Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to our lesson today.

My name is Mr. Miskell, and I'll be your citizenship teacher.

Now today's lesson is part of a wider unit of work about how does local democracy work.

And today we'll be focusing on one particular aspect of that, which is how do local elections work.

Now, before we get started with our learning, I'd like to make sure that you've got a few things sorted.

You need to make sure that you've got a pen or a pencil by your side, as well as a piece of paper so that you can take notes and you can participate in the tasks.

You also need to make sure that you're in a quiet space so that you can take part in the lesson without any distraction.

Now, once you've got those things sorted, you are ready to start our lesson.

If you haven't got them sorted, you need to pause our lesson now, and you can be started when you are sorted.

So let's get going with what we're going to be doing.

So I'm going to run you through the agenda.

So what we're going to be doing together today.

So the first thing that we're going to look at in our kind of investigation about how do local elections work are the basic rules of elections.

So what are those basic rules about elections? That's going to then lead us into considering the voting system.

So how we decide the winner in elections, which will then kind of prompt questions about who often wins elections? Well often, those candidates who win elections are often from political parties.

So what are political parties? And once we've done that, it will lead us into creating a cartoon about how the local election process actually works.

There'll be a lot of new key words and terms there that'll be covered as part of the glossary at the end of our lesson today.

And lastly, we're going to be bringing our learning together.

So I am going to introduce you to the basic rules about local elections in England.

Now this is going to be important for the next part of our task, for the next part of our lesson.

And I'm going to say to you that we're going to be doing it together, but at the end of reading through it, I'm going to make this full screen.

And I think that's a good opportunity for you to note down the different rules about local elections in England so you can use it, for our next task there.

So the basic rules about local elections in England.

Now you have to be 18 years old on the day of the election, which is called polling day.

You must be either a British, Irish, Commonwealth or EU citizen.

Now the stuff about an EU citizen is correct as of August, 2020.

We know that the UK has left the European Union.

And that will probably mean a change in the relationship with the European union, which might or might not involve changes to EU citizens, European union citizens' rights to vote.

And you can register to vote from the age of 16.

You must be registered at an address in the area you want to vote in.

You can't vote if you're serving a prison sentence, you cannot vote if you detained in a mental health hospital for treatment.

Now, the word detained is a difficult one, by detained we mean that if you want to leave, you can't leave.

To stand for election as a local councillor, you have to be at least 18 years old and you can't already work for the local council.

Now there's one word that you might find difficult on the second bullet point down and that is Commonwealth, by Commonwealth we mean that collection of countries that share a relationship with each other, many of which used to be former British empire countries, but not all, many of them speak English or share kind of common traditions.

Some of them but not all have Queen Elizabeth II as their monarch, their head of States their queen, but of course not all of them do as well.

So it's this loose collection of countries, examples of them are countries like Canada, Australia, and Jamaica, for example.

So I'm going to make this full screen now, you should pause the lesson and make a note of the basic rules about local elections.

So now we have considered about local elections and what the rules are for local elections.

I like you to think a little bit about whether these particular people, Jasmine and Adam are eligible to vote.

So once you've listened to Jasmine and Joe's story, you need to decide whether they are eligible to vote.

An eligible is basically a fancy way of saying, can they vote? Are they legally able to vote based upon the rules that we've already introduced together in the last slide there.

Now, this is Jasmine, I'd like you to meet her and I'd like you to also meet Joe and the symbols by Jasmine and Joe give you a bit of an indication of what their situation is likely to be.

So I'm going to introduce you to each one of them individually, but only at the end am I going to tell you what the answers are.

I think now will be a good opportunity for you to make sure that you got your sheet of paper and a pen by your side so that you can jot down Jasmine or Joe and you can say either, yes, they're eligible to vote or no, they're not eligible to vote.

So Jasmine is a citizen of the United States and lives in England.

She is employed as a librarian by the local council, and knows an awful lot about politics in her area.

Now can Jasmine vote in local elections? Is she eligible? Yes or no.

Now the next person I'm going to introduce you to is Joe.

Now Joe is a UK citizen, he's serving time in prison for multiple burglaries.

He is due to be released in two years time.

Now, can Joe vote in a local election? Is he eligible? Yes or no? Write down your answer.

Now in a second, I'm going to tell you what the answers are as well.

So get ready for those to come up on your screen as part of this lesson now.

So they are both not eligible to vote and we're going to work out why they're not eligible to vote and work out whether you got the right answers here.

So Jasmine works in the UK, but is a citizen of the United States of America.

Now we know that unless you are a UK citizen, an Irish citizen, a citizen of a Commonwealth country, or at the moment a citizen of a European Union country, You can't vote in a local election in England.

Now she was someone who was clearly quite well educated she knew an awful lot about politics in the UK.

That didn't matter.

She was still not eligible to vote because she's a U.

S citizen and she isn't a citizen of the United Kingdom or any of those other organisations or countries.

And Adam is in prison and is due to be released in two years' time and the reason that he can't vote is that he's serving a custodial sentence, meaning that he's serving time in prison and therefore he's not eligible to vote.

He's not able to vote in any local elections in England.

So hopefully you got those answers right there and if you didn't, you understand why you didn't get those answers particularly right.

Now, that discussion about the eligibility of votes, of who can vote, leads us on to thinking a little bit about the voting system for local elections in England.

And we call this First Past The Post or FPTP.

Now this piece of information is really important because it will help us understand elections in England, but it will also help us be able to participate in the next task.

Now, there are a number of words that are in different colours that are highlighted on your screen there, they're going to be part of the glossary that is at the end of the lesson.

So you can fast forward our lesson to look at the glossary at any point, if you are confused about some of the words that are used.

So First Past The Post is a voting system used for local elections in England.

The system is very simple because the winner is the candidate who gets the most number of votes.

It is also called a plurality or winner takes all voting system.

It is an easy system to understand for voters, voters just put an X next to their chosen candidates, but it does mean that the winner may not have a majority of votes.

Now I'm going to make this full screen so that you can read over this again, to help you with the next task as well.

Now, the next task is going to involve you pausing the lesson to complete it, and it's task two, about First Past the Post.

Now I'd like you to think back to the text about First Past the Post that we've read about together, and I'd like you to list one advantage and one disadvantage of First Past the Post as a voting system.

So one advantage and one disadvantage of First Past the Post as a voting system there.

Now, thank you very much for participating in that task and really thinking quite deeply about some of the advantages and disadvantages of First Pass the Post.

Now this is really difficult stuff to be able to get into our heads in lots of lots of different ways, it's quite complex.

But when we kind of drill down into the detail, we can understand it much more deeply.

So an advantage of First Past the Post that was part of the text is that it is an easy voting system to understand for voters.

Voters just put an X next to their chosen candidate.

They just put a cross next to who they want to vote for, what can be more simple than that.

However, a disadvantage of it is this particular one here.

So the winner may not have the majority of votes.

This is a problem as it gives the winner less legitimacy.

Now the word legitimacy is covered as part of our glossary, but it's only important I just quickly kind of explain what I mean by it now.

Now legitimacy means gaining a high level of votes gives you more authority to make decisions.

So it gives you more authority to make decisions.

And it makes it more likely, I guess, that people are going to listen to you because you've got that more authority from the people really, you've got more people who are expressing a preference for you.

So well done for participating in that task there about First Past the Post.

Now, those individuals who win elections are often attached to a political party.

And that leads us to question what we mean by political party and what are political parties.

Now, I'm going to introduce to you some information about what we mean about political parties.

Now, most councillors in England belong to political parties.

A political party is a group of people who share a common view on issues.

Individuals can choose to join a political party and become members if they support the ideas that it promotes.

This usually involves making a monthly contribution to that party.

or an improvised financial contribution.

Candidates can also choose to stand for election as an independent, which means they don't have a political party.

However, in our system, the people who often win elections have often attached to a political party, even though you can stand for election as an independent.

Now, what I'll do is I'll make this full screen so that you can jot down some notes on a piece of paper by your side using the pen about what we mean by political parties to help you with some of the next tasks.

Now, if you want to challenge yourself with some of the work that we're doing, then get ready to press pause because the information in a short while is really quite challenging.

Now I want you to think not only what are political parties, but why might Zac choose to join a political party? Now, what you need to do is pause the lesson and think about why Zac might choose to join a political party.

So based upon what political parties are, why might Zac, as our character on screen here why might he choose to join a political party? What would be the point of him doing that? Now if I was doing this, I would create a spider diagram around a quick drawing of Zac on my sheet of paper.

Now, thank you very much for participating in that task there.

Now task three, involved us thinking about why Zac might join a political party, and here are some of the ideas that you could have used.

And if you don't have them feel free to add them to your answer.

Now, Zac may support the ideas that a political party stands for.

Joining a political party could give Zac a greater say on the issues that his political party supports.

Being a member of a political party, gives him a say on who the party selects to run in local elections.

And he may want to support the party financially by paying a monthly membership fee.

So there're a few ideas about why someone like Zac might choose to join a political party.

Now, each political party does have a minimum age limit on who can join it, some of them have got lower age kind of limits as things but the many political parties do accept young people into their membership.

Now, political parties are something that are part of local elections and our voting system and our political system in England, but what our political parties, in terms of their names So what political parties exist? So there are many political parties in England.

The political parties with the largest number of elected councillors in England are, and you can see the logos on the screen, The Conservative Party which has a logo there that's of a tree with the union flag, The Labour Party, which has the logo of the rose there in red, and The Liberal Democrats there, and you also have The Green Party.

So that's some examples of political parties in England, and that's some of examples of the political parties with a large number of elected councillors in England.

Now, what I'd like you to do is I would like you in task four to do two things.

Now, the first thing you're going to do is you're going to explain what is meant by a political party.

And you're going to write down a few sentences about what we mean by a political party.

And number two, I'd like you to give an example of a political party with a large number of elected councillors across England.

So I'm going to make this full screen now, and it's your job to have a go at task four.

Good luck.

So well done for having a real go and a real attempt at that task.

Now I just want to provide a little bit of feedback to you as to what students in my class often tell me with similar tasks like this.

So an answer to question one will be a political party is a group of people who share a common view on issues.

Individuals can choose to join a political party and become a member.

If they support the ideas they promote.

This usually involves making a monthly contribution to that party.

Number two, an example of a political party with a large number of councillors in England is the green party.

I will make this full screen for you so that you can look at this feedback and you can add to your answer as well because being able to make your answers even better and learn from others is a really, really important skill to have as well, isn't it? So, what we are now going to do together is an exciting part of our lesson, where we are going to create a cartoon of how local elections work.

Now I'm going to run you through, how we going to do that together.

Now, firstly, I'd like to introduce you to this grid, this cartoon grid, and it's a template that is attached to the worksheet.

So you can simply use it from within the worksheet, which might help you and stop you from having to draw this out yourself.

Or rather if you want to, you can draw this out yourself.

If you are, you need to be mindful of a few things.

You need to make sure that you have got six steps under each one of the steps you make sure that you've got enough space for text to be written to explain the different steps and also above the step where you're writing, you need to make sure you've got enough space to draw the steps.

So you're explaining it to other people what the step is about local elections and how they actually work.

Now, if you're like me and you're not amazing at drawing, even though I try my hardest with it, then I would draw a stick person.

So you can use a stick person.

That's absolutely fine as well.

Now I will make this full screen now so that you can pause our video and you can draw your cartoon grid.

If you haven't got one and you're not using it as part of the worksheet.

Now I'm going to run you through all the different steps in the local election process.

Now the different steps I'm going to go through, I'm not going to stop at the end of each one.

I'm going to simply go through all of them and at the end, I will stop there and give you an opportunity to rewind our class and go over each individual step, to be able to fill out your actual cartoon there.

So step one, now, step one, is the candidates put their name forward and get selected as a candidate by a political party.

Often they will have done many years of campaigning beforehand as a volunteer, probably by knocking on doors and speaking to voters and delivering leaflets.

And the picture there that you see on your screen is of a potential candidate getting selected by a panel, a group of members from her different political party from her political party there.

Now I'll make this full screen so that you can zoom in on it much more closely as well if you'd like.

Now step two is a little different.

Step two involves candidates needing to decide what will be in their local manifesto.

A manifesto is a pledge to potential voters about what you would do if elected as a local counsellor.

Now here, the manifesto is a big book and often national political parties do have a big book ahead of elections and what their promises will be nationally.

Locally, it might be a much smaller document for example, about promises that candidates or political parties want to make in towns or cities or even an award, for example as well.

Now, step three, is that candidates standing for election often take part in hustings events.

This is where the general public get an opportunity to ask questions of all the candidates and hear what they have to say.

And the picture that you can see there is of the candidates hustings event on the stage, and all sat there and they're stuck in front of an audience of voters who are asking them questions about how they feel on certain issues and what they would do if they were elected.

Now, step four is to get elected.

You need to deliver leaflets to residents and speak to voters on the doorstep.

Now more than ever before, candidates also have to use social media to raise their profile.

Now, the picture, and to illustrate this here is of a candidate with leaflets in hand, knocking on the door of a potential voter to try and persuade them to vote for him.

Now it does also say doesn't it, that social media is really important here.

It allows candidates to raise their profile, it allows them to speak to voters and try and get across their message to individual voters.

Now, step five in our cartoon is that polling day is when people get an opportunity to cast their vote.

Voting is by secret ballot.

Polling stations are open between 7:00 AM and 10:00 PM.

Some people choose to vote by post.

You can only vote if you are registered and on the electoral register.

Now there's some terms here and there are a little difficult, like secret ballots and electoral register and polling station.

Now these are the things that are covered as part of our glossary.

And later on in the lesson that we'll go over.

And if you are confused about any one of those terms, then you can choose to fast forward our lesson and look at the glossary list later on.

Now the picture that is used here and to illustrate it is of a ballot box.

A ballot box is where people put their vote, where they cast their vote.

It is important that that ballot box is secure.

And so that other people cannot see what you voted for as well.

Now, step six in the local election process is the count and this takes place shortly after polling stations close.

It usually takes place in a big space, like a sports hall, and candidates and their agents get to watch over the process.

Now this is to make sure that it is transparent and it is fair and the winner is declared by the returning officer.

Now, here again, there are a number of words that are part of the glossary at the end of our lesson, that will help you to understand those more fully.

And the picture, the drawing to help illustrate this is of the count, and it's actually about the declaration of the winner and you can see that sometimes in local elections and actually in general elections, those elections that happen to parliament often, there's often a kind of joke candidate, and you can see there that the joke candidate is someone dressed up in a robot outfit.

So what I would like you to do now is to pause the video, to complete your task and resume it once you have finished.

So this is where you are going to actually complete your really wonderful cartoon to explain the election process.

So good luck with this.

So your cartoon should look something like this, where you've got step one, where the candidates put their name forward.

Step two, where the candidates need to decide what will be in their local manifesto.

Step three, where candidates standing for election often take part in hustings events, step four, to get elected you need to deliver leaflets to residents and speak to voters on the doorstep.

Step five, the polling station and that's where you get an opportunity to cast your vote.

And step six, the count takes place shortly after polling stations close.

Now I will make this bigger on your screen now, so that you can look at this and you can add to your work, if you are confused about any one of those particular steps.

But well done for having a go with that task to explain how local elections actually work.

Now, once you've done that, I'd like you to carry out a little bit of a self assessment, and I'd like you to grade yourself and say whether you were able to do these two things.

So firstly, does the text clearly explain all of the six steps involved in a local election.

Either yes, or no.

And do the drawings help to explain the six steps involved in a local election, either yes or no, tick or cross.

Now you will find this self assessment grid as part of the worksheet that is attached to this lesson, but you may also want to create your own and simply put a tick or cross to see whether you were able to meet those self assessment points there.

I'll make this much bigger now, so you can zoom into it on your screen.

Now, before we finish our lesson today, I'd like us to go over some of our learning.

And I'd like us to clarify one term that we've learned, and this is about a manifesto.

And I'd like you to think about whether it is true or whether it is false.

So a manifesto is a set of written pledges to potential voters about a political party or local candidate would do if elected.

A pledge is a difficult word, what we mean by that is a promise.

So a promise to potential voters about what a political party, or local candidate would do if elected.

I'd like you to decide, is it either true or is it false? So is it true or is it false? You can shout out now to your screen.

Is it true or is it actually false? Now the answer to this is that it is true.

Now a manifesto is a set of written pledges to potential voters about what a political party, or local candidate would do if elected.

And that leads us on to our glossary at the end of our lesson that we'd been talking about this is lots of new key words and terms that we've introduced.

Now, I will make this full screen and we'll go through each one of them.

Now, First Past The Post is a voting system where the winner is the candidate who gets the most number of votes.

This is also called a plurality or winner takes all system.

Plurality is also called a winner takes all voting system, an example being First Past The Post.

Majority is one political party, having 50% plus one of all councillors on a council.

Legitimacy means gaining a high level of votes.

It gives you more authority to make decisions.

Candidates are those people standing for elections.

Political party is a group of people who share a common view on issues.

Individuals can join a political party and they can become a member.

Now, polling stations are places where people vote on polling day and electoral register is the database or book showing who is registered to vote.

Campaigning is the process of seeking to persuade people to support a cause or vote for a political party or candidate.

Manifesto is a set of written pledges to potential voters about what a political party or candidate would do if elected.

Hustings is a meeting where residents get to hear from and question candidates standing in an election, and polling day is when people get an opportunity to cast their vote.

Now secret ballot is where people who vote, so when people vote, so who people vote for on that ballot paper or voting slip is secret to make sure that people are free to cast their vote without fear of intimidation.

The count is the event where the voters cast their election, where the votes are counted.

It usually takes place in a large venue, like a sports hall.

Agents, an agent is someone appointed by the candidate to act and take decisions on their behalf, transparent, in a democracy it's important that people see that the process is open and fair.

Returning officer is the individual who is appointed by the local council to oversee the election and declare the winner at the count.

Now today's lesson has involved us doing a number of different things.

Firstly, we've talked about the basic rules about elections, what they are.

We've then try to apply that to different circumstances.

And we've then looked at voting systems about how a winner is decided.

And we know that often those people who win elections locally have often attached to political parties, which got us thinking about what are political parties.

And you did a little bit of a task about that.

And then we made a cartoon, we created a cartoon about how the local election process works.

And finally, we brought our learning end together.

We've done a number of things in our lesson today.

Now, before we do finish our lesson, if you want to share your work with Oak National, then you can, and if you'd like to please ask a parent or carer to share your work on Twitter, by tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

The material today has being provided from the Association for Citizenship Teaching as well.

Now, here is just a quick reminder to please make sure you complete the exit quiz now, as you are finishing the lesson as well.

So thank you very much for participating in our learning.

It's been absolutely wonderful to be your citizenship teacher for this lesson today on how local elections work as well.

So thank you very much and bye bye.