New online toolkit to help pupils become model citizens » Education » 24dash.com

The Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC) and CSV have developed an online toolkit that supports teachers to encourage pupils to play an active role in community projects.

The Play your Part website (http://citizenship.ascskills.org.uk) includes ideas, resources, activities and teaching aids designed to raise awareness of sustainable communities, inspire young people to play a part in improving their communities and develop the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to devise and run successful citizen projects.

The site includes four main areas:

• What makes a good community – encourages students to assess and evaluate their own community, using the Egan wheel to discuss and debate the components of sustainable communities and a survey to rate their community and suggest ways to improve it.
• What can we do to improve our communities – invites pupils to consider problems in their communities and ways to make them better, using playing cards that look at problems associated with housing, environment, transport and equality and careers cards that highlight the jobs people do to help make sustainable communities.
• Planning and carrying out an active citizenship project – inspires young people to make a difference, using ‘could you’ cards that provide project ideas such as mentoring younger children after school, running an anti-bullying campaign in school or organising a campaign to save a local post office.
• Celebrate and evaluate – provides suggestions for teachers about celebrating achievements through assembly presentations, certificates, events and articles in the local paper.

The toolkit can be downloaded free of charge and used to support Citizenship, Drama, Geography and PSHE lessons.

Amanda Lane, ASC Learning and Resources Manager said: “During the development of the original toolkit we worked very closely with young people to ensure that the activities were interesting, fun and inspiring.

"The toolkit has undergone rigorous testing over the last two years and has been piloted in more than 500 schools across England.

"We’re delighted that the pilot scheme alone generated many school and/or community projects and, as a result of the positive feedback we’ve received so far, expect the toolkit to be used widely in schools up and down the country.”