Citizenship
What we teach
The Citizenship curriculum enables the students to develop the skills they need to flourish both in their local communities and in the wider world.
Across all year groups, there is a mix of units which are designed to give students the knowledge and skills to be successful in their personal lives and local communities, and those which are designed to help the students to make sense of global issues. For instance, some units focus on Careers’ decisions, budgeting, managing friendships and relationships, and healthy lifestyles, while others explore topics including freedom of the press, political parties in the UK and abroad, and modern conflicts.
In Citizenship, we seek to build on the students’ learning from a wide range of subjects across the school, including English, Science, Maths, History and Geography,
How we teach
Lessons involve a mix of reading, video clips, independent research, debates and written work. The website ‘SpringPod’ is used to support their Careers work.
A range of external professionals support us in delivering the curriculum. We also make external visits to develop the students’ understanding, including visiting a local university.
Why we teach
Citizenship provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their own values and ethics, and to develop an understanding of others’ values and ethics. We believe that students should become informed and articulate individuals, who can use factual evidence to justify their points, and who listen respectfully to others’ points of view, but are also confident critiquing others’ arguments. We encourage the students to become active citizens, who believe that they can make a difference to the world, and who are knowledgeable about ways that they might choose to do so.
Citizenship also allows the students to gain a wide range of practical skills and knowledge that will allow them to make informed choices about their own lifestyles as teenagers and young adults.
The quality of teaching is good overall and there is some that is outstanding including in mathematics, English, science, geography, physical education, textiles and citizenship. (Ofsted 2015)
