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:
Association for Citizenship Teaching
National Centre for Citizenship and the Law (NCCL)
Inclusion: NASEN
Thought of visiting?
The Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green
National Trust Museum of Childhood, Sudbury, Derbyshire
The Fisherman's hospital is situated on the Market Square in Great Yarmouth.
The Corporation of Great Yarmouth founded the hospital in 1702. It was set up as Almshouses for 'decayed' fishermen: providing housing for twenty fishermen and their wives aged sixty and over who could no longer provide for themselves.
Clent Castle is a mock ruin castellated folly in the grounds of Clent Grove (now the Sunfield Special School and Children's Home).
It was built in the late 18th century by Thomas Liell and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.
Set on a headland high over the popular seaside town, Whitby Abbey is the perfect choice for a great value day trip in Yorkshire. It's easy to see how Bram Stoker was inspired by its gothic splendour when writing Dracula. This is one of the most atmospheric visitor attractions on the Yorkshire coast.
Grey Friar’s Chapel is the 13-15th century tower of Kings Lynn’s Franciscan friary. It is one of only three surviving Franciscan monastery towers in England and is considered to be the finest.
The remains of a medieval castle crucial to Anglo-Scottish warfare, superseded by the most complete and breathtakingly impressive bastioned town defences in England, mainly Elizabethan but updated in the 17th and 18th centuries. Surrounding the whole historic town, their entire circuit can be walked.
Nestling beneath thickly wooded hills alongside the River Tay, Dunkeld has an air of timeless tranquillity. In Cathedral Square and The Cross, the Trust has restored 20 houses, some dating from the rebuilding of the town after the Battle of Dunkeld in 1689.
Built in 1480, with early 17th and 18th century additions, this fine timber-framed house was rescued from demolition after the Second World War and has been carefully restored and refurbished.
An archway leads through to a delightful walled garden.
Among England's finest country houses, big and stately Apethorpe Palace was begun in the late 15th century. It contains one of the country's most complete Jacobean interiors.
The flint-walled 13th-century chapel and hall of a 'Commandery' of Knights Hospitallers, later converted into a farmhouse. It has a remarkable medieval crown post roof and 16th-century ceilings with moulded beams.
Step inside this simply furnished, timber-framed cottage and travel back in time. Lived in continually right up until the mid-1980s, today this 16th-century labourer's dwelling has been restored to bring four hundred years of uninterrupted occupation to life.
An atmospheric Neolithic burial chamber made of great stone slabs, in the hills above Herefordshire's Golden Valley.
Legend has it that King Arthur slayed a giant at this location. An atmospheric Neolithic burial chamber, made of nine great stone slabs in the hills above Herefordshire's Golden Valley.
Nearly 350 years ago the community village of Eyam made the ultimate sacrifice to prevent the spread of the deadly plague – their own lives.
To help you explore some of these stories we’ve created a number of walks starting from Eyam Hall. Choose from The Two Survivors, The Three Decisions, The Lone Mother or The Lovers and explore Eyam and the surrounding countryside.
In 1266 King Henry III destroyed one of England’s largest medieval castles. Today, all that remains of Duffield Castle are the foundations, the view and its stories.
The tiny 1 hectare site, nestled within the village of Duffield, Derbyshire is now bounded on all sides by housing and roads, but it is still a place to enjoy, relax in and soak up the history.
Enjoy a family guided tour around this historic castle built by Henry VIII. Camber Castle lies between Rye and Winchelsea. The ruin of an unusually unaltered artillery fort designed to guard the port of Rye, and near Battle Abbey.
There are monthly guided walks round Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, including the castle and local farm.
The fine 15th-century gatehouse of a vanished riverside manor house, with a beautiful oriel window. The monuments of the manor's Marmion family owners grace the adjacent church.
Marmion Tower is the entrance to, and the only significant remaining part of, a former manorial complex.
This classical building designed and built in 1725 by Francis Smith, contains a fine Georgian Ballroom.
It was constructed on a site given by Robert Dudley, in exchange for the buildings now forming the Lord Leycester Hospital.
The building is now the home of Warwick Town Council, the Tourist Information Centre and the Warwickshire Yeomanry Museum.
Discover more about England's heritage from the English Heritage Archive. We hold over 12 million photographs, plans, drawings, reports and publications on architecture, archaeology, historic buildings and social history.
The romantic ruins of a royal castle overlooking the Essex marshes. Hadleigh was begun in about 1215 by Hubert de Burgh, but extensively refortified by Edward III during the Hundred Years War, becoming a favourite residence of the ageing king.
Come to Explore the Past at The Hive and touch history on our multi-touch table which showcases the resources we have for you to research and enjoy in the building and which highlights heritage sites throughout Worcestershire.
A three-mile section of the great earthwork boundary dyke built along the Anglo-Welsh border by Offa, King of Mercia, probably during the 780s. This especially impressive wooded stretch includes the Devil's Pulpit, with fine views of Tintern Abbey.
The well-marked remains of a 2nd-century fort with large granaries, probably built under Hadrian's rule to guard the Roman road from Brougham to Ravenglass and act as a supply base.
Covering three acres, the fort was probably built during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (AD 117–38).
The ruins of a small 12th-century Norman keep, with panoramic views over the Weald.
Sutton Valence castle was owned by a succession of important medieval lords. The castle was located in a strong position, overlooking the road from Maidstone to Winchelsea, and dominating the Weald of Kent.
History
Brean Down is a wonderful location for a day out in Somerset. Enjoy relaxing on the beach at the foot of the Down, building sandcastles and visiting the Cove Café for a seaside treat.
Venture to the top of the Down and take the exhilarating 1.5 mile walk along Somerset’s greatest natural pier.
Find out about the dramatic story of King Charles II hiding from Cromwell’s troops at Moseley Old Hall after he fled the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
See the bed on which the King slept and the priest hole in which he hid, and hear fascinating stories about what life was like in the 17th-century. You can soak up the atmosphere on one of our popular guided tours.
This 15th-century tower, sole surviving part of the manor house of the Wybergh family, was plundered by Jacobites in 1745 before the Battle of Clifton Moor, the last battle fought on English soil.
The Bushcraft Company offer residential school trips with a difference, taking students into the wild and giving them real back-to-nature experiences they will never forget.
A 15-year-old boy fell 60ft over the edge of a cliff whilst on a geography school trip, miraculously only suffering minor injuries.