THE CITIZENSHIP CURRICULUM AT UCC

At Uppingham Community College the Citizenship curriculum is across key stage four. It provides students with the opportunity to study a wide range of themes, concepts and issues within their local area, at a national level and global level. Specifically students gain knowledge of different voting systems, political parties, international partnerships and the law and legal system in the UK.

Students also analyse and evaluate the concepts of British democracy and compare them with other countries such as China and Switzerland. Students will also have to evaluate British law and legal system, UK Democracy and Government and the UK’s relationship with the wider world.

Students develop many skills such as critical thinking, raising awareness of issues through campaigning; develop communication skills with debating and presenting work. Students will build on their knowledge of Political and legal concepts and develop this knowledge routinely in the classroom through the skills of enquiry, analysis and evaluation.

Below is an example of this in practice in KS4:

Knowledge: When studying Voting systems in the GCSE curriculum students gain the knowledge of how the four main types of voting systems in the UK work and why they are used in different areas of the UK.

Understanding: Students will understand the similarities of the different types and the links they have together. Students also gain the understanding of the arguments both for and against the systems and evaluate them too.

Skill: Students will build on their knowledge of voting systems and develop this knowledge routinely in the classroom through the skills of enquiry, analysis and evaluation. They also will learn how to vote by taking part in a mock election.