The first Citizenship Morning of the year was held this week, equipping boys with knowledge and understanding, and the practical skills needed to live full, healthy, and responsible lives. A crucial part of boys’ development, these lessons also enable boys to understand and accommodate difference and change, manage their emotions and communicate constructively – setting them well on the path to becoming good men.
These key skills are taught over five citizenship mornings throughout the course of the year, when boys go off timetable to allow for guest speakers and workshops to learn about personal, social, health and economic skills.
Additionally, our citizen element equips boys with the knowledge, skills and understanding to play an effective role in public life. During these sessions, boys learn about their rights and responsibilities, identity and diversity, and we encourage them to take topical, controversial issues and engage in discussion and debate. Over the years, an extensive progression of our citizenship curriculum has seen boys tackle important topical subjects, led by a proactive pupil leadership team.
Taking boys off timetable (rather than teaching lessons weekly) really allows us to play to the strengths of our pastoral structure. Boys can be grouped together with other members of their house and, in most cases, be taught by a tutor from their house who they are already familiar with.
This format offers the flexibility to match the right staff member to the right session, and the fact we put the whole school on hold for the morning whilst we teach sends a clear message to the boys of just how much the school values this vital element of their education. It also allows careful thought to be given to the extra lessons put in place to best support pupils with some of the trickier issues.
The library is open and staffed all morning by members of the SEND and EAL team, providing a safe space for pupils to go if they are finding a topic challenging. Follow-on lessons during assembly time provide boys with an opportunity to reflect and come back to topics as appropriate.
Ms Alice Swallow, Citizenship Lead, explained, “The subject matter covered during this week’s sessions went down well. I spoke to boys from all year groups over lunch afterwards and there was a positive buzz from everyone I spoke to. Boys enjoyed the chance to reflect on and learn about these incredibly important topics and discuss in the safety of their house groups. It was especially pleasing to hear how well two sessions planned by the students, one for the Fourth Form on microaggressions and one for the Upper Sixth on unconscious bias, had been received.”
Topics covered in this Citizenship Morning included relationships (both positive and negative), pornography and sex education, drugs and alcohol, mentoring, self-care and microaggressions.
Ms Swallow went on to say, “Seeing all the Lower Sixth so engaged with the mentoring programme was a highlight. When these boys were in the Fourth Form, we were mid COVID and so they didn’t have the opportunity to be mentored themselves due to bubbles and not mixing year groups. It was therefore really nice for them to see the impact they made and our external speaker, Mandy Rutter, was hugely impressed with the engagement she saw from the boys.”
The next Citizenship Morning will be held during our Movember charity campaign period and will raise awareness of men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and men’s suicide. We will also see a number of future citizenship lessons prepared and taught by both the boys and girls from Bedford Girls’ School.