Active Citizenship
The Department aims to challenge the pupils to be active citizens and believes very strongly that pupils should try to give back to both the community they are part of and to the country they belong to. In their Upper Fifth year they are challenged to partake in a set of practical challenges to try and make them aware of how to become more active as UK citizens. Some examples of the challenges are detailed below:
Challenges to the pupils (and maybe our parents too!):
- Write to the Prime Minister about an issue they feel strongly about - Iraq, Tuition Fees, Fox Hunting and other issues have already been used
- Plant a tree, to put oxygen back into the atmosphere
- Make a simple promise not to leave the tap running when they brush their teeth
- Become a blood donor (bearing in mind that 99% of us would want blood if involved in an accident, but only 6% of us give blood)
- Persuade parents / guardians to fit at least one energy saving light bulb in their home
- Decline plastic bags wherever possible (Mrs Parish has now gone to the extreme of taking her basket shopping instead of needing plastic bags!!)
- Write to one person who has inspired them (a teacher, an author, a friend, a relative, the possibilities are endless)
There are some more fantastic ideas for how to become active citizens at:
The whole school was lucky enough to have a presentation in chapel in the Summer term of 2005, by a lady who had been involved in the organisation above, and who showed us the book "Save the World for a fiver". The talk inspired the school to give every pupil a copy of the book. In PSHE we are now working on making the contents and ideas of the book a reality for our pupils, and using PSHE time for a few weeks in the Upper Fifth to do so.