY

DRAFT Unit 10: DEBATING A GLOBAL ISSUE

This document has obvious relevance for Geographers.

A website called J8 CHANGE THE WORLD offers pupils the chance to discuss matters such as GLOBAL WARMING. Check out the website and order a FREE TEACHER RESOURCE PACK. Recommended.

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