The Citizen Schools Pathway forum has begun!

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?

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:

1. 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


2. 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


3. 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


4. 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.

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

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!