Let’s start with the good news. New GCSEs in Citizenship Studies are to be developed for 2016 and will continue to count in school performance tables. And the not so good news… GCSE numbers decline The overall number of students taking GCSE Citizenship Studies has declined dramatically since 2010, but this year there was some good […]

The Expert Group for Citizenship has published a resources digest to support teachers in preparing for the revised National Curriculum for citizenship 2014. The resources digest is organised around key topics and skills and the phase of education they are applicable to. Topics include: democracy and government rights and responsibilities fairness, justice, the law economy […]

As part of its on-going commitment to promoting political activism and democratic engagement, the Political Studies Association has announced the publication of, ‘Beyond the Youth Citizenship Commission: Young People and Politics‘.  It builds on the work of the Youth Citizenship Commission and seeks to further energise debates about young people and democratic participation. The publication […]

Michael Gove has announced today (9 April 2014) further reforms to GCSE and A level qualifications. Citizenship Studies will be in the first group of GCSE qualification subjects to be reformed. Mr Gove said, “We are introducing more rigorous content into reformed GCSEs and A levels to be taught from September 2016 and 2015 respectively. […]

Yesterday, Democratic Life Partners the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) and the Citizenship Foundation attended a meeting with the DFE, Ofqual and Awarding organisations to discuss updating the GCSEs for Citizenship Studies. The meeting was to begin the process of reviewing the subject criteria which are used by Ofqual to ensure the quality and rigour […]

National Voter Registration Day (5 February 2014) helps young people understand registration changes and ensure they’re eligible to vote at the next election. New changes put many first-time voters in danger of unwittingly finding themselves without a vote. But new, free classroom resources can help. In the past, voters were registered by the head of […]

Democratic Life founding member the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) has joined forces with National Citizen Service (NCS) to launch a new resource to support high quality Citizenship teaching and social action in schools. The ‘NCS and Citizenship Curriculum Materials’ have been developed to support Citizenship at key stages 3 and 4 and promote active learning […]

In a statement in Parliament yesterday, the Minster of State for Schools, David Laws MP launched a new measure of attainment by which school performance will be judged. The new ‘Best 8’ measure of pupil performance at GCSE includes a wider range of subjects including Citizenship Studies as well as art, music, drama and engineering. […]

Last Friday, Ofsted published their long awaited subject report into Citizenship provision in primary and secondary schools across England. The survey is based on data collected from 126 maintained schools and 4 special schools between 2009 and 2012. The report confirms that overall improvements in the quality of Citizenship provision are evident. However Ofsted say […]