How do I organise meaningful active Citizenship projects that involve a whole year of students?

It can be daunting organising active Citizenship projects with a whole year group but it can also be incredibly satisfying. The key to making this an entitlement for all students in a year group is to build these opportunities for action into schemes of work – if they are only run as after-school clubs you’ll never be able to involve everyone. Active citizenship should not be an add-on to Citizenship; it is the very essence of Citizenship!

There are lots of manageable actions students can do, here are some ideas:

Inviting decision makers from the local community into school to watch presentations by students

Making presentations to Senior Leaders or the School Council

Running campaigns in school (you can use a prominent notice board to publicise them)

Organising a Citizenship assembly (with relevant visitors) where all students are given the opportunity to give their opinion (make sure they are prepared)

Writing a letter/email to a local MP, company or organisation

Ideally, the schemes of work should have three components; students voice, students action and student reflection. The most compelling learning experiences in Citizenship:

- Give students a voice or choice in the learning process and/or content (but I wouldn’t recommend you leave it completely up to them!). For example, you might offer students three local issues to investigate, of which they must choose one.

- Give students the opportunity to DO something that aims to have an impact outside the classroom. Sticking up posters on the classroom wall will not help children feel politically powerful. You will only feel politically powerful by having a powerful experience of acting politically. That’s why the examples above are so important.

- this action builds the students’ sense of agency

- Give students the opportunity to reflect on how effective their action has been and why.

As with many things you’ve got 2 options; start with something that you are comfortable with, or jump in at the deep end and learn from your mistakes! Don’t forget that you can model your own learning to the students.

One project that I have found works well is ‘Your streets, Your say’ where students reflect on and find examples (taking photos) of things they like and don’t like about where they live. You could set this as homework over a holiday and get them to carry out a survey of family and friends who live in their area. If the students put this into a powerpoint presentation you could then either invite a local councillor in to watch the presentations or email/send their findings.

Give it a go and if you have any good ideas for manageable and meaningful active Citizenship projects don’t forget to post them on the ACT website.

Alice Carlisle, East Midlands RSA