Citizenship – introduction
What is Citizenship? Module 1: Schools
At it’s simplest, Citizenship means being a member
of a state or nation but it is used in different ways in
different countries and contexts. Citizenship education
can include a range of different concepts, including rights
and responsibilities; helping others; actively contributing
to the wellbeing of the school and the local community;
learning about the institutions and practices of the society
in which we live; and being a good ‘global citizen’, learning
about our interrelationship with people and environments
around the world and acting to make the world a better
place.
Citizenship in New Challenges 3
The activities suggested here focus on active Citizenship;
contributing to family and friendship groups, school and
local community; rights and responsibilities; increasing
awareness of our interrelationship with the environment
and other people. The young people at Petergate School
of Performing Arts, whose story runs through level 3,
demonstrate the friendship, collaboration and mutual
support that is important for young people (and adults) to
get the best out of any school.
A particular focus of this publication is decision-making:
who makes the decisions that affect our lives and how
we can participate in those decisions. A school is a
microcosm of the wider community and provides a safe
and manageable space to explore Citizenship concepts and
practise Citizenship skills. Schools which involve students in
decision-making (e.g. negotiating class rules or a ‘working
agreement’ at the beginning of the year, having a school
council with real influence on issues which affect the
quality of life in the school, or even involving students in
drawing up criteria for appointing new staff and sitting on
interview panels), find that school ethos, behaviour and
attainment improve as a result. It is important for adults
in the school and the school systems to ‘model’ the kinds
of behaviour that are expected from the students: for
example, students must be treated with respect and given
responsibility if they are expected to behave respectfully
and responsibly. However, these are learnt skills and need
to be developed gradually and within clear boundaries.
www.schoolcouncils.org has lots of information and ideas
about involving young people effectively in school
decision-making processes.
How to use the Citizenship ideas
Activity ideas and key questions relating to themes in the
texts have been suggested. Select activities that are most
appropriate to your situation and to pupils’ needs and
interests. Discussions to develop ideas and understanding
could be carried out in the pupils’ first language, but most
activities contain outcomes that pupils should complete
in English. Many of the activities involve collaborative
group work so that pupils have opportunities to develop
and practise skills vital to Citizenship, e.g. listening,
communication, empathy, negotiation, cooperation.
The themes and activities can also be developed in other
curriculum areas or in extra-curricular time. Individual
activities in this section contribute to students’ records
of achievement.
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Theme
Decision-making in schools
Citizenship concepts
Rights, responsibilities, respect, inclusion, cooperation,
interdependence, decision-making, informed action
Purpose
To raise students’ awareness of:
◗◗ the importance of rules
◗◗ how decisions in the school are made
◗◗ how they could participate in decision-making
Class discussion
1) Ask the class if any of them included ‘no rules’ in their
project about their ideal school (New Challenges 3, Project,
page 17). What do they think a school with no rules would
be like?
◗◗ What would be the advantages/disadvantages?
◗◗ Who might it work well for?
◗◗ Who might find it difficult?
◗◗ How are the rules made in your school?
◗◗ Do students have any say in what happens?
◗◗ Do people outside the school have a say in what
happens? (e.g. government, parents)
◗◗ Who should have a say in what happens?
◗◗ If the students had a part in deciding school rules, would
they have more responsibility to ensure that those rules
were kept?
What kind of action might lead students to take
more responsibility in their learning experiences (e.g.
participating in forums/school rules)?
Note: Ensure that in this discussion, it is raised that any
group needs ‘rules’ (formal or informal) about how people
should behave towards each other. To be able to learn and
to get the best from their school, students and staff need to
feel safe and able to concentrate.
An appropriate outcome to the activities in this module
would be for the students to discuss and agree the rules
that they believe would make for a constructive and
positive learning environment in their class and for these
to be written up and displayed. The students would
then have responsibility for ensuring that they and their
classmates worked by these rules.
2) Tell the class that different schools have different ways of
making decisions. In Home Schooling (New Challenges 3,
page 10) learners decide what, when and how to learn
for themselves. In some schools, class rules, or ‘working
agreements’ are discussed and agreed at the beginning
of every year. Some schools have school councils which
can discuss issues that concern students and make
recommendations and some of them are given a budget to
bring about changes, or are involved in appointing new staff.
In a school in Denmark, each class is given responsibility for
its stationery budget. They have to buy all their paper, pens,
writing books, etc. from the budget for the whole year and
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if any money is left at the end of the year, they can spend it
on a class party. Nobody wastes paper or loses pens in that
school!
Group activity
In groups of four, students discuss and agree an aspect
of school life that they would like to help to improve and
write it at the top of a sheet of paper.
They divide the rest of the page into two columns:
In the first column, they list all the people or groups of
people who have to participate in bringing about this
change.
In the second column, they write down how they can get
the people involved (e.g. write them a letter, make an
appointment to see them, invite them to visit the class, do
a presentation (at an assembly or governors meeting), do
a survey, talk to them informally, make a leaflet, write a
newsletter, etc.)
They then discuss and write down their own role in
bringing about this change.
Class discussion
Take feedback from the groups.
◗◗ Did they have to involve a lot of people?
◗◗ Did they miss out anyone important?
◗◗ Would different approaches work better with different
people?
◗◗ Could the class carry through any of the ideas?
◗◗ What would the students’ responsibilities be in bringing
about these improvements?
Individual activity
In English, write about what you have learnt from this
activity. Complete these sentences:
The most important thing I have learnt is …
The thing which surprised me most was …
Students in our school can help make decisions about …
I think we should be involved in decisions about …
Module 3: Health
Theme
What influences our health?
Citizenship concepts
Peer pressure, media responsibility, quality of life,
community health
Purpose
To raise awareness of the impact of advertising and media
messages
To encourage students to identify health issues for young
people
To use peer pressure for positive outcomes
Group activity
Give each group a selection of magazines, leaflets and
catalogues, including some aimed at teenagers (ask the
students in advance to bring some in and supplement
them with any you can gather yourself).
Ask the students to cut out anything that relates to health
in any way (pictures, advertisements, articles).
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Citizenship
Students then identify different categories (e.g. good/bad
for health; advertising/information/advice; fitness/food/
alcohol and drugs/sex and relationships/mental health) and
sort their cutouts into these categories to make a collage.
Class discussion
Groups show their collages and talk about the categories
they used.
Highlight the difference between overt and hidden
messages (exercise helps prevent heart disease/a fit body
makes you sexier).
◗◗ What were the key messages about health that students
found?
◗◗ Were there different kinds of messages?
◗◗ How were they different?
◗◗ Did different messages come from different sources?
◗◗ Which would have the biggest effect?
Ask the class which health messages are most important for
young people.
◗◗ What would be the most effective ways of making sure
students understand the messages?
Note: This discussion should include the kinds of images
that most appeal to their age group: the use of humour,
shock tactics, music, etc; the kinds of media used
(magazine stories, information leaflets, advertising, etc.);
as well as the kinds of information needed, to prepare the
class for the group activity to follow.
Group activity
Ask the groups to choose one important health message
and decide how to communicate it to the rest of the
school, e.g. design a poster or leaflet, write a song, or
devise an assembly presentation.
Individual activity
Individual students decide on one thing they are going to
do to get healthier.
They write a letter to their parents or guardian telling them
what they plan to do and what support they would like
from them to help them do it.
Note: Hopefully ideas for the individual activity will have
come from the previous activities and discussions. They
could include things such as getting more sleep or exercise,
or eating more healthily. Encourage the students to be
specific, e.g. I am going to walk to school on Tuesdays and
Thursdays. Please help me to do this by waking me up ten
minutes earlier on those days and not offering me a lift. Or I
am going to eat at least one piece of fruit every day. Please
help me by putting an apple or banana in my lunchbox.
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 Module 8: Discoveries Individual activity
Write down some things that you would like to happen to
Theme you in the future.
How do the decisions we make now affect the future?
Underneath each one, write what you would need to do
between now and then to make it more likely to happen.
Citizenship concepts (e.g. I would like to become a doctor. I will need to study
Making informed choices, responsibility, interdependence,
hard, get good grades in science, go to medical school. Or I
peer pressure, quality of life, environmental stewardship
would like to visit England next year. I will need to work hard
to learn English, I will need to get a Saturday job to earn
Purpose some money to pay for the trip and I will need to apply for a
To raise awareness that actions and decisions can have
passport).
positive and negative consequences
To consider how a society makes decisions about things
which could affect everyone
To raise awareness of how our decisions and actions can
affect ourselves and others
Group activity
Ask students in groups to list some of the inventions
mentioned in the module (or others that they can think of)
and write next to each invention the pros and cons (e.g.
credit cards: we don’t have to carry as much cash/they
encourage people to get into debt; mobile phones: you can
tell your mum you’re going to be late home/if you can’t
afford one you may get left out of arrangements)
Class discussion
1) Take feedback from the groups.
◗◗ Do the groups agree about the pros and cons?
◗◗ Are there any that they disagree about?
◗◗ Is the problem in the invention or in how people choose
to use it?
◗◗ Do people have free choice about what new inventions
they use? (e.g. may not be able to afford them; may be
required to write essays on a computer)
◗◗ Who should have the responsibility for deciding if and
how a new invention can be used? (the inventor/the
company who produces it/the government/the user/the
whole society?)
◗◗ Who should have responsibility for deciding what
happens to a discovery (e.g. the human genome, a new
planet or species)?
2) Remind the class that in Great Inventions (page 80,
activities 1 and 2) they thought about how other people’s
decisions and actions have influenced their lives.
Ask them to suggest:
◗◗ decisions and actions they may take that would affect
their own lives and the possible consequences of each
one (e.g. smoking/bad health, studying hard/better job,
taking up a sport or hobby/new skills and friends). Write
them on the board.
◗◗ decisions and actions they may take that would affect
other people’s lives (people known and unknown to
them), and possible consequences (not being friends with
someone/they feel lonely; travelling by car when they
could walk/climate change).
Extension
Students could be asked to research more on how decisions
about scientific discoveries and inventions are made.

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