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:

Croxden Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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The impressive remains of an abbey of Cistercian 'white monks', including towering fragments of its 13th century church, infirmary and 14th century abbot's lodging.

Bertram de Verdun, Lord of Alton, an important local nobleman at the time, founded a Cistercian monastery in 1176 for the salvation of the souls of his family.

The church was built first, followed by the buildings around the cloister. Completion and further enlargement followed under the prosperous leadership of Walter London, abbot in 1242–68.

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Binham Priory

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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Among the most complete and impressive monastic ruins in Norfolk of a Benedictine priory with a well-documented history. The nave, with its splendid 13th century west front and great bricked-up window, is now the parish church, displaying a screen with medieval saints over painted with Protestant texts. 

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St Breock Downs Monolith

Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
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Originally 5 metres (16 feet) high and weighing some 16.75 tonnes, this is Cornwall's largest and heaviest prehistoric monolith. 

This massive stone stands near the summit of the St Breock Downs, offering beautiful views of the surrounding countryside and across to the sea.

It is the largest and heaviest monolith in Cornwall, weighing in at about 16.5 tons (16.75 tonnes), and probably dates to the Late Neolithic to mid-Bronze Age (around 2500–1500 BC).

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Clink

Venue Type: 
Museums
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The Clink Prison Museum is built upon the original site ofThe Clink Prison, which dating back to 1144 was one of England’s oldest and most notorious prisons.

Spanning for over 600 years, it witnessed a remarkable amount of social and political change in England, and thus housed a multitude of sinners throughout its existence, including debtors, heretics, drunkards, harlots, and later religious adversaries.

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Holdenby Falconry Centre

Venue Type: 
Wildlife and Nature
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The Falconry Centre contains many species of birds of prey, flown by the resident Falconer. You are able to fly some of the beautiful birds yourself.

Our Education Department is amongst the most prestigious in the country. We celebrated our 33rd year last year and are one of only three centres to have been awarded six consecutive Sandford Awards by the Heritage Education Trust for excellence in education, as well as a Reed Award for work with special needs children.

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Hailes Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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The Cistercian abbey of Hailes was founded in 1246 in Gloucestershire by the Earl of Cornwall in thanks for surviving a shipwreck. 

Though never housing large numbers of monks, it held a renowned relic, ‘the Holy Blood of Hailes’ – allegedly a phial of Christ’s own blood. After the dissolution in 1539 just a few of the cloister arches remained, together with the foundations of the church. 

Today it is a beautiful and serene spot for a picnic in the Cotswold countryside and everyone in the family can be guaranteed an interesting, relaxed day out at Hailes Abbey.

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St Kilda World Heritage Site

Venue Type: 
Wildlife and Nature
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Sometimes described as ‘the islands at the edge of the world’, the archipelago of St Kilda is located 41 miles west of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Formed from the rim of an ancient volcano, it is the remotest part of the British Isles.

Comprising four islands – Hirta, Soay, Boreray and Dun – as well as several sea stacks, St Kilda is truly spectacular. It is one of only 29 global locations to be awarded ‘mixed’ World Heritage Status in recognition of both its natural and cultural significance.

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Woodhenge

Venue Type: 
Historic Buildings & Monuments
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Woodhenge is well worth a visit, especially if you are also heading to the nearby World Heritage Site of Stonehenge (located approximately 2 miles away).  

Dating from 2300 BC, Woodhenge is thought to have marked a particular stage in the evolution of human religious belief and community organisation. This found a more permanent form in nearby Stonehenge.

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Wymondham Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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Wymondham Priory - it was raised to the status of an Abbey a mere ninety years before its suppression - was founded in 1107 as a community of Benedictine monks. The founder was William D'Aubigny, sometimes referred to as d'Albini, Chief Butler to King Henry I whose widow, Alice of Louvrain, was later to marry William's son.

The building was on an ambitious scale. Stone was shipped across the English Channel from Caen, in Normandy, and the original Nave - a scaled-down version of the Nave of Norwich Cathedral - was twelve bays long.

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Christ Church Cathedral

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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The Cathedral is the College Chapel for the College as well as the cathedral church for the Diocese of Oxford.

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