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:

Easby Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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Easby Abbey is one of the most picturesque monastic sites in Yorkshire. It is also one of the best-preserved examples in the British Isles of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order, founded in France by St Norbert in 1120.

Superficially, Easby abbey's architecture resembles Cistercian models, as was often the case with Premonstratensian monasteries. On closer examination, though, Easby departs from monastic norms of planning in several ways, and presents interesting problems of interpretation.

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Thornton Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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Thornton Abbey's enormous and ornate fortified gatehouse is the largest and amongst the finest in England. This North Lincolnshire tourist attraction is the ideal way to spend a day.

Discover the turbulent lives of its former residents and try to spot the local wildlife, the more modern inhabitants of the abbey ruins. Why not visit nearby St Peter’s church and unlock the Buried Lives exhibit.

Livestock likely to be present on site and access path.

Don't Miss

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Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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Holy Trinity, Stratford, on the banks of the River Avon, is probably England's most visited Parish Church. As well as being a thriving Parish church, it receives many thousands of visitors each year due to the fact that William Shakespeare was baptised here, worshipped here, and is buried in the chancel. There is also the famous bust of Shakespeare, the Clopton monument and many examples of fine stained glass windows.

Guided Tours

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Furness Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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The impressive remains of an abbey founded by Stephen, later King of England, including much of the east end and west tower of the church, the ornately decorated chapter house and the cloister buildings.

English Heritage is carrying out emergency conservation work to stop the ruined Abbey church sinking into the soft ground. This follows earlier routine inspections which revealed serious cracks in the walls. Medieval masons used large pieces of oak in the foundations and after 500 years, this timber is now gradually giving way.

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Bury St Edmonds Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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The extensive remains of one of the wealthiest and most powerful Benedictine monasteries in England, shrine of St Edmund.

They include the complete 14th century Great Gate and Norman Tower, and the impressive ruins and altered west front of the immense church.

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Greyfriars

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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Substantial remains of an early Tudor friary church of Franciscan 'grey friars'.

The Grey Friars, or Franciscans, were followers of St Francis of Assisi and founded many religious houses across Europe.

They earned their name from the grey habits that were worn as a symbol of their vow of poverty.

The Franciscan friary at Gloucester was founded in 1231, but in about 1518 a prominent local family, the Berkeleys of Berkeley Castle, paid for the church to be rebuilt in Perpendicular Gothic style.

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Castle Acre Castle and Priory

Venue Type: 
Castles
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The delightful village of Castle Acre boasts an extraordinary wealth of history and is a very rare and complete survival of a Norman planned settlement, including a castle, town, parish church and associated monastery. All this is the work of a great Norman baronial family, the Warennes, mainly during the 11th and 12th centuries.

Castle

The castle was founded soon after the Conquest by the first William de Warenne and you can still view an immense system of ditched earthwortks – perhaps the finest village earthworks in England.

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St John's Abbey Gate

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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This pinnacled gatehouse, elaborately decorated in East Anglian 'flushwork', is the sole survivor of the wealthy Benedictine abbey of St John. It was built c.1400 to strengthen the abbey's defences following the Peasants' Revolt. Later part of the mansion of the Royalist Lucas family, the gatehouse was bombarded and stormed by Parliamentarian soldiers during the Civil War siege.

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Byland Abbey

Venue Type: 
Religious Buildings
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Byland Abbey is the perfect place to stop on a family day out, or if you’re walking or cycling in the North York Moors National Park.

Once one of the greatest monasteries in England, Byland Abbey inspired the design of church buildings throughout the North. 

A truly outstanding example of early gothic architecture, it inspired the design of the famous York Minster rose window. The Museum displays colourful interpretation panels together with archaeological finds from the site, giving the visitor a fascinating insight into monastic life in Yorkshire.

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Belgrade Theatre

Venue Type: 
Theatres, Music and Performing Arts Venues
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At the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry we create theatre in the belief that it can enrich our communities and fundamentally change peoples’ lives for the better.

Schools

The Belgrade delivers an ever expanding range of opportunities for schools and colleges to get involved. We tailor our education work around the needs of the individual schools and colleges we work with and always offer flexible delivery when creating new projects.

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