Politics & Citizenship

Jonna Stevens

As tradition dictates, we will start by saying a farewell to last year’s Politics cohort. The small but perfect in every way group of year 13s gained excellent grades and went on to gaining places at their first choice of universities. This was a huge achievement given the backdrop of the final two terms of 2020 and we wish them well.

This year has seen several changes in the Politics and Citizenship Department. We have welcomed a new member of staff, Jennifer Robins, who has taken on KS3 Citizenship teaching with energy and enthusiasm, and we have expanded Citizenship KS3 from a two to three year curriculum. We have also introduced the IB Global Politics to the department and with that seen the final cohort of Politics A-Level.

The final year of year 13 Politics A-level students worked hard throughout the year whether at home or at school. Students enjoying grappling with political ideologies, studying feminism and the continuing political struggle for women to enjoy equal rights in all aspects of life. Students then moved on to studying the structure and contradictions of US Politics and comparisons with the UK which are, whatever your political views, arguably getting narrower. The students had worked so hard, and it is with deep regret that they were not able to sit their external exams. However, they did well in our internal assessments and the knowledge that they have gained and the enquiring mind that you acquire from studying Politics will benefit them far beyond sitting an exam. The new group of Year 12 students studying for a IB Global Politics qualification have had a busy start to the course looking at power and sovereignty, human rights, development and peace and violence. Plenty to get our teeth into as we are following events around the world such as the change in power in the US and the actions of China in regard to the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and the increasing concern of the Chinese treatment of the Uighur ethnic population and many other events. The examination requirements for next year includes a filmed presentation and an extended essay and students have worked hard to prepare for these through collaborative working to analyse and evaluate case studies of events from around the world.

The Year 10 Citizenship GCSE class have enjoyed learning about Politics and Participation this year and are currently busy planning their Active Citizenship engagement project with some exciting ideas of how to improve school democracy and environmental projects in the pipeline, which we look forward to being implemented and evaluated at the start of next year. After one year’s hiatus with no new KS4 Citizenship GCSE option class, we are looking forward to welcoming a new GCSE group starting in September. We have seen an increase in the uptake of Citizenship at KS4, perhaps because of increased interest and engagement in current affairs because of the pandemic and Brexit.

As a department we are relishing the opportunity to have discussions with our students about how society operates, what equality and fairness looks like and how citizens can be empowered to change their communities for the better.

Our KS3 Citizenship lessons see students thinking about rights and responsibilities, how communities can get along better and how to manage your money and how the British justice system operates. Year 9 students have studied British Politics and Government and we had a UK Parliament virtual workshop for the year group hosted by the Parliamentary Education Service which was well received.

We wish all our students and their families well and look forward to seeing them all for another busy year.