Citizenship at PCS

Why do students study it? At Peacehaven Community School we believe that a high standard of Citizenship is an important part of a fully rounded education. It has been a statutory requirement for all schools to provide Citizenship education at key stage three and four since 2001 and at PCS it is delivered by a talented team of teachers to all students. As a subject it is highly complementary to Humanities, English and Arts based subject and through lessons and extra-curricular activities students will learn about a wide variety of issues that are important in playing an active part in society in order to stimulate life-long learning. The key concepts covered are based around democracy and justice, rights and responsibilities and identities and diversity.

How is it taught? At PCS students are taught Citizenship once a fortnight during key stage three, twice a fortnight at Citizenship, Philosophy and Ethics in year 10 and again twice a fortnight in year 11 if the opt to follow the GCSE short course. We cover a broad programme of study at key stage three, focusing on concepts in year 7, content in year 8 and controversial issues in year 9. The full module titles for key stage three are as follows:

Year 7
Module 1	Culture and diversity
Module 2	Introduction to politics and campaigning
Module 3	Money in my pocket
Module 4	Democracy, justice and debate

Year 8
Module 5	Peace and conflict
Module 6	Local government
Module 7	The British legal system
Module 8	National government
Module 9	NGOs, pressure groups and charities

Year 9
Module 10	The Commonwealth and the UN
Module 11	Human rights and injustice
Module 12	Human rights campaigning
Module 13	Refugees and asylum seekers
Module 14	Crime and the community

In year 10 we cover four key modules, linked in to the content for both the OCR GCSE short-course in Citizenship and the EDEXEL GCSE short-course in Religion, Philosophy and Ethics. The titles of the modules are:

1 – Crime and punishment
2 – The Environment
3 – Social Responsibility
4 – Human Rights

At the end of year 10 students will opt whether to follow a GCSE short-course in Citizenship or in Religion, Philosophy and Ethics during year 11. Should they take the Citizenship path they will start the year working in groups to research, plan, carry out and evaluate a campaign over an issue of their choice, followed by studying issues as broad as devolution, multiculturalism, consumer rights and the work of the EU.