Democratic Life has published a press release which calls on the Secretary of State for Education to pay heed to two new pieces of research that highlight the need for high quality citizenship education lessons in schools, taught by specialist teachers. The studies published today, both conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) […]

Last Thursday (18 November), the House of Lords held a debate entitled ‘To call attention to the role of active citizenship in society’. Citizenship education’s contribution towards building the knowledge and skills young people need to become active citizens was promoted by no less than seven Peers during the debate. In particular, Lord Norton of […]

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has written to all schools urging them to take part in his School Council Awards, designed to celebrate the achievements of students’ school councils. The awards are given to projects, according to age categories, that have made a difference to relationships in school or with the […]

A new survey dispels the widely held myth that young people just want to be famous. The research released by The Co-operative – as part of its ‘Inspiring Young People’ campaign – shows that more than half of adults (58 per cent) think that the younger generation just wants fame and celebrity status. The reality, […]

The Law Society, the representative body for solicitors in England and Wales, has joined Democratic Life. We are tremendously excited to have an organisation who has championed young people’s entitlement to public legal education for many years on board and we are looking forward to working closely with them on Democratic Life’s campaign.

We are extremely pleased to announce that The Co-operative has joined Democratic Life. Commenting on their decision, Michael Fairclough, Head of Community & Campaigns at The Co-operative, said: ‘Given the chance, young people have the creativity and vision to affect tremendous change. As part of its Inspiring young people programme, The Co-operative is proud to […]

Democratic Life has sent a letter to the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP, asking that, as his department reviews the National Curriculum, he will consider the positive gains citizenship has made in secondary schools in England, as well as the role citizenship can play in supporting the Big Society. The full letter […]

Sec Ed’s front page today features a story about Democratic Life, and the need for our campaign, entitled ‘Battle is on to save citizenship from the axe’. With quotes from Democratic Life members (the Citizenship Foundation, Amnesty International and ACT) and from passionate citizenship teachers, it’s a fantastic introduction to Democratic Life’s aims and what […]

The United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UNA-UK), having just joined Democratic Life last week, is already active championing citizenship education to policy-makers. In a letter sent yesterday to the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP, UNA-UK’s chair Lord Hannay writes: ‘UNA-UK strongly supports the continued inclusion of citizenship as […]

Yesterday Democratic Life sent a briefing to all MPs and Peers entitled ‘Setting the record straight: an introduction to citizenship education’. We hope all Parliamentarians will read our briefing and join Democratic Life in championing the benefits citizenship education brings to young people, schools and communities. To support our outreach to Parliamentarians you can contact […]