| Subject/Key Stage/Area of responsibility: | Citizenship KS3-KS4 |
| Subject Leader: | Danielle Fenwick (DF) |
| Date: | 18.05.2023 |
Organisation
All secondary school students at Bank View have 1 hour of Citizenship per week, in line with the national curriculum guidelines. In the Base classes, Citizenship is delivered by the class teachers through a thematic study. Subject planning is developed by DF in conjunction with the teachers who are delivering the subject. DF has taught Citizenship previously and the course content closely aligns with her undergraduate degree in Politics and International Relations.
Intention
Citizenship plays a crucial role in helping pupils to feel part of their community. This subject will prepare students to be active citizens who know how to engage in the democratic process. Moreover, students will understand the benefits of engaging in their community. Most importantly however, students will, in the long term, know where to turn for help beyond school. They we be aware of what they can offer their community and know what their community can offer them.
The overarching concepts for Citizenship at Bank View are tied in with the school vision and correlate to SMSC:
| Believe | Personal growth – developing compassion and empathy Being the best citizen, they can be – through guidance and encouragement |
| Value | Value – pupils valuing themselves and others Stewardship – caring for all parts of their community Respect – showing tolerance of other beliefs, opinions and cultures Asking Big Questions – communicating effectively and listening to others Morality – understanding right from wrong, accepting rules and boundaries Courageous Advocacy – challenging injustice by standing up for the rights of others and values and to develop positive attitudes of respect towards other people; |
| Achieve | Enrichment – enhancing their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development Celebration – fostering confidence and enjoyment in developing academic and life skills |
The teaching of Citizenship makes links between life in school and life beyond school. This subject will empower our students to know that they belong in our community, that they can be part of a community and that they can change their community. They have the power and the right to hold themselves, their friends and family and leaders accountable for their actions. The citizenship curriculum will help to instil values of social responsibility and respect for all aspects of diversity, whether it be social, cultural and religious, and prepare pupils well for life in modern Britain.
Implementation
Please see the following documents (below):
Citizenship Secondary Curriculum Overview
Citizenship Key Stage 3 Planning
Citizenship Key Stage 4 Planning
Learning in Citizenship ensures that all students have access to a broad and balanced curriculum which develops knowledge and skills over time. Citizenship will be delivered in stand-alone units of work at KS3 through carefully planned and adapted lessons. Following the guidance from the national curriculum, the content will be tailored to suit students’ needs at Bank View. The content of each unit has been designed to stand alone, to ensure that any student can start a topic without having previously accessed any other unit. However, key skills such as recalling information, making links between the past and present and critiquing ideas do build throughout KS3.
In KS4 students will follow the WJEC Entry Level Pathway for Humanities. The units at KS4 are synoptic units, whereby all the learning gleaned throughout KS3 can be harnessed. End of unit assessments are given at the end of each topic. Progression is mapped coherently. The progression allows for effective differentiation, marking and feedback, and stretch for all. Pupils have access to key terminology, especially relating to being active in the democratic process.
Personalised Learning:
- A wide range of well-designed units of work that are differentiated and suited to the various needs of our learners.
- Citizenship classrooms have an additional learning space which provided pupils/groups with a quieter learning space when needed.
Supporting + Extending:
- Teachers are experienced in supporting and extending pupils with SEND
- The school offers Level 3 to our most able pupils in KS4.
- Pupils are all extended using personalised targets.
Assessment + Feedback:
- In citizenship, students complete a formative assessment at the end of every unit of work. The assessment format will vary to suit the teacher and cohort, but all assessments will be recorded. Students are given the opportunity to correct, add to or amend their assessment.
- ‘MAD’ (make a difference) time is regularly provided in lessons for students to read comments, correct spelling etc.
- Effective assessment completed through the termly monitoring cycle.
- The Citizenship department follows the whole school marking policy.
- All students are given regular feedback, both written and verbally.
Interventions:
- Every term, Citizenship staff assess pupils’ learning and record their progress. Pupils who are behind this expected level, even with additional support provided in lesson, will be placed on the intervention list.
- The pupils on intervention’s progress are assessed every half-term and adjustments are made accordingly.
Supporting Pupils’ Memory Retention:
- Citizenship schemes of work follow a spiralised curriculum to ensures that key themes are regularly revisited to help students retain information.
- Dual coding pedagogy is employed throughout Citizenship SOW.
- Last lesson recaps are utilised nearly every lesson.
- As Bank View moves towards becoming a thinking school, more ideas on how to support retention will be written into MTP.
Moderation:
Since introducing the WJEC pathways to Bank View, many other departments have started following the curriculum. This has provided great moderation opportunities. Geography, History and Base 4 are following the same Humanities Pathway; therefore, I am able to moderate with Mrs Barker and Mrs Wood.
Impact
Specific to Citizenship:
By the end of KS3 pupils will be able to talk about:
What makes a good citizen? The rights and responsibilities of citizenship including human rights.
How the UK political systems, including the police operate.
How they can engage in their community and be active in the democratic process.
A brief history of UK political systems.
A brief overview of the UK in current affairs
By the end of Key Stage 4 pupils will confidently articulate how and why they can change the democratic process. What benefit does being a citizen of the UK bring and what are its limitations? Why do urban areas look different to rural communities? What are the benefits and challenges of migration? Pupils will be able to confidently articulate justified opinions these issues.
To conclude, the desired impact of Citizenship at Bank View is as follows:
- To promote good citizenship
- To promote the value of each student’s self-worth and thus help pupils to reflect on their uniqueness as human beings, share their feelings and emotions with others and appreciate the importance of forming and maintaining positive relationships.
- To promote spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development.
- To instil tolerance, empathy, and respect for others.
- To increase historical knowledge of how UK institutions came to be
- To show awareness of the UKs place in world affairs and how our collective history leaves its footprint on the present.
- To be able to read and understand a variety of texts and think about them critically.
- To understand differences and similarities between their beliefs and their neighbours and the importance of open-mindedness
- For students to reflect on their own thoughts and opinions whilst developing a curiosity, appreciation and wonder about others.
Cultural capital
Ofsted added the term ‘cultural capital’ to the inspection handbook in 2019. In paragraph 226, it defines it as… ‘the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said, and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.’ The Citizenship plan at Bank View allows students to become educated citizens who are aware of their countries past and present. We look at and appreciate our political and legal institutions, their history and how they help the UK be a place where people want to live. That said, we cast a critical eye over times when at institutions have not always upheld our British values.
The value of Citizenship on Employability and Careers
Citizenship students are highly employable. A knowledge of community, people and social studies allows students to work in the NHS; the civil service; youth and social work, advertising, investment and banking, law, politics, business, the creative industries, the charity sector and NGOs, publishing and journalism, and education.
The fact is, the skills developed in studying Citizenship are increasingly in demand in a complex, connected, global world. They help us to understand ourselves, our society, and the world.
- The ability to understand how people have thought and acted across different places and times, and the complexity of how social behaviours are shaped by beliefs and values.
- Contextualised critical and analytical skills, applied to the real world, and dealing with issues arising from multiple and conflicting interpretations of texts and traditions with sensitivity and empathy.
- Being able to understand different viewpoints and philosophies, from an interdisciplinary perspective—and apply that understanding to find practical solutions.
The services sector makes up 80% of the UK economy, and this is only expected to grow in the future. The more that algorithms take over the workplace, the more such skills will be at a premium. Citizenship students are vital to solving the challenges of the future, the human consequences of the digital age.
Citizenship Curriculum Overview 2022
