Little Ilford gets Negotiation-Ready

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

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!

The Citizen Schools Pathway story so far...

Citizen Schools POWER UP!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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!

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...