ACT : Association for Citizenship Teaching

We believe that education about rights and responsibilities, the law and democracy should be fundamental elements in every young person’s education and in the coming months will be asking all political parties to commit to keeping citizenship education in the curriculum, no matter what kind of reform happens in the future.

We want to show politicians that teachers really care about citizenship and that it can make a positive difference in young people’s lives and in schools.

You can do two things to help us with this.

1. Write to your MP and tell them about Citizenship education in your intstitution-explain how it is the only entitlement that young people have to gain political and legal understanding and that Citizenship education is all about the 3 C's of Citizenship education-the importance of the curriculum, the culture of the school and the partnership with the community. You can find out how to contact your MP via this list of MPs

2. Add your name to our growing list of supporters at www.democraticlife.org.uk and help us make the case for citizenship!

Candidates for the DfE Citizenship education CPD Certificate should be ready to hand in their portfolios on September 27th to their HEI tutor. The tutors for each region can be found on the ACT Regional pages.

Candidates should also be preparing to make their final presentations on a chosen aspect of Citizenship education to the rest of their group. Dates, times and places for these can be seen on the ACT regional pages. Presentations should be kept to 5 minutes in duration and cover a significant aspect of the subject-one that the candidate has ideally developed during the CPD course. Candidates should ensure copies of their presentation are available for other course members.

For more information on the Masters, expand this item.

BT are running a competition for KS3-5 pupils to work in teams to develop their ideas for how to improve their communities and make a film to share their stories. This is a film competition about Citizenship issues, so you can work with your media and/or English departments if you want help.

The 36 best proposals will get support and £1,000 to help them make a brilliant short film.

ACT is planning a series of regional CPD events in February-July 2011. These will be for ACT members and will cover:

- Help! I'm teaching Citizenship

- Citizenship Education: curriculum and community

- Managing Citizenship in Changing times

- Citizenship across and beyond the school

Together with the PSHE Association ACT will be hosting a day of CPD for Primary teachers on issues of PSHE and Citizenship education.

The event will be on 15th November at the British Library in London. More information coming soon! If you'd like to receive information by email please email Millicent Scott