Citizenship champions
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Shipley College
Post-16 Citizenship activity at Shipley College
Students from across the college are able to engage with the democratic process and have a voice through our Student Council. The Student Council is made up of representatives from every major programme course. The Council meet every three weeks to discuss issues which are important to our young people. These issues range from discussing healthy eating to what is displayed on our plasma screen.
Issues which are not resolved at a council meeting are then taken by some of the members of the council to be discussed with either an appropriate manager or to the Student Affairs Committee which consists of some members of the Council, the Principal of the College, the Chair of Governors and other Governors and Senior Members of Staff. This Committee meets every six weeks. Issues which cannot be immediately resolved are reported on at the next meeting. Some issues are discussed at the next Governors meeting with two or three of the students attending. One of the Students is able to vote at Governing body meetings on behalf of students.
In addition to the Student Council, citizenship is now an integrated part of the group tutorial which also includes Careers Education, sexual health, drugs awareness and equality and diversity. The programme is also developed to clearly link with the Every Child Matters five themes.
There have been other active citizenship activities across the college including an intergenerational scheme. This involved students having their image of senior citizens challenged in a training situation, meeting with a group of senior citizens and then reviewing how their perceptions had changed. This will be built on next academic year.
Citizenship coordinator's top tips for setting up post-16 citizenship activity:
- Identify which students are enthusiastic and likely to make things happen.
- Try to make links with your local community groups if possible – including your local politicians. You may be surprised how keen they are to work with you.
- Ensure that your Senior Management are on board and informed of your activities.
- Try to link with established fundable qualifications eg wider key skills.
- Use the LSN Citizenship staff development resources. Don’t leave them on a shelf! They are excellent!
How this organisation could help you:
Colleagues are welcome to contact us for advice and support. Advice re: training on an intergenerational scheme, mentoring schemes, ementoring schemes can all be offered. We can share how we are linking the citizenship programme to wider key skills as well as to the community and the Every Child Matters themes. Returning student council members will be training our new student council members so we will be able to share our experience of that as well. For more information see also the Shipley College leaflet on citizenship activity.
Contact information
Name of citizenship coordinator:
Heather Crane
Citizenship coordinator’s telephone:
01274 327301 or 01274 327281
Citizenship coordinator’s email:
hcrane@shipley.ac.uk
Organisation website:
www.shipley.ac.uk
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