Citizen Schools UK

Mission: Money Mentors is a Massive Success!

2010-07-21T12:27:00.000+01:00

In response to the economic crisis, members of London Citizens decided they needed to better educate our young people to take responsibility with money. From this idea Money Mentors was born. London Citizens Schools Organisers in partnership with MoneySavingExpert.com and Credit Action trained 30 undergraduates and recent graduates to be Money Mentors. The Money Mentors have then gone into our member schools to run a day’s ‘Mission:Money Mentors’ programme to teach students about budgeting, credit and debt and making smart shopping choices, in an active, inspiring way. The programme has been running throughout July and has been highly praised for delivering engaging and relevant learning:

* It was the best financial literacy day we have had and we would love to be involved again (Lampton School)
* Our Money Mentors were fabulous - thank you! (Hounslow Manor School)
* Thanks a lot for such a fantastic show last week. Students and staff thoroughly enjoyed the Money Mentors. I hope we can have it next year as well. (Central Foundation Girls School)

And – stop press – we have just heard word that J P Morgan will be funding the roll-out of the programme for two years – to enable more schools and more community members to benefit sustainably from the work. If your school is interested in being part of this opportunity please get in touch with me direct.

The CITIZEN:YOUTH Assembly - what a day!

2010-07-20T18:10:00.001+01:00

So it was that hundreds and hundreds of active young citizens gathered at the O2 on Monday 12th July for a spectacular showcase, celebration and negotiation on all their change-making, community-organising work this year. Young leaders led the entire event, and it capped off a phenomenal year for London Citizens and its schools, colleges, universities and youth groups. Well done to everyone involved: check out the pics below!

Hounslow Manor: Citizens in Action begins!

2010-04-27T10:50:00.003+01:00

Here's a reflection from two of the exceptional Citizen Schools leaders from Hounslow Manor school, who are just kicking off their next 'community outreach' phase of their change plan. Here, Zabi and Mushtaq reflect on their participation in their team's first meeting:

"With the help of our great teachers and partners we decided to choose Tuesdays for our gathering day to discuss what we are going to do. Last week me and my partner took some pictures of the students when they were busy gathering information and contacts of other schools so that they can be come more powerful and have loads of allies working together. Also we divided our project between the students in 3 divisions which are CONNECTORS, DEVELOPERS BROADCASTERS. The connectors contacted different schools around the area, and the developers wrote scripts (outlines) linked to aims. The broadcasters which included me and my partners selected best photos for Ben. As the broadcasters, me and my friend were really excited and enjoyed taking pictures of the students while they were doing their work for the project and at the end of the meeting we felt proud of the pictures that we took and the teachers gave us a lot of complements for our job and encouraged us to continue our great work."

Change is possible...Amanda, Year 9 Citzen School Student Leader at Prendergast Ladywell Fields College tells her story

2010-04-18T19:52:00.005+01:00

The best map of Lewisham I’ve ever seen hangs on the west wall of Sir Steve Bullock’s office. He’s the Mayor of Lewisham and the map is what I was looking at as we put forward our demands for change. We asked the Mayor to expand CitySafe Havens, founded in memory of Jimmy Mizen, to include our local shops; to investigate and implement the best solution to our unsafe school crossing, and for the Mayor himself to judge the design and support the implementation of new recyling bins in the borough. On all three of our demands he gave us a firm yes. How I got to be there is the story I’d like to tell.

Last July we joined the Citizens’ Schools Alliance, signing up to take part in the “Pathway” programme. We travelled to the Institute of Education for the launch where there was much talk of being active, taking part, change, politics, the fabric of society and something about the 5 P's which included power, politics and young people. We left excited but not quite sure what would follow.

Over the next few months we began to meet up with the other schools involved in Lewisham and Jamie and Ben from London Citizens asked us to consider what it meant to be part of a society, a community, and to be a citizen. They also began to make us believe that as individuals and as a school we could actually make a difference.

November was soon upon us and our number had grown to forty. We wanted to tell the rest of the school about our project and agreed that the best way of doing this was to tell our classes ourselves. So for six weeks once a week in PHSE we took the lessons and asked people the same questions Jamie and Ben had posed us. Young people asking young people to become involved with their communities, to identify things we all wanted to change and improve.

Just before Christmas we narrowed down these issues into four clear campaigns and met to decide how we would get people to listen to us. What followed was by far the hardest part of our journey.

We made phone calls, sent letters, emails and slowly built up contacts.
We asked if we could attend community meetings, and turned up at any public meeting we could find. We visited local Primary Schools, Churches, Shops, and Youth Clubs and listened to their views to improve our ideas.

We did this again and again until very slowly things began to change and people's reaction began to shift. People had begun to invite us to attend their meetings, people had started to ask us for contacts. Somehow we had gained a critical mass, we now had credibility, we were finally being taken seriously. From this point things started to move very quickly and our campaigns began to take on a life of its own. Suddenly we were being invited everywhere, doors were opening and people were begining to not only listen but genuinely commit.

We put our ideas to the London Citizens alliance in Lewisham and with our ideas backed by local members of our team then practiced their negotiation and prepared to take part in a meeting with the all the alliance members in the borough and the Mayor.

We were excited and a little nervous but put our ideas across well. Other local leaders give us a big round of applause for our commitment, strength and energy.

It has taken six months and during that time we’ve learnt how things really work. We’ve researched our targets, prepared hard and built a team and realised that politics and rules work in different whey than we thought. We had to bend a few rules we came across and we needed to believe in ourselves and we did. It can be done, change is possible.

I would just like to say thanks to the Mayor Steve Bullock, thanks to London Citizens without who none of this would have happened, and thanks to everyone who has helped us get to this point. So that’s our story so far and how I got to see the best map of Lewisham ever. I will leave you with a couple of the lessons I have learnt along the way and the Citizens team at Prendergast look forward to hearing your story too.

Lessons for change…

You need to believe in your selves.
You need to genuinely believe you can change things.
You need to be prepared for lots of hard work, and lots of meetings.
You need to see every person as someone you might be able to help, and then and only then you can see if they can help you (read this carefully).
You need to be well prepared, use scripts, rehearse, film yourselves.
You need to research the people you are meeting.
You need to aim high.
You need to not be afraid to promise first and find a way after.
You need to be prepared for lots of hard work.

Inset Day...Citizen School Style

2010-04-07T13:17:00.005+01:00

While teachers rest and the Easter holidays begin....Citizen Schools Organisers Jamie and Ben take time to develop. Twitter, Flickr and other social media skills have been the order of the day. Watch this space to keep up to speed on all that's going on and for opportunities that Citizen Schools will be offering in the near future.

Teachers Power Up in Greenwich

2010-03-21T22:04:00.007Z

Teachers from three London Citizens Schools in Greenwich came together last week to plan how they can integrate their "active citizenship" work and support each other in making change happen. Rahima Choudhury from John Roan, Erin Culley from Thomas Tallis and Emily Stephens from Black Heath Blue Coats are all active members of our Greenwich alliance and got to know each other through their Citizen Schools work. Supported by Greenwich organiser, Sebastien Chapleau and Schools Organiser, Jamie Audsley, plans were developed to integrate curriculum projects and to enable students from the three schools to come together to develop better relationships. Possible areas for future action involving all three schools include:street safety; school transport and improving the local environement. Watch this space for change in Greenwich!

Migration Conundrum: new Website Coming Soon!

2010-03-08T12:50:00.001Z

It's confirmed - the Migration Conundrum will have a brand new sparkling website up and running within the month.

I met on Friday with Elliot Fox who is co-ordinating our online efforts to confirm arrangements for constructing a useful site to get the message out about the Migration Conundrum and what it's trying to do, in the run up to our official launch during Refugee Week 2010 in June.

Big thanks to Elliot for taking this work on. We'll also be advertising for a developer post soon to take the site into the educational stratosphere! Watch this space for more!

Barking Abbey Team Gets Super-Strategic!

2010-03-03T12:39:00.000Z

With the support of four Citizenship teachers, the team at Barking Abbey now meet regularly on Mondays after school and have selected their key issue and idea to focus on: street safety and getting a more visible police presence on the streets.

Students and staff have established their core strategy to make this happen - by mapping community safety hotspots, reaching out and connecting to community allies, building their power together by researching which areas are most in need of a presence, developing their arguments and negotiating with the police to make it happen.

Students are busy creating surveys to begin this process next week. They're a great team and are excited about building their power by reaching out to other year groups, parents and wider into the community.

Migration Dream Team Get Down to Business!

2010-03-03T12:37:00.002Z

The Migration Conundrum - a toolkit for teachers to facilitate compelling learning about the controversial issue of migration, and then to take action around it - is moving forward and will be launched in June during Refugee Week, thanks to the work of our specialist 'Migration Conundrum Dream Team'.

A core group of teachers, migrants, consultants, students and London Citizens staff, the dream team have now got strategic, establishing a plan to get EVERY SCHOOL IN THE UK freely accessing the learning the Migration Conundrum Offers, working with Local Education Authorities other targeted power players.

March is the month of creativity - every member of the team is creating real life case studies and many are producing compelling learning activities to extend and enrich students learning. If you want to contribute either a case study or learning activity, please contact Carina Crawford-Rolt: Carina.Crawford-Rolt@cof.org.uk

70 Students apply to be London Citizens MONEY MENTORS!

2010-02-26T13:35:00.002Z

A whopping 70 undergraduate students from local universities have applied to be London Citizens Money Mentors!

These Money Mentors will be trained by the Citizen Schools team, Credit Action and Money Saving Expert.com as peer facilitators to deliver our Money Mentors financial literacy programme to 4,000 young people in schools across London over four weeks this June and July.

With Jessica Jones, Money Mentors co-ordinator, and Ben Hammond, Citizen Schools Co-ordinator having shortlisted candidates today, the next step is interviews next Thursday. Jess and Ben were bowled over by the quality of the candidates applying - almost all to the letter showing experience of community action, work with young people and an interest in economic education...

An action shot of Jess Jones, Money Mentors co-ordinator, shortlisting Money Mentors applicants.

Prendergast Ladywell Fields College - from 4 active citizens to 100 in 6 months flat!

2010-02-24T13:18:00.001Z

A reflection blog post from Simon Jones, Head of Geography and Citizen Schools co-ordinator at Prendergast Ladywell Fields College, Lewisham:

"Six months ago the belief that pupils as Citizens had a voice or that they could bring about change within the school, let alone the wider community did not exist.

Starting with four pupils we now have over 100 pupils from all years working on four campaigns and increasingly engaging with their communities.

From the beginning I felt that the project should be pupil driven, pupils devising the programme of study, pupils teaching pupils, pupils recruiting pupils, pupils writing to, talking to, meeting with their community.

So far the pupils have been very successful, a core group of well motivated and well organised campaigners with a wide network of community links.

However we had reached a crisis point. Our teams were overstretched, our campaign teams consisted only of pupils, and our project had become too big for just me to co-ordinate.

We met and discussed the problem and agreed on a three step solution.

One : Appeal to the staff of the school, recruit three members of staff to each campaign team.

Two : Invite parents to join the teams and establish regular meetings.

Three : Establish sustainable links with the wider community and invite them to campaign meetings.

Our goal is to establish self sustaining, truly representative teams, which are driven by pupil voice."

Good luck to Simon and the huge Prendergast team - your energy, commitment and drive is phenomenal. London Citizens is privileged to have you as a member school.

Ark Academy become first school to join the second Citizen Schools Pathway cohort

2010-02-22T06:06:00.000Z

The newly formed Ark Academy in Wembley has become the first school to join London Citizens' flagship 'Citizen Schools Pathway'.

With a specialism in Citizenship, the school wants to be at the forefront of Citizenship in their borough, across London, and nationally; joining the Pathway is one strategic way to deliver on this aspiration.

London Citizens and the Citizens Schools team are excited to have Ark Academy on board, and look forward to welcoming them formally onto the Pathway and into membership of London Citizens and the west London Assembly this Autumn.

Meanwhile, the next step is to begin recruiting a team of teachers, senior leaders, parents, governors and students to lead the work. The Citizen Schools team, including our Brent borough organiser, will be responsible for doing this over the next few months under guidance from Delia Smith OBE, Principal at the Academy, and Ollie Knight, Vice Principal.

Explaining the school's aspirations for its students, Delia says "You will see our motto, “Civitas”, around the school. We are first and foremost citizens and this is what binds us together. We want our pupils to grow into well rounded, confident, ambitious young people, who aspire to personal high achievement and to making their mark on the world."

CALLING ALL TEACHERS - A very special professional development opportunity!

2010-02-21T17:08:00.006Z

At some point in late April, just days before the election, it is increasingly possible that London Citizens member communities will have the opportunity to put their agenda for change direct to the three main political party leaders.

We want everyone to learn about and take part in this agenda, which has come about through London Citizens' meetings, local assemblies and the huge Assembly at the Barbican on 25th November 2009.

As a result the schools team is creating 8 learning opportunities for schools (and faith groups, youth groups etc) to investigate the agenda of...

A living wage
Affordable housing
Safer Streets
No detention for children of people seeking sanctuary
Putting 1% of the banking bail-out into mutual, local forms of lending
Putting a cap on the amount of interest people can charge
Tackling the real power players in London

Each learning opportunity will include 8 steps to help people make up their minds on the issue. If you're interested in working with me (Ben, Citizen Schools Co-ordinator) to develop resources on one (or more) of these, just get in touch with me now - ben@citizenschools.info. The finished resources will go out to over 250,000 Londoners (great for the CV)! We'll need to meet up for 1-2 hours within the next 2 weeks to get it done.

20 places available for a London Citizens day at the GLA!

2010-02-21T16:36:00.005Z

Recognising London Citizens as the capital's most powerful community alliance, the Greater London Assembly has invited London Citizens to spend a day at City Hall learning about its work and putting questions to its power players.

On Wednesday March 17th, 60 Citizens' leaders will get the chance to attend Mayor's Question Time, take part in talks by with Darren Johnson (Chair of the London Assembly), and Janet Hughes (Head of Scrutiny and Investigations), and put questions to these power players.

The Schools team has managed to secure 20 tickets for students from our member schools to attend. Attendees must be in year 9 or above (though ideally in the 6th form in order to travel independently), need to complete an application form and come to a short interview with Ben Hammond, Citizen Schools Co-ordinator, between 10am and 1pm on Saturday 13th March.

For an application form, teachers and students from member schools only should contact Ben Hammond via email: ben@citizenschools.info, or download directly from our online Citizen Schools Community. Completed applications need to be received by Friday 5th March to be considered for interview.

Lilian Baylis secure £30,000 for their Citizen Schools bike project!

2010-02-21T14:20:00.005Z

Amazing news from south of the river... Lilian Baylis Technology School have been awarded £30,000 of TfL funding to turn its Citizen Schools community bicycle idea into a reality!

Lilian Baylis old school site: potential site of the new Cycle Hub?

It all began with students creating ideas for change during the Autumn term, where they focused on trying to improve local bike facilities. And it shows the importance of London Citizens borough organisers to schools' succeeding in getting community backing - Jamie Audsley, borough organiser for Lambeth, brought Lilian Baylis together with local cycling activist and London Cycling Campaign member Charlie Holland, and the rest is now history.

Students, parents, the school and its local community will now come together as a steering action team to set up the Cycle Hub (a place where young people and the local community can go for bike riding & maintenance workshops), increase the number of community rides, and build a successful model other London boroughs will want to emulate.

Next step for the school is building the team - recruiting an alliance of school, student, parent and community constituencies, and then negotiating the site for the cycling hub... the site of the old Lilian Baylis school is target number one!

Congratulations to all involved with the project - particularly the student team, assistant head Karen Chamberlain, humanities teacher Sian Williams and the parent team at Lilian Baylis School, and Charlie Holland for bringing it all together to get such a result.

Citizen Schools PATHWAY - 20+ places available now for primary or secondary schools in 13 London Boroughs. Deadline 15th March.

2010-02-21T13:52:00.004Z

Do you need to build your school's contribution to community cohesion?

Do you want to increase the level of parental engagement with your school?

Does your school need to increase its networks and leverage in your borough?

Do you want to take your active citizenship to the next level across the school?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, London Citizens is now recruiting for its second cohort of schools for its landmark 'Citizen Schools Pathway' - an induction course in community organising to build the capacity of school communities to effect change, build alliances, facilitate community cohesion and make learning more relevant and compelling.

See the document below for full details.

We don't want any school to participate, however. There are four criteria for each school to be able to take one of the limited places we have available:

* 1) A belief in schools as community hubs, with parents, students, staff and community members taking responsibility for creating a high quality education and a cohesive community
* 2) A headteacher who will build a direct relationship with our organisers, and advise us on who to approach to construct the most effective, diverse team; they also need to give one team member the time to lead the work (1 hour per week or more).
* 3) To be able to raise the London Citizens membership dues and course fee required to take part - see the summary below for more details. The cost is not prohibitive for any school, and varies with the size of each school taking part.

Head teachers who think their school fits the bill should contact Ben Hammond, Citizen Schools Co-ordinator at London Citizens, to book an initial exploratory/strategy meeting, by 15th March 2010. Email ben@citizenschools.info / Telephone 0772 33 780 44.

Citizen Schools Pathway Cohort 2

View more documents from citizenschoolsuk.

London Citizens to host BBC Any Questions? Member schools can claim 5-10 tickets each!

2010-02-21T13:40:00.006Z

London Citizens is hosting a live broadcast of BBC Any Questions? On Friday 5th March. Our member schools have the opportunity to claim 5-10 tickets each.

Panellists include Ken Livingstone (former Mayor of London) and Ken Clarke MP.

It’s your chance to influence the national debate with questions focused on London Citizens priorities: street safety, fair wages, affordable housing, sanctuary for migrants, active citizenship in schools.

Where? London Muslim Centre, Whitechapel
When? Friday 5th March; Doors Open 6.45pm

PLACES ARE LIMITED. For your FREE tickets exclusive to London Citizens members, teachers should contact: Josephine Mukanjira at London Citizens, on 0207 043 9881; email josephine.mukanjira@cof.org.uk. PRIORITY GOES TO EAST LONDON MEMBER SCHOOLS.

Migration Conundrum: the dream team needs YOU!

2010-02-21T13:08:00.003Z

We are looking for both excellent learning activities to bring the issue of migration alive in UK classrooms, and interesting case studies of migrants to humanise and inform students' learning. All contributors will be credited and broadcast nationally when the resource is launched in June 2010:

If you're a teacher or student and have any learning activities which cover any of the following, please email ben@citizenschools.info with details:

Life in migrants' countries of origin
The push/pull factors
Migrants' journies
The reactions on arrival - from immigration officials, the public, the media, UK government, charities, communities etc
The lifestyles of migrants
How migrants' cases are/have been/will be resolved

Here's an example of a learning activity - but we're looking for anything in length or activity type, so long as it's interesting and compelling...

February 5th 2004

View more presentations from citizenschoolsuk.

If you know of someone who would like to be one of our case studies, please contact Carina Crawford-Rolt on Carina.Crawford-Rolt@cof.org.uk. We are looking for the following case studies in particular:

Migrants who live outside of London
Migrants from other MEDC countries who now live in the UK
Migrants from Europe
Migrants who have emigrated from the UK

Here's an example of the type of format each case study will follow. Get in touch to talk about the next steps to create the real life case study!

Case Study Zoya Phan

View more presentations from citizenschoolsuk.

Calling all 6th formers studying Politics or Citizenship! Amazing opportunity this Friday!

2010-02-19T18:44:00.005Z

London Citizens is hosting a very special audience and round table event with Professor Michael Sandel of Havard, author of "Justice - What's the right thing to do?', on Friday 26th February, 2.00pm to 4.00pm, at the London Muslim Centre, Whitechapel.

6th formers from its member schools are invited to claim their places at this prestigious event with the BBC Reith Lecturer 2009, lectures based on his hugely oversubscribed Harvard course "Justice".

London Citizens Member Schools can have between 5 and 10 tickets each - for parents, teachers, sixth formers or year 11s only, but places are going (really, really) fast! Contact josephine.makunjira@londoncitizens.org.uk to reserve your places today.

Please visit his website http://www.justiceharvard.org to view his lectures ahead of the event.

The Migration Conundum Dream Team is Ready!

2010-02-18T13:48:00.004Z

An alliance of 18 teachers, education consultants, ex immigration officers and migrant leaders came together last week in the first step to ensure that: No child is to leave education without an understanding of our past and present role of providing sanctuary and that they are given an opportunity to develop their own minds in the great migration debate.

"The Migration Conundrum" is an exciting new resource being produced by London CITIZENS, a partnership of our Schools team and Citizens for Sanctuary, a London Citizens campaign which aims to secure justice for people fleeing persecution and to rebuild public support for sanctuary. The resource aims to bring compelling, discursive and active teaching and learning around the issue to every classroom in the UK. We believe that every young person should be entitled to experience a high quality, evidence-based exploration of this issue.

The resource is designed in a flexible resource to teach this issue, but also associated issue to fit the curriculum. There are four key parts to draw from:

Real Lives - Case studies of some of our young leaders.
Activate - Ideas, activities and resources to bring the issue alive in the classroom.
You Can Tool Kit - A tool kit to help students make a difference and take action.
Evidence Bank - A bank of supporting facts, figures and evidence.

The team assembled to develop, trial and launch the resource offer a wealth of skills, experience and knowledge to the resource as well as painting a clear picture of the situation.

Jon, 27, fled Zimbabwe 2 year ago "It's a shame that the media tend to tell a negative story when it come to issues around sanctuary and immigration. This resource will help students understand what individuals really go through and who they can become whilst seeking sanctuary in the UK. It will encourage them to make up their own minds, and hopefully take some action."

The resource, is currently being trialled in 4 of our London schools and will be available for the start of the new year 2010/2011. If you would like to trial it in your school, please contact carina.crawford-rolt@cof.org.uk.

Prendergast Staff Meeting: Citizen School Style

2010-02-16T17:28:00.004Z

This week Prendergast Citizen School Team have been spreading the news of progress across the school and working to build support for their campaigns. The team presented during a staff meeting asking staff not already involved for their support and specifically their time to integrate the campaigns into the curriculum. This request aims to add a bit of extra spice to lessons; enable students to direct their learning towards what's motivating them, and to enable even more people to get involved across the school.

The team asked teachers to make the campaigns they have developed their campaigns and gained a lot of support. Twenty additional teachers have now joined the campaign teams AND four facultities are going to weave the campaigns into their curriculum. e.g. Maths are going to do traffic surveys, graphs and statistics for the Road Crossing team. Lewisham's Deputy Young Mayor also spoke and endorsed the team focused on launching Safe Havens in their local area. Prendergast Citizens School Team hop you enjoy the video.

Just 6 places left for the City Safe Youth Games!

2010-02-16T16:16:00.004Z

Great news from Emmanuel Gotora, London Citizens' CitySafe Youth Games Co-ordinator. Since we began promoting it two weeks ago, fourteen schools have met with Emmanuel and have signed up to take part in this fantastic sports and leadership development programme. There are now just 6 places left for schools in the five olympic boroughs for this programme. In the summer term this year, London Citizens, in partnership with MET-Track and London Youth, will hold inter-school leadership and sports development sessions for 10-20 students from each school in a borough, culminating in a 'City Safe Olympics' day for all participants across the 5 olympic boroughs. The aim? Safer streets and the breaking down of postcode barriers through inter-school collaboration, sport, leadership, and team-building. If you're interested, contact Emmanuel Gotora, City Safe Co-ordinator, via emmanuel.gotora@londoncitizens.org.uk / 07956 998909.

What's more, all of this is FREE to London Citizens' member schools!

Five Schools join London Citizens' 'Money Mentors' programme - just 10 places remaining!

2010-02-16T11:28:00.004Z

In just two weeks, five schools have joined London Citizens' flagship 'Money Mentors' financial literacy programme. Designed to create a generation of young money mentors, literate and confident in budgeting, money saving and debt and able to share their expertise and skills with other students and families, the programme has seen Central Foundation Girls School, Hackney Free & Parochial School, Kingsbury High School (Brent), Langdon School (Newham) and Lampton School (Hounslow) join in just two weeks.

There are now just 10 places remaining from schools across London. Get in touch with London Citizens' Money Mentors co-ordinator Jessica Jones now to claim yours - jessica.jones@londoncitizens.org.uk / 07899 663123. Places are FREE for London Citizens member schools.

The Background...
Our 'Money Mentors' programme sees undergraduate student finance experts leading day-long collapsed timetable days to teach money saving, budgeting and debt, and in the process create 'Money Mentors', who at the end of the day showcase their learning to parents and other invited community guests. The programme is being run in association with MoneySavingExpert.com and Credit Action, and places are going fast.

London Citizens' member school John Roan hit the front page!

2010-02-16T09:45:00.003Z

London Citizens member The John Roan School, Greenwich, have hit the front page of local council-run newspaper the Greenwich Times. Their Year 8 'Make a Difference Club' has been working with our Citizen Schools initiative, with students busy around school cutting it's carbon emissions by 10% in 2010... Congratulations to the school, and the particularly savvy students and Citizenship department for getting their message out across the whole borough!

John Roan Citizen School Build their Power

2010-02-15T16:46:00.010Z

London Citizens' Schools work in alliance with other organisations. In order to gain support and build their power, students from John Roan School in Greenwich have been presenting their idea to improve Westcombe Park Station to local primary schools who are also members of London Citizens in their borough.

The team at John Roan identified Westcombe Park Station as a problem when they conducted their local listening campaign. Poor lighting and a station underpass that needs tidying up make the majority of people who use the station feel unsafe. Primary school students at Halstow and St Alphege's listened to ideas for change and then contributed their views and ideas for improvements to the proposals. All students were keen to take part in designing a new underpass wall design and suggested a competition be held that involves all the local schools.

Students and staff gave unanimous support for the idea for change and will now negotiate with John Roan when they meet with South Eastern to put their demands forward.

Ella and Christina from John Roan acted as representatives for the team during the day and said
"We enjoyed presenting to and involving other students. On our own we wouldn't be able to make this change but we're building positive power and getting stronger."

Next stop towards change: preparing for the negotiation with other members of the alliance, supported by their dedicated borough organiser, Sebastien Chapleau.

Drayton Manor - promoting student leaders in the real world!

2010-02-11T23:00:00.000Z

Four fabulous young student leaders from Drayton Manor High school joined 30 other leaders from Ealing at West London Citizens' borough meeting, together in the room with people from local churches, schools and community groups.

Vikram and Nadia brought two other young sixth form leaders along - Billon and Sami - and together they held the room's attention - speaking out on the importance of young people owning programmes supposed to help them so that they last and work for the people intended. They spoke of a lack of creative opportunities and spaces for young people in the borough. This was added to the list of all the other priorities in the borough - paying a living wage at Ealing Hospital, road safety, family support and commercial waste - priorities which Citizens' will work to turn into real, lasting change.

So it was that Nadia, Vikram, Billon and Sami then voted in support of Ealing Citizens holding a 'borough accountability assembly' - where London Citizens' communities in Ealing come together and put their agenda for change to Jason Stacey and the other council candidates before the elections in May. It's all about holding elected officials to account and getting long term commitments - not asking questions and then walking away.

Watch this space for more from these exceptional young leaders...

Hendon School Get Road Safe Real!

2010-02-11T15:38:00.002Z

Students,teachers and Parent/Governors from London Citizens Member Hendon School (Barnet) got out on the streets today to begin their campaign to improve road safety around the school...

The school, situated off Golders Rise in Hendon, faces considerable traffic difficulties on a daily basis, and after selecting road safety as one of three top priorities to take action on, a team of year 8 students are leading the way in improving the situation, and ultimately getting the borough council to help. The team have identified parents, local residents, teachers, pupils and other users of Golders Rise as the key people to connect with, bring together and forge into an alliance for change.

Today it was time to begin connecting with local residents. Students established their aims, devised a survey to achieve those aims, created a petition to harness support, and role-played conversations and tactics. Then it was time to take the whole team onto the streets, connecting with residents along the road and listening to their views on the issue.

The team - conquoring both their nerves and the freezing temperatures - were amazing, persuading residents to give up time and support for the cause. Change at and around Hendon has definitely begun!

Hackney Free & Parochial School tops the student leadership tree?

2010-02-09T17:31:00.006Z

One of London Citizens member schools, Hackney Free & Parochial School, has so consistently impressed with its leadership programme - recently expanded to include year 10 and year 8 'community leaders' with training by Citizen Schools - that we felt it warrented it's own blog post.

Almost half the entire school (over 300 students) now holds a position of leadership responsibility. These are wide ranging... from Student Prefects, Sports Prefects, Community Leaders, Peer Mentors, Peer Mediators, Healthy Living Mentors, School Tour Guides, Student Panels, Recycling Team & Eco Committee, Student Translators and Subject Leaders... the list is comprehensive!

And at Hackney Free this kind of student participation is not the huge burden in terms of training and administration many might expect - Rachel Kelly, Assistant Head in charge of Student Voice, explains that each team of student leaders has its own older students responsible for its co-ordination and leadership.

Combining with a school focus on promoting positive rewards for excellence, the leadership programme is a flagship example of how far the boundaries of students responsiblity for school life can be pushed. London Citizens is proud to be a part of these exciting developments at Hackney Free - long may it continue!

For more details, visit http://www.hackneyfree.hackney.sch.uk/school/student_voice/

Hackney Free Citizen Schools bring recycling in range...

2010-02-09T17:07:00.000Z

Hackney Free & Parochial School, a London Citizens member, is focusing its' Citizen Schools team on recycling - persuading the council to support more street recycling facilities, in addition to the big recycling bins provided at supermarkets, for example.

Ben and Jess (our Hackney borough organiser) went into the school on Tuesday to establish plans to get the campaign up and running. Working with three excellent student leaders - Josie, Corey and Bruno - the team planned their strategy and took on key roles...

Using the fabulous ASMILEY planning method of 'Learning to Lead', the team crafted a clear, specific and measurable strategy, and will be working with London Citizens to make it happen in the run up to the Hackney Borough Accountability Assembly (where London Citizens' members in Hackney put their agenda for change to councilors and prospective councillors from the three main parties) on March 22nd.

Barking Abbey Citizen Schools Team Launches

2010-02-09T11:48:00.002Z

13 students and staff from Barking Abbey School stayed behind after school on Monday to launch their Citizen Schools student team... 9 committed, articulate and confident year 7 pupils who are dedicated to improving their local community.

Over the next few weeks the group will be deciding which hot topic to focus on - policing or youth club facilities - and connecting to allies within the community to make real change happen. More updates from the students themselves soon...

Good luck Barking Abbey!

Kingsbury's Citizen Schools leaders prepare for action!

2010-02-08T13:04:00.002Z

On Friday the brilliant Citizen Schools team from Kingsbury High School came together for two hours of special training to take their ideas for community change to the next level.

Ben came into the school to help students sharpen their ideas - centred around an Expression Board (a space for students to get creative in, in a positive way), and a SundayFunday (the opportunity for young people to find out about the youth services on offer in the area), and a multicultural day (to celebrate the diversity of Brent).

Students went through an intensive Dragon's Den-style challenge, and then focused their efforts on finding those community allies who can help them make their ideas a reality - youth clubs, local community groups and council employees. With their next steps clearly identified, this is one Citizen Schools group who are going places! Well done to Head of Citizenship Joanne Robinson and Citizenship Teacher Thomas Owoo for supporting students' excellent progress!

Community Cohesion in action... in east London!

2010-02-05T23:00:00.000Z

Heard the one about the young person working together with the cleaners, the vicar, the imam, the Rabbi and schools of a different postcode, all to make a real difference to their neighbourhood?

No? Well this is what London Citizens is all about. And in East London today young people came together with leaders from across diverse communities, gathered together in Bryant Street Methodist Church hall because they all wanted the same thing: change. We had updates on key campaigns (like the living wage and strangers into citizens), and saw young people like Mohammed Abbas present on the progress he had made in leading City Safe in Waltham Forest Borough.

After that came the training - all about power and building public relationships; the one to ones - people getting to know diverse others and building power together; and the planning, ready for the general election to come and with it 'accountability assemblies' in certain boroughs, holding candidates for elected office to account on paying fair wages, creating safer streets, and creating affordable housing for local people.

Little Ilford gets Negotiation-Ready

2010-01-29T14:33:00.003Z

London Citizens' organisers Ben and Emmanuel went into Little Ilford to lead a negotiation training with the three Citizen Schools student teams on Friday 29th January.

The Little Ilford teams, led by Head of Citizenship Alistair Banks, are focused on three change-actions in and around the school and its community: street safe, street clean and road safe. They do what they say on the tin.

Students were given a real-life example scanrio from London Citizens' 'City Safe' campaign, took on roles of those involved (the school, council, local newspaper, church, mosque, local shops, youth club) and spent time preparing their negotiation, building the allies necessary to successfully lobby for support.

A great group of students to work with, the Little Ilford students are now ready to launch their negotiation strategy to make serious change around the school. Well done, leaders!

The Migration Conundrum: Be Part of the Dream Team

2010-01-03T20:33:00.001Z

London Citizens’ campaigns for the human rights of migrants – Citizens for Sanctuary and Strangers into Citizens – are joining forces with the Citizen Schools team to produce a compelling learning resource around the controversial issue of migration. It’ll be styled on the now famous ‘democracy cookbook’ and provide teachers and students with free access to a comprehensive toolkit of learning around migration, including: Activate! – a huge number of phenomenal learning activities, Real Lives – real life stories of young, real life migrants, Evidence Bank – helping students distinguish fact from fiction, and the YOUCAN toolkit – a guide for young people taking action on the issue.

We’re creating a team of teachers, students, migrants and staff here at London Citizens to advise on, test, add to and launch the resource between now and refugee week in June. If you want to be a part of it, the group will meet once a month and get their hands on the Migration Conundrum ideas and resources 6 months early. Just email ben@citizenschools.info if you’re interested. An example resource is shown below:

The Migration Conundrum - 5th February 2004

View more documents from citizenschools.

Citizen Schools - CHANGE HAS BEGUN!

2010-01-03T20:25:00.001Z

The Citizen Schools Pathway story so far...

Citizen Schools POWER UP!

2010-01-03T20:22:00.001Z

The final week of the winter term 2009 saw hundreds of young people from 18 schools across London descend on three schools for the Citizen Schools ‘Power Up’ events, the culmination of 5,000 students’ work through November and December to listen to their communities and create ideas to solve problems common to them.

Students came together to share their ideas, debate and discuss them, and work together to improve them, and the ideas on display were second to none – from City Safe Havens to a 24-hour library to the clear up of a local hotspot, to the creation of graffiti walls – young people’s ideas were community inspired, realistic, sustainable and focused on achieving real change.

Why did students go to all that trouble? – So their ideas are ready for the spring term, when students and citizen school teams – working with their London Citizens borough community organisers – negotiate support for the ideas with real-life power players (councillors, businesses, service providers like the police) and then make them happen… It’s all about real life leadership right now in the real world.

London Citizens member Schools scoop top awards!

2009-12-08T20:42:00.000Z

Ok, so they're our own awards, but they're recognising truly outstanding citizen action and leadership...

The London Citizens’ AGM and Annual Award Ceremony

Students, staff and head teacher Mel Whitfield were there to represent Prendergast Ladywell Fields College, Lewisham, who won London Citizens’ Pathway school award for their outstanding commitment to trainings, local community connecting, student presentations at Citizens’ assemblies, being awarded £12000 of funding for their ideas for change, and winning the commitment and backing from the Mayor of Lewisham.

St Angelas’ and St Bonaventures schools won the London Citizens Alliance school award for their students’ phenomenal work in shaping, leading and expanding the City Safe Campaign. Four years ago students from the school decided to take action to make their streets safer and build a positive image of young people in the capital. Four years later the student team at the school helped to build 40 city safe havens in the local area, was on hand to help persuade Boris Johnson to make City Hall the 200th Haven in London, and broadened the horizons of the entire City Safe Campaign by organising and holding the City Safe Youth Talent Showcase at Stratford Circus on August 28th – to show communities and the police the positive, creative power of young people working together.

Congratulations to both schools for their brilliant work. Get in touch now if your school wants to step up to a similar platform of real-world student, staff and parent leadership and be the catalyst for change in your part of London.

City Hall becomes London's 200th City Safe Haven!

2009-12-01T16:54:00.000Z

On Thursday 19th November 2009, young leaders from London Citizens joined Mayor of London Boris Johnson as he declared City Hall as the 200th CitySafe Haven in London – offering its premises as a refuge to a young person in fear of attack. By establishing City Hall as the 200th CitySafe Haven, the Mayor demonstrated his support for the CitySafe Campaign and encouraged other organizations to sign up to be CitySafe Havens.

The Mayor was cheered by an enthusiastic crowd of over 50 mostly young leaders from London Citizens - the event was a result of on-going negotiation and relationship-building between London Citizens and the Mayor’s office, initiated with Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse at the Young Citizens Assembly in April 2009. The CitySafe Campaign is attracting interest in cities across the UK, including Liverpool where local business alliances and the Metropolitan Police are considering setting up CitySafe Havens.

The 200 local organizations which have so far signed up to be CitySafe Havens in London can be recognized by a sticker in the window which includes a dedication to the memory of Jimmy Mizen and Bob Litambola, both of whose families have been active in the Campaign

Reaching Out

2009-11-29T15:22:00.009Z

Citizen Schools is an initiative of Citizens UK and all our London Schools are members of the broad based community alliance, London Citizens. Each Citizen Schools team has been learning the principles and skills of active citizenship and community organising in order to lead change in their community. As schools listen to their communities and work with other local organisations to build support they are being guided by London Citizens borough organisers. Borough organisers have in depth knowledge about the community in their area and also have a full grasp of local issues that are concerning people. Pictured are South London students working with Seb, an organiser in Greenwich.

Lilian Baylis Launch the Pathway programme

2009-11-29T14:59:00.008Z

Lillian Baylis Technology School in Lambeth have launched their Citizen School Pathway programme. Things kicked off with an assembly to the whole of year 8. The Citizen Schools team have also met with local community leaders - Sue Sheehan and Anne Bodkin to find out what's going on in the local area. The team are now working together to plan a local neighbourhood walk where they will enable year 8 to listen to the issues concerning the community and think about possible solutions.

George Green's School listen to their community

2009-11-23T10:29:00.000Z

Students at George Green's School simultaneously listened to a huge number of community partners on Friday 20th November: faith leaders, local businesses, Canary Wharf financiers, teachers, sixth formers, the school council, and the elderly to name but a few!

Prendergast Harnesses the Power of Youtube!

2009-11-21T10:33:00.000Z

Citizen Schools Week 2: Prendergast Ladywell Fields College.
Simon Jones, lead Citizen Schools teacher, has to find a way to introduce the next lesson to all students simultaneously. Youtube steps in...

West London Citizen Schools learn the art of negotiation...

2009-11-17T22:46:00.001Z

Today was west London schools' turn. Citizen Schools leaders (students, teachers, senior leaders, parents and governors) of our six west London schools came together to share progress and learn the art of negotiation in action. Below are some photos from the event, and participants' evaluation:

Citizen Schools Pathway Session 4 Evaluation (West London)

View more presentations from citizenschools.

Citizen Schools Power-up with Negotiation Training!

2009-11-17T07:41:00.003Z

It's one thing to come up with an idea. It's one thing to get the community rallying round that idea. But it's another to get power players to support it.

All this week, schools on the Citizen Schools Pathway programme are focusing on powering-up their strategies for community change with special negotiation trainings.

It works like a role-play, and gets everyone - young and old - involved, and brings out experiential learning around power, building alliances, creating tension, planning and understanding peole's motivations.

Here's some photos from the training:

Here is the South London evaluation:

Cs Pathway Session 4 Evaluation

View more presentations from citizenschools.

The Citizen Schools Pathway in Action!

2009-11-12T07:08:00.000Z

The change has begun.

Across London, 5,000 young people in 18 schools are busy learning about, investigating, listening to and creating ideas to improve their communities. It's the first phase of the Citizen Schools Pathway.

Here's a summary of the brilliant progress being made by schools:

George Green's School is holding a 'listening hour' for all Year 7 students, with pupils split into expert teams tasked with listening to particular groups. Coming into the school next Friday at 10am are groups of parents, sixth formers, primary school students, elderly residents, and representatives from Morgan Stanley - plus students are heading out to visit local businesses. They've also designed their own take on the Citizen Schools logo which all staff are currently wearing!

Barking Abbey School, Charter School, Drayton Manor High School, Central Foundation Girls School, Little Ilford School and Hendon School have all held successful launch assemblies led by students - well done to Pryia, Yewande, Jessica, Musa, Shahanur, the team at Central Foundation and Charter's Year 8 School Council for all their work towards this.

John Roan School have launched their programme with this engaging short video explaining what's happening in their particular galaxy!

Lampton School held a special launch yesterday with Year 9 students coming out of lessons for short 'taster' activities in the main hall led by the citizenship team and students themselves... a unique way to generate enthusiasm and show the project is a little bit different!

Lilian Baylis Technology School are busy meeting with local partners, organisations and groups who will help students investigate the local environment and street safety - and are planning a local community walk for pupils to listen to the community.

Kingsbury High School have their team of Citizen Schools student leaders in place, divided into teams responsible for film/photography, blogging and communicating to power players. Citizen Schools leaders are alos leading a whole-staff 30 minute briefing on the project and have featured the Citizen Schools plans in the latest governor's report.

Prendergast Ladywell Fields College have a unique model of their students leading the Citizen Schools lessons alongside teachers. A huge team of 50+ student leaders have been in classes beginning the journey for hundreds of students. Click here to see it in action on youtube! Meanwhile they're planning a 'listening' stall in the heart of Lewisham, and Amanda and Alice are keeping the borough's power players in touch with excellent regular updates.

Cardinal Wiseman School held a special training for their Citizen Schools student leaders, have divided up roles into connectors, researchers, broadcasters and ambassadors, and their team is being mentored by two outstanding sixth form students (well done Grainne and James!).

Change is Possible! New film shows it's young people who can lead change!

2009-11-05T18:40:00.006Z

It's finally arrived - a video prooving the positive impact young people can have on their communities. Our 'Change is Possible' film identifies seven examples of students in action to bring about change in their schools and local areas, captured over the last 2 years. It includes real-life London examples of film making, petitioning, negotiations, board meetings, street protests, rallies, alliance actions and use of the media. As one group of students from a Greenwich school said, 'it's a completely inspiring film!'...

Lewisham Mayor Commits to Prendergast Ladywell Fields College

2009-10-20T19:57:00.006+01:00

All it took was an email.

And a phenomenal group of committed students passionate and confident that they are going to make a change in their local community.

So it was that Amanda and Alice, Year 9 students of Prendergast Ladywell Fields College, Lewisham, sent their borough's 'power players' a simple email asking for their support in helping them make their local Catford community better. And top of their hit list was Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham.

And just two weeks later they came face to face with their targeted recipient - following South London Citizens' 'Delegates Assembly' at Lambeth Town Hall. The Mayor was there to be contragulated for, and reaffirm, his support for London Citizens' 'City Safe' campaign - a community-led response to make local streets safer, by bringing shopkeepers, police and communities together, a response triggered in south London by the tragic murder of teenager Jimmy Mizen.

It's the kind of real change Alice and Amanda want to achieve. And, hand in hand with a strong team of students from Prendergast students present at the event, they met the Mayor afterwards and were delighted when he committed to meeting with them to discuss their 'Citizen Schools' project more to see how he could support it - before they even had to press him on the matter.

So now they have their foot in the door - and it just took an email (and the commitment to make that happen). Now the real hard work begins: convincing the Mayor to support their ideas.

Watch this space for more - from both the school and the Mayor!

London Youth's Got Talent - Calling all Creative Schools - One Brilliant Opportunity!

2009-10-20T19:42:00.004+01:00

THE EVENT
On 25th November it is London Citizens' Annual Assembly at The Barbican. 2000 people from 130 schools, universities, faith groups, youth groups, trade unions and community groups will gather with London's power players (Mayor Boris johnson included) to make London better for its citizens.

THE OPPORTUNITY
And we want London's young people to turn the Barbican into a venue showcasing their amazing talent.

We are looking for talented poets, spoken word artists, circus skills artists, visual and physical theatre artists to perform to a PROFESSIONAL STANDARD in the prestigious Barbican foyer on the night of the Assembly. We also have one space for a Jazz Band/Orchestra. We need a total of 5-6 acts on the evening.

THE AUDITION: CIRCUS SKILLS/PHYSICAL THEATRE/POETRY & SPOKEN WORD/JAZZ BAND or ORCHESTRA
Auditions to find the five acts will take place on Tuesday 3rd November, 6-8pm, at Central Foundation Girls School, Harley Grove, Bow London, E3 2AT).

To book places for acts/performers from your school, please contact:
Ben Hammond, Citizen Schools Co-ordinator, ben@citizenschools.info / 0772 33 780 44

The audition is limited to 20 acts so please get in touch as soon as possible to confirm your place(s).

THE ARTWORK
If you have artwork you'd like to display on the evening it needs to be mounted on A1 boards - see here for more.

The Pathway is up and running! Session One Highlights...

2009-09-27T21:50:00.002+01:00

18 schools from across London came together in East, South and West London to begin their year's development programme to bring the teaching and learning of citizenship education alive by connecting it to the communities they serve.

Students, teachers, parents, carers, governors and senior leaders from each school worked together, long into the evening, to vision their 'Citizen School' and get to grips with the year ahead, a year they are responsible for working together to plan and implement.

2009-2010 will see each school will see its students connecting to and listening to their community, creating ideas to solve key community issues, sharing their ideas with other schools, negotiating with power players, taking action to make their ideas happen, and celebrating the progress they have achieved.

Calling all Art Departments!

2009-09-26T19:48:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday 25th November, thousands of leaders from London Citizens' communities will attend London Citizens’ Autumn Assembly at the prestigious Barbican Centre, to work together on issues that matter to our communities across the capital. Mayor Johnson has already confirmed his attendance.

We want to transform the venue to reflect the diversity of our alliance of schools, unions and faith and community groups. In addition to groups' performing around the centre, members of London Citizens have the opportunity to create/display artwork, and we would like the work of young people to be at the forefront of this - showcasing the very best our schools have to offer.

The artwork can be of variable format - paintings, photography, graphic design, collage etc - but needs to be mounted on standard A1 boards (594 x 841 mm). Each school is limited to 2 boards (though this may change depending on the number of schools wishing to display work), and the work will need to be given the green light by us before it can be included.

Please let Sebastien Chapleau (07970 527622, sebastien.chapleau@cof.org.uk) know by the end of half term if you are keen to get involved and what sort of work your students will try to produce before the beginning of November. We need to have a rough idea of what they’ll produce in order to start planning the layout. Work focusing on the themes of the Assembly - diverse communities working together for change and the common good, and a people's response to the economic crisis - will get priority.

Jamie Audsley starts as the Citizen Schools Organiser

2009-09-10T12:25:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone, I hope you’ve had relaxing summers and best of luck with the start of term if you’re heading into school, or the return to work if not.

My name’s Jamie Audsley and I’ve just been recruited by Ben and the COF team as the new Citizen Schools Organiser. Thank you for the warm welcome from everyone I’ve met and spoken to so far, and I’m really looking forward to getting to know you all in the coming year and beyond.

With an additional organiser focused on the programme we’ll be able to increase support for schools and their communities connected to the work of Citizen Schools and London Citizens; ensuring that your effort to create active, informed and confident citizens is as effective as possible.

I’ll be working closely alongside Ben to help support and implement the four strands of Citizen Schools (Alliance, Pathway, Community and Award) and I’m especially excited about getting out and about to learn with you in a real and meaningful way.

Before starting in this role I’ve worked on democracy, education and youth projects at The Young Foundation and London Youth, and more recently, taught Geography and Science at Addington High School in South East Croydon. It feels like this role will really combine all the skills I’ve learnt to date!

After organising a cross school humanities day which had an “active citizenship” focus during my last year of teaching I believe in everything you’re doing and hope to be a messenger to those who haven’t discovered a piece of the action quite yet. I believe that only by connecting our young people, schools and communities will we succeed in supporting a vibrant society, and only through teaching the art of politics in action will our democracy flourish. In this role I hope I can work effectively with you in this effort and play a small part in this massively important work.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch – I’m on 02070439874 and 07866567945

City Safe Youth's Got Talent!

2009-08-28T21:19:00.002+01:00

On Friday 28th August, 300 people packed into Stratford Circus for the CitySafe Youth Talent Showcase. Organised by students from St. Angela's and St. Bonaventure's School, the purpose of the showcase was to celebrate the achievements of young people in being part of the solution to knife crime and violence, and to recognise all those who have contributed to the continued success of CitySafe in London.

The performances from all the acts were truly amazing! Our compares TJ and Ashley had the audience eating out of their hands with their unique humourous style, and special performances by Tribal Man and Gracious K invited some audience participation on stage.
CitySafe Champion Awards were given to: Chief Inspector Gary Brown of Newham Metropolitan Police; Barry and Margaret Mizen Tyeisha Litambola for their support and dedicated work on the campaign. Starbucks representatives received the award on behalf of Jimmy Curtis for his role in making Starbucks the first business leader to suppory CitySafe.

Paul Amuzie receieved the CitySafe Champion Award for his key role in organising the event, and special mention also goes to Karen Jones from St. Antony's Church for her invaluable input and supervision for the event.

Young people from South London Citizens also received the CitySafe Champion award: Bridy Purcell, Celia Morris, Destine Okoibhole, Alex Okoibhole, Eva Okoibhole, Halimatou Yacouba, Bubacar Yacouba, and Jamilla Yacouba.

Everyone on the night was a winner, but the official winning acts were:

First:
Visions

Second:
Georgina

Third:
Diana

A massive thanks to all the acts for all their hard work and truly insipirng performances.

Emmanuel Gotora, Newham Organiser, London Citizens

Bow School Students Design Their 21st Century Community

2009-07-22T18:57:00.003+01:00

Citizen School Alliance member Bow School of Maths and Computing has been working with London Citizens over the past 5 months to bring active citizenship into the classroom.

The culmination of the project was on Thursday 2nd July, when Tower Hamlets Mayor, Councillor Ahmed Omer, joined head teacher Beverley Dobson and Year 8 students to officially open the Parmiter Street ‘21st Century Tower Hamlets’ exhibition – showcasing students’ ideas and designs for a 21st century logo for Tower Hamlets.

Students worked in Citizenship and Art lessons to learn about the history of Tower Hamlets, and analyse it as a modern-day London borough. In art, students designed new logos to represent its history, entrepreneurial spirit and its diversity – while back in Citizenship lessons, students prepared speeches to persuade others that their logo was the one that deserved to feature in the exhibition.

On June 17th the Mayor and fellow councillor Azizur Khan came to the school to act as Dragons for the day, analysing the students’ logos, hearing their speeches, and deciding which designs would get through to be part of the real-life exhibition on Parmiter Street.

Such was the standard of the students' designs and speeches that ultimately all of the students’ work was given the green light by the Mayor. And just two weeks later, the same boys were outside the Parmiter Street development, painting their logos for all to see. After four hours of hard work, the Mayor of Tower Hamlets and housing developers Family Mosaic paid a visit to congratulate the boys’ work and ensure the exhibition received serious media attention in the council’s East End Life publication.

The real-life nature of the exhibition, and the involvement of real politicians from their area gave the boys involved extra motivation to succeed. The logos and speeches speak for themselves. It’s the kind of opportunity the Citizen Schools Alliance affords its member schools. Get in touch for more information on how your school can make community-based active citizenship a reality.

Hiring Now... Pathway Schools busy recruiting leadership teams

2009-07-22T17:48:00.002+01:00

In the run-up to the end of term and the Citizen Schools Pathway launch, each participating school has been busy organising the teachers, parents, senior leaders, governors and students to make up their Citizen School Team. Participants - students included - will go on a year-long development programme where they will accrue the skills, knowledge and experience of planning and implementing real, engaging, motivating active citizenship education.

The key is get participants opting in, finding those people who really want to take part, who feel the programme chimes with where they are at and who can commit the time to really make taking part worthwhile for themselves and the school.

Head teacher of Prendergast Ladywell Fields College, Mel Whitfield, felt the Pathway was so significant that the school created a special post - with additional funding - to lead the school's participation, with all staff able to freely apply for the position. This helped recruit Simon Jones, Head of Geography, to their Citizen Schools team.

Thomas Tallis school (above) set about holding student interviews for the two student leader positions. After using our job descriptions and doing lessons to interested students, young people had to apply for the position and write a CV to support their application. Formal interviews in the school's official meeting room followed - after which students were selected, with everyone interviewed being given some form of position, be it Citizen Schools Leader (who attends trainings throughout the year) or Citizen Schools Ambassador (who works primarily inside the school to get other students motivated and involved).

All the resources to support you doing this in your school are available to download from our Citizen Schools Community, our online forum. The materials are in our special Pathway zone, so make sure you register on the forum to be able to get the resources!

Does your school need support to go green?

2009-07-21T22:46:00.003+01:00

Does your school live within One Planet? If everyone in the world lived the way the average Londoner does we’d need three planets to support us!

To help get closer to One Planet living, London Citizens has launched a new programme of support to enable your school to become environmentally, economically and socially sustainable and just.

You’ll get free specialist training and support from London Citizens organizers and copies of the free One Planet Citizens Toolkit, enabling you to put together a One Planet Action Plan laying out the steps to sustainability for your school. There’s an award to reward your efforts too.

By thinking globally and acting locally we can have a massive impact. Small choices made thousands of times bring big results. One Planet – a programme working with not only schools but also churches, mosques, community groups and trade unions – is here to help you get results for your school.

For more info email Alex at oneplanet@londoncitizens.org.uk, or talk direct on 020 7043 9879.

Citizen Schools Launch: The Verdict is in!

2009-07-20T18:07:00.005+01:00

170 students, teachers, senior leaders, governors, parents, carers and head teachers from 18 schools across London came together on the evening of 9th July 2009 at the Institute of Education for the launch of the Citizen Schools Pathway. Before leaving, each participant completed a report card – feeding back on their experience of the launch. Here are the results...

Citizen Schools Pathway Launch: Evaluation

View more documents from citizenschools.

HAS YOUR SCHOOL... GOT TALENT?

2009-07-20T12:23:00.006+01:00

If students from your school have got what it takes to showcase their talents and send out a positive message about what young people are about - then 28th August 2008 is the date for them.

On Friday 28 August 2009 at Stratford Circus, London E15, young people from across London will perform and showcase their talent to a huge London-wide audience, and raise serious funds and support for the young-people led City Safe Campaign of community alliance London Citizens.

CitySafe is a community-led response which brings schools, churches, mosques, local businesses together to make our communities safer for all, with the help of the Police and the Mayor of London.

If you or young people you know want to be part of this momentous event, they need to bring their talent to the show auditions, on 1-3 August 2009 at St. Angela’s Ursuline School, St. George’s Road, Forest Gate, London E7 8HU. Contact Paul Amuzie on 07800 500851 or email pjamuzie16@aol.com for more information.

The Citizen Schools Pathway is Launched!

2009-07-14T19:08:00.001+01:00

170 students, parents, carers, teachers, subject leaders, governors, senior leaders and headteachers - representing 18 schools across London - came together at the Institute of Education for the launch of the 2009-2010 Citizen Schools Pathway...

See the highlights below...

The Citizen Schools Pathway forum has begun!

2009-07-14T11:48:00.004+01:00

Everyone who is part of the Citizen Schools Pathway can now communicate and interact in virtual cyberspace via the London Grid for Learning-authorised 'Citizen Schools Community'. That's our online forum which helps people who believe in education for active citizens connect, share and provide support.

The Pathway forum is private - so only those teachers, parents, governors, senior leaders and young people who are part of the Pathway can access it.

Available on the forum is all the essential information about the Pathway so far - contact details for schools, details of how each school is implementing the Pathway, and draft timetables and course guides. If you're part of the pathway, visit the Citizen Schools Community to get access to all this now! Make sure you log in or register.

Anyone who has an interest in education for active citizens can join the Citizen Schools Community - our open forum has an evolving catalogue of resources and materials to support the teaching and learning of active citizenship, plus there's discussion forums and job opportunities flagged up as they arise. Visit the forum now to join...

Job Opportunity: Do you want to join the Citizen Schools team?

2009-07-02T11:48:00.007+01:00

The Citizen Organising Foundation is looking for an exceptional candidate to join its dynamic, innovative Citizen Schools initiative.

You would be responsible for helping to support and implement the four strands of Citizen Schools, which all aim to build strong, inclusive schools which embrace and enable their students, staff and parents as active citizens who believe in their power influence and improve their communities.

The successful candidate will work closely with Citizen Schools Co-ordinator Ben Hammond, and will share responsibility for:

Supporting the Citizen Schools Alliance - a network of 50+ primary schools, secondary schools, youth groups - with trainings in active citizenship education and community organising for students, staff and parents/carers, through guidance and advice, and by building one-to-one public relationships

Delivering the Citizen Schools Pathway - liaising with diverse members of school communities, borough decision-makers and service providers; delivering inter-school training for school teams, helping to organise events, communicating and broadcasting progress and outcomes to a wide audience

Building the Citizen Schools Community - facilitating the increasing membership of the online forum, encouraging use and sharing of resources and ideas, creating the forum as a hub to link all four initiatives and enable members to interact and support each other

Designing the Citizen Schools Award - bringing together an advisory group to steer the creation of the award, its criteria, its process, its administration and national roll-out.

To be considered, candidates must:

Have teaching experience in UK secondary or primary schools

Be available to begin the post in August/September 2009

Have a track record of effecting change or enabling others to do so

Have an interest in and emerging understanding of community organising and/or other processes of campaigning and change-making

We are currently seeking expressions of interest from those who might fit the bill, prior to a formal application and selection procedure. If you're interested and would like to find out more, please refer to elsewhere in this blog and our new website for further details of the four strands of our work. Please also register your interest by contacting Ben Hammond, Citizen Schools Co-ordinator, directly: click here for Ben's contact details.

The John Roan School: the first of 17 to confirm their Pathway participants

2009-07-01T20:19:00.008+01:00

The John Roan School, Greenwich, have become the first school on the Citizen Schools Pathway programme to get all their stakeholders signed up. That includes a senior leader, subject leader, governor, two parents and two students - who have all met with me individually, and almost all met each other, after we had the first group meeting today at the school.

Citizenship is really moving forward at the school, with Citizen Schools Pathway adding strategic power and capacity to the mix. Des Malone, former Deputy Head at Deptford Green, and now the successful head of John Roan, has prioritised its development - and with a strong specialist Department led by Rahima Choudhury and line managed by deputy head Jan Farmer - who also oversees the school's community engagement - the scene is set for the Citizen Schools programme to take active citizenship across the whole school to the next level.

Added to that team is Carl Parsons, school governor and Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University, two parents - Sam Binns and David Davis - who have put themselves forward to take part, plus Ramandeep Pawar and Jamie Galloway - two year 8 students who are already walking the talk of politics in action: they've lined up a meeting with none other than Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, at Number 10, on Friday!

John Roan are also the first school to confirm their full quota of attendees for the Citizen Schools launch - so everyone will be there on Thursday 9th, to meet other schools and participants, find out more about the programme, and get a real sense of the power of citizenship education in action.

Less than two weeks until the Citizen Schools Pathway Launch Event!

2009-06-26T18:40:00.004+01:00

7.30 - 9.30pm, Thursday 9th July, Institute of Education, London...

150 people from 17 schools across London will gather to launch the Citizen Schools Pathway programme, an initiative of the Citizens Organising Foundation, and part of the London Citizens' Schools Alliance work to build schools as strong, inclusive centres of their community.

As such, the Pathway fuses two concepts: citizenship education, with its focus on action and experiencial learning, and community organising, with its focus on building power, bridging communities, finding commonality and teaching the art of politics through doing. Both are united in their aim to give citizens the experience of trying to change the world. By using one - community organising - the Citizen Schools Pathway looks to establish the other - citizenship education - across the whole school, and make the community an intrinsic part of schools' culture and curriculum. Relevant, applied and engaging learning is the result.

If you're from a participating school, from a school part of the Citizen Schools Alliance but not on the programme for this year, or from the world of Citizenship Education - please make sure you confirm your place in good time. Places are going fast! The event will feature testimony, interactivity, film, keynotes from Sir Keith Ajegbo, and a whole lot more besides.

Contact Ben, Citizen Schools Co-ordinator, to reserve your place. All the contact details are on our new Citizen Schools website.

The Final List is in... 17 Schools are Part of the Citizen Schools Pathway 09-10!

2009-06-26T18:19:00.003+01:00

The recruitment is over. 17 schools will be taking part in our Pathway programme next year. We've been bowled over by the response from schools, and we're really, really proud of the final line-up.

Each of these schools will be working to build a team of leaders - each team including a senior leader, governor, subject leader/teacher, parent and two students - who will lead the development of whole-school active citizenship through the year and beyond. Not only that, each school gets to be members of our Alliance and London Citizens - enabling hundreds of parents, senior students, teachers and support staff access to free community leadership training to help strengthen their schools. The line up includes:

Barking Abbey (Barking & Dagenham)
Cardinal Wiseman (Ealing)
Central Foundation Girls School (Tower Hamlets)
The Charter School (Southwark)
Drayton Manor High School (Ealing)
George Green's School (Tower Hamlets)
Hackney Free & Parochial School (Hackney)
Hendon School (Barnet)
Hounslow Manor (Hounslow)
The John Roan School (Greenwich)
Kingsbury School (Brent)
Lampton School (Hounslow)
Little Ilford School (Newham)
Lilian Baylis Technology School (Lambeth)
Prendergast Ladywell Fields College (Lewisham)
St Angela's Ursuline and St Bonaventure's Sixth Form (Newham)
Thomas Tallis School (Greenwich)

We're really looking forward to working with the teams from all of these schools, to really make school life an opportunity to build and create active citizens: for us, school shouldn't be a dress rehearsal for public life!

Outstanding! Lampton School, Hounslow, joins Citizen Schools

2009-06-18T23:45:00.004+01:00

More terrific news just in. Lampton School, which featured in OFSTED's recent publication highlighting 12 flagship, continually outstanding secondary schools, has joined the Citizen Schools Pathway.

They join Drayton Manor and Cardinal Wiseman schools as confirmed schools from west London taking part in the one-year intensive development programme, with all the benefits that come with it.

More than that, as members of the Alliance (and so of London Citizens), Lampton - as with all Citizen Schools Alliance members - will receive community organising and leadership training for ANY of its stakeholders - parents, carers, teachers, support staff or students. It's the very same training a certain Barack Obama went on before beginning his career in community organising, local politics and change.

Congratulations to Lampton for joining. It's a really exciting prospect - the focus for the programme within the school will be in the sixth form, developing its Citizenship programme - working closely with head of sixth form Ray Whyms and his team of diverse participants. Exciting times, and a privilege to work with such an exciting and innovative school.

Places going fast... Drayton Manor High School becomes part of the Citizen Schools Pathway

2009-06-17T19:10:00.004+01:00

Great news from West London - Drayton Manor High School, who specialise in citizenship through their humanities college status, have joined the Citizen Schools Pathway.

After running through the programme during a meeting with their specialist teaching team, Kate Ricks (Head of Citizenship) and Varinder Kahnna (Specialist School Manager) took the idea to SLT who confirmed their backing of the four criteria schools must meet to be a part: belief (in education for active, responsible citizens), commitment (to a specialist team), finance (an average of £2000 for a school to participate - though schools meet this in a variety of ways) and staffing (finding and recruiting the 5-6 participants).

It's brilliant news - with a specialist team, with citizenship as a specialist subject, with the team aiming to break new ground in the active citizenship experiences they provide for students, and with a specialist school manager to oversee the programme at the school, the seeds are set for a successful year ahead. See everyone at the Launch event!

Lilian Baylis joins the Citizen Schools Pathway - now just one place left for South London!

2009-06-15T14:04:00.005+01:00

Lilian Baylis school, Lambeth, has become the latest school (and fourth from south London) to take a place on the Pathway 2009-2010: our intensive, 1-year programme to help schools build leadership, capacity and sustainability for active, community-focused citizenship education. I met with Assistant Head teacher and line manager for Humanities Karen Chamberlain to run through everything last week, after which the opportunity was passed to Gary Phillips, Head teacher, to pour over the detail, and who confirmed their participation today.

It's great Lilian Baylis are involved - they're a dynamic, small and almost family-like school with an innovative reputation (having turned a poorly performing school into a great one in a really short time), and who hold a community focus at their core. They also teach citizenship as part of shared humanities provision, which opens up exciting possibilities for the curriculum project the school will plan and implement together with the four other schools in south London.

Lilian Baylis joins an exciting mix of secondary schools and sixth form colleges embarking on the Citizen Schools Pathway, including Central Foundation, St Angelas & St Bonaventures, Little Ilford, Barking Abbey, Prendergast Ladywell Fields College, Cardinal Wiseman, Thomas Tallis and and Hackney Free & Parochial School. Each school involved becomes an automatic member of the Alliance - and so becomes part of a huge community-led movement for action, change and social justice. Bring it on!

150 citizenship practitioners have joined the Citizen Schools forum in just 2 months!

2009-06-14T23:24:00.004+01:00

160 people, in fact! It's a great start for the site, which is designed to give citizenship teachers (and the many others involved in the task of educating active, responsible citizens) quick, easy access to high quality resources, ideas and discussions on how to do this.

So the CitizenSchools forum is for everyone - teachers, senior leaders, governors, parents included - that believes in education for active citizens. It's purpose is to bring citizenship educationalists and stakeholders together to take citizenship education forward, by sharing resources, ideas and support to raise the impact of what we all do. Anyone is welcome to join (it's free, as are all resources shared on the site). The resources uploaded are subject to the creative commons license, meaning that people can use them freely in their contexts.

If you're not yet using the site, give it a go - it's got potential!

St Marks Catholic School, Hounslow, joins the Citizens Schools Alliance

2009-06-14T22:49:00.004+01:00

Outstanding Catholic school St Marks has joined London Citizens and so becomes part of the Citizen Schools Alliance. After myself and Austen, West London Citizens' lead organiser, had presented our work to the head teacher, senior leaders and chaplain, they took the idea of joining to The Catholic life of the school committee, who approved their membership.

This is great news - St Marks' is an impressive school with a community-focused ethos and strong commitment to Catholic social teaching. It means the school and its students, parents and staff will join many others across London in being able to access community leadership training, local networks to help take action to improve their community, and regional and London-wide events and assemblies - both school-focused and intergenerational, all focused on achieving citizen-led change for the common good.

We look forward to a strong relationship with everyone at St Marks - to help build on their impressive foundations and give students, parents and staff real experience citizenship in action.

Sir Keith Ajegbo endorses Citizen Schools

2009-06-13T20:25:00.005+01:00

Sir Keith Ajegbo has recently lent his support to the Citizen Schools pathway - a 1-year applied development programme which aims to embed active citizenship across the whole school, using a method inspired by community organising.

"I wholeheartedly support the Citizen Schools pathway - a great way for schools to connect to their communities and bring learning alive through Citizenship education. It's a targeted, strategic approach to build leadership, focus and momentum around educating active, responsible citizens, and promoting community cohesion, student voice, community engagement and inclusion."

"The development programme brings together schools across London to enliven teaching and learning in citizenship and across the whole school by engaging their communities. It's innovative - students, parents and governors are trained alongside senior leaders and teaching staff - and it provides a clear pathway towards becoming an inclusive, citizenship-rich school where participation, responsibility and governance are shared across the whole community."

Visit the Citizen Schools website for more on the Pathway dimension.

3 places left for the Citizen Schools Pathway 09-10

2009-06-13T07:59:00.013+01:00

There are now just 3 places remaining for the Citizen Schools Pathway: 'Citizenship Education and Community Organising'. It's a 1-year applied development programme for 6 leaders (a senior leader, governor, parent, subject leader/teacher, and two students) to build strategic capacity for citizenship education within schools.

Demand has been phenomenal since we broadcast the programme two weeks ago, with 20 schools now interested in the 3 remaining places. If you're in a school in south or west London and want to take your whole-school citizenship to the next, active, level, visit the Citizen Schools website now to download the briefing pack, and contact me (Ben Hammond, Lead Organiser) to set up a meeting: ben.hammond@londoncitizens.org.uk

Thomas Tallis joins Citizen Schools!

2009-06-12T23:34:00.009+01:00

Thomas Tallis school, Greenwich, has become the latest school (and third from south London) to take a place on the Pathway 2009-2010: our intensive, 1-year programme to help schools build leadership, capacity and sustainability for active, community-focused citizenship education. Head of Wellbeing Michelle Springer and I met this afternoon at the school, and our partnership for the year ahead then sewn up by the head teacher's all-clear.

I'm really please Thomas Tallis are involved - a forward-thinking school with lots of exciting intiatives, a strong sense of community and student voice, and a growing and extremely dedicated specialist Citizenship and Wellbeing teaching team. Here's to some really exciting collaboration in the year to come.

Thomas Tallis joins a rich mix of secondary schools and sixth form colleges embarking on the Pathway, including Central Foundation, St Angelas & St Bonaventures, Little Ilford, Barking Abbey, Prendergast Ladywell Fields College, Cardinal Wiseman, and Hackney Free & Parochial School. Each school involved becomes an automatic member of the Alliance - and so becomes part of a huge community-led movement for action, change and social justice.

Citizen Schools enters the world of the blog...

2009-06-12T22:52:00.004+01:00

Today's the day we've got around to starting this blog. For you, it's a way to quickly find out the latest news from any of the four dimensions of Citizen Schools: the alliance, the pathway, the community or the award. For us, it's a more straightforward and easy way to communicate.

We're also available via our website, www.citizenschools.org.uk

Thanks - hope this blog proves to be useful.

Ben
--
BenHammond
Lead Organiser, Citizen Schools Alliance