Citizenship
What is citizenship?
Citizenship is described by education charity Young Citizens as involving:
'people working together to make positive differences to the society in which they live – locally, nationally and globally. This process is good for individuals, and essential for strengthening and safeguarding our society and democratic way of life.'
Although citizenship is a subject in itself, the knowledge, skills and understanding relating to citizenship are developed through many other areas of the curriculum, particularly in PSHE.
Is citizenship part of the National Curriculum?
Although the teaching of citizenship is not statutory until key stage 3, the DFE have provided some non-statutory guidance for schools teaching key stages 1 and 2. This guidance outlines some of the knowledge, skills and understanding that can be developed through citizenship. To explore the DfE guidance on Citizenship, click here.
Is citizenship taught at Ramsgate Arts Primary School?
As part of planning our whole curriculum at RAPS, we have considered how important it is to develop young people as citizens. For this reason, we draw connections across our curriculum to identify how we provide our pupils with opportunities to develop as citizens. To see how citizenship is weaved into many areas of our school curriculum at RAPS, explore the Citizenship at RAPS map found at the end of this page.
As well as threading citizenship into various subjects across the curriculum, we teach some discrete citizenship lessons to key stage one during our Personal Development Weeks each term. These lessons allow our youngest pupils to establish some foundations in what citizenship is and how they each play a role in the society we live in.
Key stage one citizenship lessons are centred around a Big Question. Please see the Big Questions below for years 1 and 2:
These Big Questions are explored by the class with the guidance of the teacher who scaffolds and provides teaching inputs relating to citizenship. The Big Questions are designed to enable pupils to develop a foundation knowledge of what a citizen is and to explore some of the themes of citizenship supporting citizenship learning across other subjects in the curriculum. These lessons serve only as an introduction into some key themes and much of the citizenship learning for both key stage 1 and 2 is mastered through lessons across a range of subjects.
Why is citizenship important at RAPS?
We know that our pupils must develop as confident citizens who are able to function and contribute within society. We want our pupils to work well alongside all others, enjoying the benefits of participation within local, national and global communities. To achieve this, we ensure that citizenship contributes to our pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.