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The Sir Bernard Lovell School
Post-16 Citizenship activity at the Sir Bernard Lovell School
The Sir Bernard Lovell School has been engaging students at post-16 in citizenship activities for a number of years. The programme sits within the core programme for post-16 students (the personal development curriculum). This consists of an extended project, the Asdan Cope award, PSHE, citizenship and progression.
All year 12 students engage in a structured and coherent political literacy programme which involves close links with citizenship PGCE trainee teachers from Bristol University. The work includes baseline testing of political literacy, information gathering activities, meetings with the local MP and visits to the Houses of Parliament and local representative institutions.
Students from year 12 are engaged in a wide variety of citizenship activities as part of the personal development curriculum. These include the citizenship through music programme, the bar national mock trial competition and trade justice activities. Students are also encouraged to engage in social enterprise activities in the local community. All students at level three complete an extended project or personal reaearch study that requires them to analyse infromation, identify bias and come to reasoned conclusions. The school is part of a DfES pathfinder which is developing the extended project at level 2 and 3. Some students choose to use the work they do as part of the AQA Pilot Qualification in Active Citizenship Studies.
Post-16 students are involved in a variety of representative bodies. The post-16 Student Council is an elected body that represents the views of post-16 students to senior managers and takes charge of the running of post-16 social areas. The Kingswood Partnership Student Council represents the six schools of the Kingswood Partnership 14-19 consortium and is the body that represents the views of students to the executive group. The Kingswood Partnership International Student Council has built links with schools in the Netherlands and plans to develop links with schools in Tanzania and other developing countries.
Citizenship coordinator's top tips for setting up post-16 citizenship activity:
- Senior management support is key to the development of a coherent curriculum including citizenship at post-16
- Make sure that citizenship is as active as possible
- Citizenship must be part of a coherent entitlement core curriculum at post-16
- Citizenship is most successfully delivered integrated into a core curriculum
How this organisation could help you:
We are happy for colleagues from schools new to post-16 citizenship to visit and talk to the 14-19 citizenship team and to observe some political literacy activities. We are also happy for colleagues to talk to students engaged in representative activities across the Kingswood Partnership. Resources used in post-16 citizenship activities can be shared but we would rather do this as part of an ongoing relationship with colleagues so that they get an idea of the personal development curriculum as a whole. For more information see also the Sir Bernard Lovell School leaflet on citizenship activity.
Contact information
Name of citizenship coordinator: Daniel Clompus
Citizenship coordinator’s telephone: 01454 868062
Citizenship coordinator’s email: daniel.clompus@sblonline.org.uk
Organisation website: sblonline.org.uk
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