This toolkit is flexible and resources can be used in a number of ways.
The toolkit can be used as
Most activities need to be led by a teacher or facilitator.
Look in the TEACHING ACTIVITIES section for resources and activities.
Each page has a resource for you to download and use.
Active Citizenship
Citizenship was introduced as a statutory subject for secondary schools in England and an addition to the National Curriculum. The report of the Advisory Group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools (The Crick Report, 1998 - download a copy ) identified three inter-related components that should run through all education for citizenship programmes:
The teaching of Citizenship aims to develop pupils' skills of enquiry, communication, participation and responsible action through learning about and becoming informed and interested citizens. The three strands of the Programmes of Study for key stages 3 and 4 are:
Active Citizenship, as part of the Citizenship curriculum best fits with the third of these strands although they are all inter-related.
The QCA has recently completed a consultation on the secondary curriculum and revised programmes of study for Citizenship at KS3 and KS4 will be available later this year for first teaching from September 2008 (download the new curriculum). The proposed revisions retain both the original emphasis on active citizenship, but also strengthen the focus on community-based citizenship activities with an expectation that pupils will have opportunities to work with a range of community partners.
We hope that this toolkit will help you develop, with young people, new and exciting projects for active citizenship, drawing on the strengths and support of your partnerships.