Education for citizenship and the teaching of democracy in schools

up, whether from school, home or elsewhere, some knowledge of whether
they are living in a democracy or not, of what social problems affect them
and even what the different pressure groups or parties have to say about
them. All this can be encouraged, guided and built upon.
Windsor County Primary School, Toxteth, Liverpool, is in one of the most
socially deprived parts of inner-city Toxteth, yet for several years there have
been no exclusions, something that the headteacher puts down to the creation
of the pupil council. The council held a special meeting for the pupils to discuss
what they wanted to say to others about their pupil council. Here is part of it:
‘Having a pupil council ... has transformed our school by the responsible
decisions that it has taken. We have appeared on television and we have helped
to train other schools. In our school, we have organised events and fund raising
activities to buy equipment to improve our playtimes. The number of badly
behaved pupils has dropped... Being a councillor is a lot of responsibility.
Listening and advising can be a very hard job. Pupils respect the councillors and
know they are good friends to everyone. Bullying has diminished in our school
because councillors look, listen and support all children... We believe that our
pupil council has made our school a better place – a place where children’s
opinions count. We believe every school should have a pupils’ council.’
(b) Secondly, learning about and becoming helpfully involved in the life and
concerns of their communities, including learning through community
involvement and service to the community. This, of course, like the other
two branches of citizenship, is by no means limited to children’s time in
school. Even if pupils and adults perceive many of the voluntary groups as
non-political, the clearer meaning is probably to say ‘non-partisan’: for
voluntary bodies when exercising persuasion, interacting with public
authorities, publicising, fund-raising, recruiting members and then trying to
activate (or placate) them, all such bodies are plainly using and needing
political skills.
The John Bentley School, Calne, Wiltshire, has a ‘Young Enterprise’ scheme,
community service learning, work experience and an active school council. The
school council has developed a formal link with the town council. As the only
secondary school in the town, it provides all 16 councillors for the Calne Young
Peoples’ Town Council (YPTC). The YPTC liaises closely with the school
council and meets monthly in the council chamber at the town hall. YPTC
members sit on a wide range of organisations in the town, representing the
views of young people, including the Civic Society, the Crime Prevention Panel
and the town council’s amenities committee. The YPTC, in combination with
the school council, has obtained many improvements for young people in the
town and received grants such as that from Rural Action for environmental
work. The YPTC has recently worked on a ‘safe routes to school’ project.
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