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Participation
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| Participation
is part of the Children’s Act, it can be found under
the fourth of the five key sections, Making a Positive Contribution. This
focuses on voluntary work and on children contributing to their local community. Participation is a necessary part of citizenship – children becoming active members of the community, and learning how to be involved in decision-making, locally, nationally and globally. For instance at KS3 children need to “take part in school and community-based activities, demonstrating personal and group responsibility in their attitudes to themselves and others.” The QCA states the importance of Making a Positive Contribution on their website, click here. Active Global Citizens For our young people to be active global citizens they need to frame participation within children’s rights, and to learn how to be critical thinking, active-researching learners who are aware of how their actions can change the world. These agendas are full of tensions and can sometimes be seen to oppose the values of children’s policies and institutions, in terms of paternalistic protectionism and adults maintaining control.Professor Bernard Crick, the father of Citizenship in schools, was very emphatic that the citizenship agenda was not about making good or bad citizens. A good citizen in Nazi Germany would be one according to the values of that society. He continually reminded people that citizenship is about helping children to become critical citizens. Without this context participation can simply be seen to be learning to be a good citizen, a volunteer and someone who helps people through fundraising and charity. Below are sections on the context of participation with schools. Government Documents on Participation The Department for Children, Schools and Families has documents for the implementation of the Children’s Plan, click here for latest news and links. You can download a pdf that explains the entitlement to ‘positive activities’, click hereA government guide to participation, with frequently asked questions including what is participation can be found at the Everychildmatters website. This allows participation to be seen to be voluntary work and consultation, and though the beginnings of the Every Child Matters was framed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, after the Laming Report this was rejected and replaced with a paternalistic protection agenda, focusing on intervention and information gathering. Support for Participation A group of six agencies is working together under the name, ‘Participation Works’. This group aims to help organisations to effectively involve children and young people in the development, delivery and evaluation of services that affect their lives.The six group members are: the British Youth Council, Children’s Rights Alliance for England, National Children’s Bureau, The National Youth Agency, National Council for Voluntary Youth Services and Save the Children - England. Their vision is that all organizations, agencies and services that affect
children and young people should have structures and systems in place
to respond to their ideas and priorities, and to work with them to bring
about positive change. Schools
Council Social
Enterprise Participation in the School Timetable It can be difficult to deliver participation within the curriculum, especially in terms of allowing choice and a strong element of student voice. One way of developing stronger participation elements in schools is to start with Out of Hours Learning and use this as a space for experimentation and development, and then use that to feed into what happens in the school curriculum.Out of hours learning click
here
and extended
learning are a major way of contributing to participation
in schools.
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