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:

Sawley Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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The remains of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1148, set on the banks of the Ribble against a backdrop of dramatic hills. After its dissolution in 1536, the monks were briefly returned to the abbey during the Pilgrimage of Grace. They remained in possession until the insurrection's collapse and the execution of their abbot.

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Loughwood Meeting House

17th-century thatched Baptist meeting house
Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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Discover Loughwood, one of the earliest surviving Baptist churches in the country. Founded in secret during a time of great persecution towards non-conformists, this beautiful chapel is set into the hillside and looks out over the rolling east Devon countryside with views of the Axe Valley.

Step through the front door to travel back in time and explore this place of worship which has remained virtually unchanged since the 18th century.

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Burton Agnes Manor House

Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
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A medieval manor house interior, with a rare and well preserved Norman undercroft and a 15th century roof, all encased in brick during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The manor house, or Old Hall, at Burton Agnes was built by Roger de Stuteville between 1170 and 1180. The hall, like the village, was named after one of his daughters.

The Ghost

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West Norwood Cemetery

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London, and is a site of major historical, architectural and ecological interest.

Its grounds are a mixture of historic monumental cemetery and modern lawn cemetery, but it also boasts catacombs, a crematorium and a columbarium for cinery ashes. 

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Lilleshall Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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Extensive ruins of an Augustinian abbey, later a Civil War stronghold, in a deeply rural setting.

Much of the church survives, unusually viewable from gallery level, along with the lavishly sculpted processional door and other cloister buildings. 

History

The founding community was brought to Lilleshall Abbey from Dorchester Abbey in Oxfordshire and, as at Dorchester, for a time the canons followed the specific customs and daily religious observance of the important Augustinian monastery at Arrouaise in north-eastern France.

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Rievaulx Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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If peace and tranquillity is what you seek from a family day out in Yorkshire, then Rievaulx Abbey is the perfect choice. Set in a remote valley in the North York Moors National Park, Rievaulx is one of the most complete, and atmospheric, of England’s abbey ruins. It’s no wonder it’s one of the most popular visitor attractions in the North.

Learn about the monks in medieval times – how they devoted their lives to spiritual matters and at the same time established a thriving business to become one of the wealthiest monasteries in Britain.

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Royal College of Nursing Library and Heritage Centre

Venue Type: 
Museums
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The Royal College of Nursing Library and Heritage Centre is home to Europe’s largest nursing specific collection.

In 2013 we opened an exciting new space which includes public exhibitions, a cafe and a shop within the Library space.

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Royal College of Physicians Museum

Venue Type: 
Museums
Overall Rating: 
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The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is the oldest medical college in England. Its collections relate to the history of the College, and to the physician's profession.

Collections range from portraits, providing a pictorial and sculptural record of presidents, fellows and other physicians associated with the RCP, from its foundation in 1518 to the present, the fascinating Symons collection of medical instruments, and the Hoffbrand collection of apothecary jars.

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Buildwas Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
Overall Rating: 
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Impressive ruins of a Cistercian abbey, including its unusually unaltered 12th century church, beautiful vaulted and tile-floored chapter house, and recently re-opened crypt chapel.

Situated in a wooded Severn-side setting, not far from the Iron Bridge and Wenlock Priory.

Don't Miss
  • The chapter house with its amazingly intact tiled floor and decorative stonework
  • The remains of the fine 12th century church
  • Taking the nature trail, including the abbey fishponds
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The National Museum of Computing

Venue Type: 
Science & Technology
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A museum housing the world's largest selection of working vintage computers. It tells the story of computing from the 1940s Colossus computer, which helped the father of computers Alan Turing break the Nazi Enigma Code machine in the Second World War, through the monster mainframes of the 1970s, home computers of the 1980s to the Touchtable of the present. Most machines are working and many are hands-on.

The National Museum of Computing is located on the secret wartime codebreaking campus of Bletchley Park.

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