Citizenship

Citizenship

Citizenship Studies is concerned with the kind of society we live in and want to influence and develop. It covers, too, the role of the public and private organisations in the process. School courses help prepare students to become active citizens. The best of them promote students’ personal and social development, and make them more self-confident and responsible, in the classroom and beyond.

All external examination courses emphasise developing awareness of the role of citizens in a variety of contexts.

Just about any educational visit will contribute to the students’ exploration of new experiences and new ideas about being a ‘citizen’, but venues and activities that bring students into contact with other communities, other social contexts and other attitudes will be particularly exciting. Many museums and venues specialise in giving hands-on experiences of what some aspects of life in earlier centuries was actually like. These tend to be attractive to primary school groups.

Secondary groups often visit civic centres and attend local council meetings. Both primary and secondary groups will be welcome at churches, chapels, synagogues, mosques and temple, some of which offer programmes of talks and exhibitions. In cities this is relatively easy to arrange but even in rural communities priests and lay church people are prepared to help schools.

The Citizenship Foundation would be an excellent starting point. It claims to help 80% of secondary schools to nurture citizenship, and sets out to inspire young people to contribute to society. The Association for Citizenship Teaching also provides advice and teaching resources, while the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law delivers law and justice education at national heritage sites.

 

Main organisations:

Citizenship Foundation 

Association for Citizenship Teaching

National Centre for Citizenship and the Law

PSHE Association

Democratic Life

Hansard Society

Inclusion: NASEN

 

Thought of visiting?

The Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green

National Trust Museum of Childhood, Sudbury, Derbyshire

Museum of Childhood, Edinburgh

The London Museum

The National Archives, Kew

Houses of Parliament

Welsh Assembly

Scottish Parliament

Northern Ireland Assembly

 

Although every visit can result in learning outcomes for Citizenship, for a complete list of venues and providers who deliver specialist courses and activities for this subject see below:

Packwood House

Much-restored Tudor house, park and garden with notable topiary
Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
Overall Rating: 
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The culmination of a lifetime of dreams: salvaged objects and exotic pieces come together in a Jacobean meets Edwardian style. Beautiful, homely, warm and welcoming. We can't put it better than a visitor in the 1920s did: A house to dream of, a garden to dream in.

The house was originally built in the 16th century, yet its interiors were extensively restored between the First and Second World Wars by Graham Baron Ash to create a fascinating 20th-century evocation of domestic Tudor architecture.

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George Inn

Last remaining galleried inn in London
Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
Overall Rating: 
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Dating from the 17th century this public house, leased to a private company, is London's last remaining galleried inn.

Did you know?

  • The galleries which front the building were once common on inns
  • Many other surviving examples were lost during the Second World War
  • The original George Inn was destroyed by fire in 1676
  • Charles Dickens visited the site when it was a coffee house...
  • ...and it's mentioned in Little Dorrit
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Meare Fish House

Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
Overall Rating: 
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The only surviving monastic fishery building in England, this housed the Abbot of Glastonbury's water bailiff and provided facilities for fish-salting and drying.

The Fish House was built for Glastonbury Abbey in the 1330s. It stands in a beautiful position by the site of a long-drained lake (the ‘mere’) on the Somerset Levels. The building’s design shows that it was not meant, as usually claimed, for processing or storing fish, but as a house.

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St Peter's Pump

Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
Overall Rating: 
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In the Six Wells Bottom National Trust Valley, near Stourhead and King Alfred's Tower, stands the impressive Grade I listed St Peter's Pump.

Built in 1474, the pump originally stood near St Peter's Church at the west corner of Peter Street, Bristol and was used by residents as a main water supply.

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Hardknott Roman Fort

Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
Overall Rating: 
0

This remote and dramatically-sited fort was founded under Hadrian's rule in the 2nd century.

Well-marked remains include the headquarters building, commandant's house and bath house. The site of the parade ground survives beside the fort, and the road which Hardknott guarded can be traced for some distance as an earthwork.

The fort at Hardknott was established early in the second century AD: a fragmentary inscription, dating from the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (117–38), from the south gate records the garrison as the Fourth Cohort of Dalmatians, from the Balkans.

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Roche Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
Overall Rating: 
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Beautifully set in a valley landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown in the 18th Century. Roche Abbey has one of the most complete ground plans of any English Cistercian monastery, laid out as excavated foundations. 

The soaring early Gothic transepts of this Cistercian monastery still survive to their original height and are ranked in importance with the finest early Gothic architecture in Britain. 

Don't Miss

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Bant's Carn Burial Chamber and Halangy Down Ancient Village

Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
Overall Rating: 
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The remains of an ancient Iron Age village in a wonderfully scenic location. On the hill above stands a Bronze Age burial mound with entrance passage and inner chamber.

There is evidence of extensive and permanent settlement on the Isles of Scilly from around 2500 BC. At that time the sea level was lower and much of Scilly formed a single landmass.

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Long Crendon Courthouse

Medieval courthouse
Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
Overall Rating: 
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The courthouse is a fine example of an early 15th-century timber-frame construction, set in an idyllic village. The ground floor (now tenanted) was the village poor house. You can visit an exhibition on the village in this property. Please note, there are very steep stairs.

The courthouse was the base for parish activities for four hundred years and was the venue for the annual manorial court which dealt with tithes and crimes such as selling bad fish, brewing without a licence, or overcharging customers.

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St Peter's Monastery

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
Overall Rating: 
0

One of the UK's first stone-built churches, St. Peter’s, built on land given by King Ecgfrith to St. Benedict Biscop in 673 AD, is the earlier of the twin site (along with St Paul's Monastery, Jarrow.) to come to life.

In the church can be seen the original carved stone within a reconstruction of the abbot’s seat among many artifacts uncovered during the 1960s archaeological excavation conducted by Dame Professor Rosemary Cramp of Durham University.

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Royal Birmingham Society of Arts

Venue Type: 
Art Gallery
Overall Rating: 
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The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) is an artist-led charity which supports artists and promotes engagement with the visual arts through a range of inclusive activities: exhibitions, workshops and demonstrations. The Society owns and runs its own exhibition venue, the RBSA Gallery, located just off St Paul’s Square, near Birmingham’s historic jewellery quarter and a short walk from the city centre.

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