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Posted on July 22nd 2021

Active Citizens Day - What Our Values Mean in the Wider World

Boys in Years 7 and 8 had a whole day exploring our Active Citizen characteristics and what they mean in the wider world.

Read more about our Active Citizen characteristics of confidence, respect, ambition, curiosity and resilience.

Teachers planned sessions which explored different topics and draw out how they relate to being an active citizen. Mr Russell’s science lesson, for example, was a debate on the proposition ‘This house would ban the development of genetically modified organisms’. Teams of four boys presented the arguments for and against.

Mohammed is pictured presenting the arguments against the motion. “We have opposition and proposition but we respect points made by our opponents and listen to them,” said Mr Russell

In a Maths session with Ms Abdulaahi, boys had to be ambitious and create a theme park for £500k – balancing out the need for rides but also facilities like café and toilets – and then created their own symmetrical logos for their parks. David, Year 7 (pictured), created a logo “based on moon and rocket – combining random ideas.”

Ms George’s English session (below) looked at the relationship between football and literature and also debated whether footballers should give 50% of their income to the community. “The money they give could be invested in growing other people in the community that we need more, like doctors and nurses,” said Malek.

The session also covered issues relating to resilience by looking at the important topic of racism in football and how this affects players.

Mr Powell’s session explored how advances in science, such as genetic engineering, are governed by ethics – the decision about whether something is fair. Boys used their curiousity to question the fairness of different decisions.

In the playground boys also had the chance to play a ‘guess the celebrity game’ by solving clues about what each person had done in their life, related to our Active Citizen values. Buddy, Year 7 (pictured), got them all right!

“Today is about how to be a better person and give something back to the community,” said Buddy (pictured below). “That’s what being an active citizen is and I liked the day because I got all the posters right! I had to think about some of them but I got them all.”

The next Active Citizens Day will take place next term.

What Year 7 covered in their Active Citizens Day

History

Why is history important: healing Australia through indigenous civil rights and recognising the past.

Objective: To be able to explain the importance of understanding historical events to create a more inclusive society.

Active Citizens characteristics covered:

Curiosity – students will learn about ancient cultures that sit outside of the curriculum
Ambition – to examine the importance of civil rights movements and the struggle for equal rights
Resilience – recognising that civil rights and equality is a long struggle, but can be won
Respect – understanding ancient cultures still exist, and these should be respected and learnt from, not assimilated or destroyed.

Spanish

Cultural Discovery of Spanish speaking countries

Objectives: To understand the reach of Spanish as a global language; to discover the cultural identities of Spanish-speaking countries; to foster an understanding of other cultures and different ways of seeing the world.

Active Citizens characteristics covered:

Curiosity - students will learn about different Spanish-speaking counties and their cultures
Respect - students will appreciate and respect the difference between different cultures, comparing and evaluating with their own.

RS

Where do humanists find their truth?

Objective: to evaluate how Humanist decide of the concept of truth and compared with religious concept of truth.

Active Citizens characteristics covered:

Curiosity and respect
Students will be analysing scientific evidence in explaining the world and creation.

Students will also gain an appreciation for the difference in views on creation and the world and demonstrate respect.

Mathematics

Careers in Maths

Objectives: to understand how maths is related to different career fields; to understand how maths is related to different career fields; to understand the importance of maths in real life.

Active Citizens characteristics covered

Ambition - students will become more aware of future careers that involve mathematics. This will give them more of an idea of what they want to do in the future.
Curiosity - students will have the opportunity to look at different jobs that involve mathematics. This includes sport along with jobs that involve STEM.

Science

Protecting freshwater ecosystems

Objectives: to understand the vital role of freshwater ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, wetlands and streams and how humans have negatively impacted this resource; to understand the different ways we can manage our freshwater resources sustainably; to be able to evaluate the most effective sustainable management strategies of freshwater ecosystems.

Active Citizens characteristics covered:

Curiosity – Students will be finding out about different freshwater ecosystems around the world and what makes them so important to people and the environment
Ambition – students will be learning about what can be done to help protect these ecosystems and creating action plans.

DT

Does the world need to depend on fossil fuels for energy/electricity?

Objectives: to understand that there is a direct link between the way we produce energy and damage caused by pollution; to design and build an alternative way of producing energy; to understand the careers available to help create, research and design alternative ways of producing energy/electricity that is better for the future of our planet.

Active Citizens characteristics covered:

Ambition - students will find out about how they can design cleaner and alternative ways of producing energy as future engineers
Respect - students will learn how they can be environmentally friendly
Curiosity – students will learn about how our society and industry relies on large amounts of energy from fossil fuels and how it is affecting the environment and our health.

Science

Is genetic engineering good or bad?

Objectives: to understand how genes are manipulated by scientist; to explore the effect of genetic engineering on the environment; to be able to discuss how policies affect the work of genetic engineering

Active Citizens characteristics covered:

Curiosity - students will understand how the African killer bee was made and eventually named
Ambition - students will be able to explore careers in genetic engineering.

What Year 8 covered in their Active Citizens Day

ICT

Graphic designing

Objectives: to understand the functions of graphic designs; to become familiar with designing software that are used for graphic designing; to use graphic design elements to convey a message; to create a simple poster on the theme of Covid-19 safety awareness using an online vector graphics editor (Figma).

Active Citizens characteristics covered"

Ambition - students will learn about industries that graphic designers operate in and hopefully become intrigued to explore a graphic designer role which is on the UK Shortage Occupation List.
Curiosity - students will learn about different graphic designs and how they are created to appeal to targeted audience

English

Bringing books to life - improv comedy session

Objectives: to recap previous learning topics: to explore genre differences through adapting the source material; to engage creatively with the learning and manipulate form and structure; to encourage creative responses to text and love of learning; to discover potential careers that involve English language skills

Active Citizens characteristics covered:

Curiosity - students will find out about other formats that require the use of English and the techniques we learn for writing
Ambition - comedy as a potential career (in the entertainment industry)
Confidence - students will practice public speaking and performing in front of an audience.