Citizenship

Nature of Subject

Citizenship studies investigates how the citizen is enabled by society to play a full and active part and how citizens are empowered to effect change within society. Citizenship understanding develops through the knowledge of how a society operates and functions and its underlying values.

The overarching theme of this subject is ‘How citizens can try to make a difference’. This aim is supported by three key themes: Life in modern Britain, Rights and responsibilities and Politics and participation.

Intent

At Coloma, the schemes of work have been written within the aims and ethos of the national curriculum. Citizenship aims to motivate and enable young people to become thoughtful, active citizens in the society in which they live. The curriculum provides opportunities to inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world that we live in.

Our intent is for our students to gain a deeper knowledge of democracy, government and law, and develop skills to create sustained and reasoned arguments, present various viewpoints and plan practical citizenship actions to benefit society. We would also like to inspire students to go into fields such as law and politics where females and BAME groups are underrepresented.

Citizenship covers a wide range of topics, that gives students the ability to recognise bias, critically evaluate arguments, weigh evidence and look for alternative interpretations and sources of evidence, all of which are essential skills valued by higher education and employers. Students will have opportunities to go on trips into Central London that can widen their knowledge and introduce them to different forms of lifestyles as well as the institutions of our state.

Citizenship is a GCSE subject and therefore begins in Year 10. We start with Life in Modern Britain, which looks at the make-up, values and dynamics of contemporary UK society. Students will have to understand the foundations of the UK in order for them to understand the next topic, which is Rights and Responsibilities. This unit focuses on the nature of laws and the principles upon which laws are based, helping students to understand the role that citizens can both play a part and bring about change within the legal system. These two units prepare them for the next unit, Politics and Participation, which concentrates on the nature of political power in the UK and the core concepts relating to democracy and government. Whilst the three content-based themes enable students to develop their citizenship knowledge base, the last unit Active Citizenship enables students to explore through case study approaches and by their own actions, how citizens are able to try to make a difference. 

Design

Lessons have been created for each unit within Citizenship. Lessons have individual PowerPoints to support classroom teachers along with video clips, photographs and other resources to support learning. The lessons that have been created based on the SOL that AQA have provided. 

Year 10 has a focus on understanding life in modern Britain, our rights and responsibilities and the structures of the UK political system. This includes examining the identity, values, the media, international organisations, the legal system, crime and policing, parliament and local politics. Year 11 is focused on where political power resides in the UK, comparing the UK with other countries and completing an active citizenship project. 

Delivery 

Teachers deploy various strategies within the classroom to help students retain and apply knowledge. A variety of source stimulus material is used in class and provides the basis for conveying knowledge to students. There is standardised assessment across the department to ensure that students assess knowledge within the assessment cycle. These assessments return to work covered earlier in the year. This helps to ensure that work is re-visited later. Formal feedback is given on formative and summative work. Test scores are also given. Students are assessed in line with school policies and there are regular formative and summative assessments. Data is used to inform planning, work to re-visit and to target individuals or groups of students for intervention.