Citizenship

In Citizenship at Leeds West Academy, students learn to become positive and active British and global citizens. This means understanding how society (both in Britain and globally) works and empowering them to contribute and make a difference to it.

At KS3, all students learn about how our society works and how to contribute to it supported by the underpinning themes of British Values. In addition, students learn to consider alternative perspectives before drawing their own conclusions and articulating them in both written and verbal form. Finally, students contribute to the school community each year by carrying out their action project, where students identify a problem in the community and plan to raise awareness or provide a solution to it, providing a valuable opportunity to make a tangible contribution to the school through advocacy, team working and project management.

Students have the option to further this by choosing GCSE Citizenship Studies in which they explore key themes:

Living together in the UK
Democracy at work in the UK
How the law works
Power and influence
Taking citizenship action

Throughout the duration of their Citizenship education, students become globally literate as key Citizenship concepts are taught within the context of current events (the local to global approach). By the end of their time in Citizenship at LWA, students develop knowledge and understanding of the role of citizenship in relation to current issues that impact on modern society, engaging them with what it means to be an active citizen and preparing them for their next steps in today’s global world.

Year 7

Year 7
Term	Topic		Focus
Term 1	Identity		Big Question: What makes up my identity? Students learn about the concept of identity, factors that contribute to it, how this contributes to our place in the community including contributing to community cohesion and the occurrence of multiple identity.
Term 1	Diversity		Big Question: How are we all different?  Students learn about diversity, factors that contribute to it such as race, gender and special educational needs and the importance of advocating for equality

Term 2	Rights and responsibilities		Big Question: What are my rights and how do I act responsibly?    Students learn about the importance of rules in providing order to the school community, how rules are applied fairly, the concept of rights and how to be a responsible member of society
Term 2	Democracy Big Question: How do we contribute to the British democracy?		Big Question: How do we contribute to the British democracy? Students receive an introduction to how we participate to democracy in the UK by voting, the role of MPs and the government, debate lowering the voting age to 16 and the history of voting rights in the UK.

Term 3	Changing our community	Big Question: How can we contribute to the community? Students learn about different roles in a successful community, the school’s place in this and have their first experience of advocacy for the community by carrying out the action project in which they suggest a solution to a problem they have identified in the community. Students develop their team working and presenting skills.
Term 3	Debating Skills	Big Question: What is going on in the world and how do we discuss this? In a bespoke topic, students learn about current events (updated every year) and explore key debating points. Students learn to develop their skills in considering alternative perspectives, drawing their own conclusion and justifying them through written forms and by developing oracy skills.

Year 8

Year 8
Half Term	Topic	Focus
Term 1	Laws and justice	Big Question: What happens to young people in the justice system?  Students learn about the justice system through the lens of young people. They learn about the age of criminal/legal responsibility and debate whether or not this should be changed, the rights of young people in the justice system including in a youth court case, evaluate the effectiveness of young offenders’ institutes and compare the experience of young people in the justice system to that of adults
	Ethics	Big Question: How is the law applied fairly?  Students learn about the difference between rules and laws, the importance of laws in providing order to society, the rule of law and debate the death sentence vs life sentence

Term 2	Conflict	Big Question: Can the UN achieve its goal of world peace? Students look at the history and purpose of the United Nations and look at the concept of conflict in different contexts. Students draw on both of these to look at the effectiveness of the United Nations in preventing, managing and ending conflict by studying examples of recent and current world conflicts and by looking at other roles of the United Nations e.g. UNICEF
Term 2	Sustainable Development	Big Question: How can we make the world better? Students explore the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and, in this year’s mini action project, advocate for one of the goals over the others. Students develop their skills in advocacy, teamworking, research and presentations in the aim to persuade others to support their chosen SDG.

Term 3	Climate change	Big Question: How can we save the planet?  Students learn about the cause, evidence and impact of climate change from different perspectives including that of humans, biodiversity, environment and from the perspective of climate change sceptics
Term 3	Debating Skills	Big Question: What is going on in the world and how do we discuss this? In a bespoke topic, students learn about current events (updated every year) and explore key debating points. Students learn to develop their skills in considering alternative perspectives, drawing their own conclusion and justifying them through written forms and by developing oracy skills.

Year 9

Year 9
Half Term	Topic	Focus
Term 1	Making a change	Big Question: How do we participate in democracy in the UK? Students build on the knowledge developed in Year 7 and explore in greater detail the role and power of the government, how political parties work and design their own manifesto, the first-past-the-post and proportional representation voting systems, how power is divided in parliament including passing legislation and the role of MPs in the UK’s democratic system
Term 1	Liberty and freedom	Big Question: What rights do we have in the UK and around the world Students begin by exploring human rights in the context of “an ideal country”, political rights in a democracy, freedom to protest, the right to education and a deep look the role of the press in promoting free speech and holding those in power to account and where the press oversteps their role

Term 2	Action project	Big Question: How can I make a difference to the school community? Students begin by looking at real examples of successful social campaigns and how they were successful. Then, as a team, they identify a problem or area of improvement in the school and advocate for how to address it. Students work over the course of the topic as a team to research and plan a viable solution and present their plans. Successful students in the past have been able to contribute real changes to the school community.
Term 2	Managing money	Big Question: How do I take responsibility for my finances? Students learn to become financially literate. Beginning with how people receive their salary and how to read a payslip (including national insurance contributions and other deductions), how to successfully budget, how to get the most out of savings (including types of accounts and interest rates) and ways of borrowing money including risks and how this can affect credit scores.

Term 3	Future skills	Big Question: How do I prepare for adult life? Continuing with preparing students to take more responsibility, students learn about key skills that will support them as they approach adult life including how to take responsibility for their own health, homes including the difference between renting and buying a home, how to research careers, prepare for interviews and, with the increasing power of social media presence, how to consider and refine their personal brand.
	Debating Skills	Big Question: What is going on in the world and how do we discuss this? In a bespoke topic, students learn about current events (updated every year) and explore key debating points. Students learn to develop their skills in considering alternative perspectives, drawing their own conclusion and justifying them through written forms and by developing oracy skills.

Year 10

Year 10 2023/24
Half Term	Topic	Focus
Term 1	Theme A: Living together in the UK	Key questions: How have communities developed in the UK? What is identity? What are democratic values and where do they come from? How does local democracy work? This theme is designed to be the start of the course as it lays the foundations for the rest of the content. It introduces students to many of the concepts they will encounter later on. It helps them to understand the background to human rights, democracy and the law. Much of this is covered in familiar contexts that students will recognise. Communities, identity and migration are among the areas that students will study at this stage. Theme A concludes with an introduction to democracy at the local level.

Term 2	Theme C: How the law works	Key questions: What is the law for and how does it affect us? How does the justice system work? Is crime increasing in society? Theme C moves on to why we need laws and how they are put into practice. A popular topic with students and a key drawing point for students opting for the GCSE option.

Term 3	Theme B: How democracy works in the UK	Key questions: Who runs the country? How does Parliament work? How is power shared between Westminster and the devolved administrations? How does government manage public money? Theme B picks up where Theme A left off, moving from democracy in the local context to the national picture. It builds up students’ understanding of how democracy originated, how it works and how it influences our lives.
Throughout the year	Theme E: Taking Citizenship Action	Students will use and apply their citizenship knowledge, understanding and skills to take action to try and make a difference, create a benefit or change in society. Students will carry out an investigation leading to citizenship action and will develop the following skills: • research and enquiry • interpretation of evidence • planning • collaboration • problem-solving • advocacy and campaigning • evaluation

Year 11

Year 11 2023/24
Half Term	Topic	Focus
Term 1	Theme D: Power and influence	Key questions: What power and influence can citizens have? What role and influence should the media have? Does the UK have power and influence in the wider world? The final theme brings the content together. It explores how citizens can contribute to and influence society. It also discusses the role of groups and organisations in society. The media comes into this section too. The final section in the theme moves into the relations that the UK has with other countries.
Term 2	Developing exam technique	Students will revise key concepts but focus particularly on maximising the development of exam skills already established throughout the course.
Term 3 (HT5)	Teacher led revision of all GCSE content	Teachers to focus on the needed skills and knowledge for their exams and will include a range of exemplar responses and writing opportunities.