Voices blog

The Citizen ship sailed into the TeachFirst harbour to discuss all things citizenship, including assessment and social action for a really inspiring session.

Last week I met with nine citizenship specialists at the TeachFirst London HQ for a subject development day. Having completed their first four weeks in school, this day was an opportunity for these newly trained teachers to escape the sea of young people to reflect on their collective experiences and to hear from a variety of authoritative and interesting speakers - including me from the Citizenship Foundation!

I had a little over an hour with some bright, engaging and enthusiastic professionals, who without exception seem to be making a positive impact in their school settings and upon their students. It was really refreshing to hear the understanding and passion that they have for citizenship education, but also pleasing to learn how central citizenship values are to their host schools. During uncertain times when many subject bodies are looking over their shoulder at any impending outcomes of the curriculum review, I feel assured that many academic institutions will continue to see the value of preparing young people with the knowledge, tools and understanding to make an effective contribution to wider society.

During our limited time together we were able to look at some great, free citizenship resources and discuss some assessment issues with the font of citizenship knowledge that is Julie Gibbings our Manager, Curriculum and Publication. I was also able to introduce the Giving Nation Challenge which supports cross-curricular delivery of charitable and social action initiatives to KS3 &4. With free lesson plans and teaching resources, and a new web-based project planner (currently being developed!) coupled with start-up grants of £50/class to develop charity and social enterprise projects I am sure we should be seeing many more young social activists joining our community of 600 secondary schools in the coming months.

On the day, I was also especially delighted to hear from the excellent Cathy Fallon, Senior Lecturer and Citizenship Lead, that TeachFirst has already committed to continuing to place more citizenship students next year. Naturally, I will look forward to meeting these exceptional teachers next year!

For any information on the Giving Nation programme, including free school training or telephone guidance, please get in touch on 020 7566 4141.

Get inspired. Get Active. Get involved. info@g-nation.org.uk

Earlier this year myself and Richard John travelled to Cumbria to judge the Giving Nation Cumbria final in which seven schools from the Cumbrian area took part.  The day involved the schools’ presenting their Social Enterprise activities and informing us of what they had done throughout the academic year.

Our Giving Nation Challenge allows the students to get involved with their local communities as well as giving them the opportunity to see what other schools are doing.  The exciting day ended with the girls from Ullswater Community College winning the trophy, they have developed a company called “Give your heart” which makes heart shaped chocolates to raise money for the Eden Valley Hospice.

Watch the video of the event to see what the students and teachers gained from the experience.

Giving Nation has been working with Cumbria County Council for three years, Cumbria is currently the only Local Authority that runs a Giving Nation Challenge county wide final, however due to the continued success we have had we expect to roll out this initiative in other Local Authorities.

September saw me travel to the Rheged Centre in Cumbria, this time to conduct a workshop with 20 teachers on the Giving Nation Challenge, with the sense that they will enter next years Cumbria Challenge Final to be held in June.  The training involved going through the lesson plans, looking through examples of the different activities that other schools had done, and answering any queries that the teachers had.

All in all the training was successful with two new schools being involved, with teachers commenting that they were inspired by the challenge process from start to finish, along with the ideas and variations of delivery.  You can register for the Challenge programme on our website.

We are currently updating the giving nation resources, due to be completed in November! also watch out for our new G-Blog competition.

More information

• More about Giving Nation
• Giving Nation website [external site]

Having just returned from a fruitful trip to the Gambia with students from Queen Elizabeth II High School from Isle of Man, my eyes have been opened to the role that intercultural communication can play a vital role in developing student’s global views.

Working with the students & teacher from this Giving Nation Award winning school, it was great to observe the crucial and dynamic work that Concern Universal plays in the Gambia. Concern Universal provided an enriched and dynamic trip for six QEII students and their teacher to learn about the life changing work that they do in one of Africa’s poorest countries

During our week in the Gambia, it was observed how the pupils were able to leave aside preconceptions and be able to see how SMILE (Smallholder Irrigation for Livelihood Enhancement) agricultural technology is building women’s livelihoods and improving their capacity to generate an income for their families.

Observing Concern Universal’s work in the Gambia solidified the core aims of the trip on understanding international development organizations and working with local communities to address key issues of health, agriculture and education.

Moira Pain, 15, said, “Something that’s really struck me while I’ve been here is the difference between aid and development; it wasn’t something I’d really considered before and I think it’s had a really profound effect on me and the rest of the group.”

To read more about Giving Nation trip to the Gambia, click here

Yesterday (3 March) the Citizenship Foundation had a front page mention and two news stories in SecEd.

SecEd reported on the Giving Nation award winners trip to the Gambia and their experiences of sustainable agriculture and tourism in the country. The young people visited various communities and ecotourism initiatives including a snake farm and farming cooperatives. You can read more personal stories from the young people on the Giving Nation blog.

The students received their Giving Nation Award in October 2010 on behalf of the school for their efforts and outstanding commitment to charity and community action in their local area. The trip took place in February and they have returned full of ideas about how they can contribute to the global movement to fight poverty in their local communities.

The Democratic Life coverage came at just the right time to help us encourage more people to submit evidence to the up coming curriculum review. Democratic Life is campaigning for citizenship education to remain a statutory subject in the National Curriculum.

As government hands power over to its citizens urging them to take greater ownership of their local community, there has been little guidance available as to how young people can contribute.

As the ’Big Society’ is dependent on many factors, one key way to build ‘tomorrow’s citizens’ as recently put by  Tim Loughton, Junior Children‘s Minister, is that you “get more bang for your buck” when consulting with youth on their local communities.

This is a view that Giving Nation has voiced for the last six years as we‘ve been supporting secondary schools across the UK in contributing to their communities through volunteering, campaigning and social action projects. Thousands of young people have chosen to give their time, energy and voice through charitable giving to benefit others.

In developing employability skills such as  advocacy, team building, self-confidence, business and social understanding, our younger citizens are providing a positive impact to causes that matter to them. In aims of providing opportunities and empowerment of young people, the ‘Big Society’ encourages a spirit of volunteerism and deeper community engagement. The Giving Nation programme achieves these results by building active and social engaged citizens.

Using the social enterprise model, students from the ages of 11-16 are encouraged in their classrooms to build social action projects that provide a product or service for the benefit of their local community.

With a start-up fund of up to £450 per school, classes are tasked with developing a campaign and activity to raise awareness and money for their chosen charitable causes. With over 550 schools, 100 000 students engaged and £30 000 in school grants waiting to be claimed Giving Nation is continuing to grow and promote young people‘s contribution to a big society vision.

Want to get involved?

Giving Nation offers bespoke local authority and school training opportunities as well as direct delivery through assembly launches and school‘s competition judging.

Watch out for our new web launch on 3rd November which includes new resources and tools.

Visit  www.g-nation.org.uk or contact us at info@g-nation.org.uk for more information.