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Citizenship

Hi all,

My name is Liam, I'm 25, and I'm a politics grad from the LSE.

So why am I posting about GCSE Citizenship? Right now I'm doing research for a charitable project, part of which concerns how subjects like politics are addressed in school. I would love to hear about GCSE students' experiences of studying Citizenship (short-course or otherwise): why it's good/bad, how it's taught, what you'd change etc. It would be awesome to hear from anyone with any informed opinions on the course, either on here or by message. Just in case you were wondering, confidentiality is ensured - what matters are your comments, not your identity! (I also hope this friendly request is within the bounds of this forum...!)

Thanks for your help, looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Reply 1

Monarose

It wasn't too bad. To be honest, most of it was spent messing around. 70% of the course involved coursework- where we had to set up a convention of some sorts top raise money for charity. We had a school concert with students singing/performing, charging 1 pound a ticket and ended up raising 270 pounds- half going to a local hospice and the other for children in need. I filled in my coursework booklet with a load of faff on why I was a good citizen- very easy to do- I just sounded very, very pretentious and received full marks on the coursework. We took a few pictures of us posing for a few things- putting out chairs, pointing out to students performing where to stand, holding the auditions, and finally the main show. I was mainly involved in planning, so my photos where mostly for logistics. Easy full marks.

I didn't revise for the exam. It was just basic logic, really. We had class discussions previously about women's rights (which, in an all girls school, we had been made aware of from day 1), dictatorship/tyranny, fair trade, etc. We never received any homework for it, only GCSE was a bit naff like that. Nobody took citizenship seriously, probably because it was a compulsory subject, and people were more concerned about Maths/English subjects.

Teaching was done mainly by group discussion, watching videos and having debates with each other- which was a great way of learning, because it helped us remember things, without the need for excessive revision.

Reply 2

mr96

I'm doing it now (in fact I have a mock tomorrow) and we all find it a bit of a drag.
Some aspects of it is interesting for example; we were studying case studies about the looting and riots by teenagers 2 years ago. As it's more relateable to us, it is quite interesting. Similarly we were looking into the phone hacking cases and that's also a little bit interesting.
BUT learning about immigration, migration NOT FUN! It is boring, still I understand why we have to learn all this...
So even though I sort of dread going into the lessons it maybe just because I am not the sort of person who would like this subject. My friends who've done GCSE R.S (religious studies) like it a lot more than the rest of.
Like the above poster said we did stuff on woman's right (I also go to a girl school) and we watched "Made In Dagenham" :biggrin: