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 (NCCL)

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

Venues for this Curriculum

The mainly 14th century remains of an abbey of Premonstratensian canons. Among Suffolk’s most impressive monastic ruins, with some spectacular architectural features.

The remains of one of the first Augustinian priories in England, founded about 1100.

An impressive example of early Norman architecture, built in flint and reused Roman brick, the church displays massive circular pillars and round arches and an elaborate west front.

Later badly damaged by cannon fire during the Civil War siege of 1648.

Leonard and Virginia Woolf's 17th-century country retreat

Nestled in the heart  of rural Sussex, Monk’s House is a tranquil 17th-century weatherboarded cottage inhabited by Leonard and the novelist Virginia Woolf from 1919 until Leonards death in 1969.

Get to know Leonard and Virginia Woolf and the wider Bloomsbury Group by visiting Monk's House. Full of their favourite things, the house appears as if they just stepped out for a walk.

The tranquil ruins of Wenlock Priory stand in a picturesque setting on the fringe of beautiful Much Wenlock. An Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded here in about 680 by King Merewalh of Mercia, whose abbess daughter Milburge was hailed as a saint. Her relics were miraculously re-discovered here in 1101, attracting both pilgrims and prosperity to the priory.

The priory of St Helen stands on a gravel island on the west side of the River Idle, in what was marshland in the Middle Ages.

It was established in 1185 by Roger fitzRalph of nearby Mattersey for the Gilbertine Order, the only monastic order to have originated in England.

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. 

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

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.

17th-century thatched Baptist meeting house

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.

The substantial ruins of a Cluniac monastery, with an unusually well-marked ground plan, an almost complete west range and a 15th century gatehouse.

A fine, late 15th-century stone town house, with an early Tudor façade and panelled interiors.

This fine late 15th century town house, once thought to have been the courtroom of Glastonbury Abbey, now houses both the Tourist Information Centre and the Glastonbury Lake Village Museum, which contains dramatic finds from one of Europe’s most famous archaeological sites.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre at the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland was founded from a donation by A Charles King but has since embraced numerous contributions. The collection encompasses the entire history of anaesthesia, from Morton's demonstration of ether inhalation in 1846 to modern anaesthetic machines and appliances still in use today.

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.

The Medical and Chirurgical Society of London was founded on 22nd May 1805 with the aim of bringing together physicians and surgeons in order to further scientific, professional and social communication. This body eventually became the Royal Society of Medicine.

Victorian style shop filled with memorabilia of Norwich’s most famous export

Colman’s have been making fine quality mustards in Norfolk for 200 years and this tradition is celebrated in Colman’s Mustard Shop & Museum. Housed in the historic Art Nouveau Royal Arcade near Norwich Market, the shop is a careful replica of a Victorian trade premises.

Welcome to Woburn Abbey which has been the Russell’s family home since the early 17th Century. We hope you will enjoy exploring the beauty and history of The Abbey and its treasures, collected by our ancestors, who were as passionate as we are to share this experience with you.

Romantic 16th-century castle with spectacular views

From a former fort to the holiday home of a wealthy Edwardian bachelor seeking a quiet retreat from London, the idyllic location of Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island has intrigued and inspired for centuries.

Visitors to Unst and Yell in Shetland are in for a treat – dramatic scenery and abundant wildlife coupled with a tangible and very special sense of remoteness.

The National Trust for Scotland owns pockets of land on both islands and they are easily accessible from mainland Shetland by regular vehicle ferries.

Stanhope is the site of a motte and bailey castle, of which no remains are now visible. A fragment of the motte may have survived until the turn of the 20th century.

A castle with a dramatic history

Ashby de la Zouch is an outstanding example of a late medieval castle developed by a single family as its principal seat up until the Civil Wars of the 1640s. It is also significant for the unusual amount of evidence that survives for the surrounding landscape in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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