Hello, my name's Ms. Ikomi.

I'm a teacher from London and I'm going to be taking you through today's lesson.

Let's get started.

Today's lesson is called What are Changemakers? It is part of the unit: Why do we need the right to protest in a democracy? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe what a changemaker is and explain examples of the positive changes that people have made.

The key words you're going to come across in today's lesson are: change, making something different; altering or modifying something.

Changemakers, this is someone who wants to change the world and by gathering knowledge, skills, and resources brings about change through their deliberate actions.

And lastly, active citizenship.

This is the process of learning how to take part in a democracy and using citizenship knowledge, skills, and understanding to work together and try to make a positive difference around the world.

We're going to start by thinking about what does change mean in citizenship? I'd like you to take a second to think about why should citizens be engaged in their community? Sofia is telling us we need to be engaged because it's the only way to ensure our voices are heard.

When citizens participate in their community, they can help shape policies and decisions that affect everyone.

Without engagement, change is harder to achieve, and important issues can be ignored.

Change can mean lots of different things.

Andeep is giving us an example of how he would like to make change within his school.

I helped to make a positive change at my school, there were no hot vegetarian options, only cold vegetarian sandwiches.

I started to petition to change this and asked the student council to speak with the head teacher.

The school now serves a range of hot and cold lunches for vegetarians.

The change helped to make sure everyone's dietary requirements were met.

Well done Andeep.

This example shows us how Andeep has made a local change.

He's engaged with the school leadership to bring about this change within his local community, in this case his school community.

In this example, Oak National Academy pupils were passionate about the issue and therefore they worked collaboratively to bring about this positive change for the whole community.

Collaboratively means when we do things together as part of a team.

Laura is to give us another example.

My local council decided to close down our youth centre as they said it was too expensive to run.

Our youth club went to a council meeting and spoke against the plan.

We arranged a protest outside the council building and lots of people turned up to support us.

As a result, the council agreed to continue funding the youth centre.

This was a big change to their budget plans.

Laura's example gives us another example of a local change.

In this case, the youth club took action by engaging with the council.

They arranged a protest and this brought about change to the budget, and that meant that the youth centre didn't close.

In her example like Andeep's, we had a group of people that were passionate about the issue and came together collaboratively to bring about this positive change.

Izzy is gonna give us a third example.

In 1968, the women of the Dagenham Ford Factory went on strike to try and gain equal pay.

The following year, women trade unionists, inspired by the Dagenham strike, staged a protest in Trafalgar Square.

As a result, the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1970.

This insured fair pay for men and women.

This was a big change to the law in the UK.

Izzy's example shows us national change.

Although it started in a local community, it grew and became a national issue.

The women's strike became a key moment in the fight for gender equality and their actions inspired other women to take action and therefore create change.

The national movement then led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act, and that made it illegal to pay men and women differently for the same work.

So therefore, we saw a community start this national change that was then reflected within the law.

Okay, let's check what we've done so far.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 was achieved because of ordinary citizens taking action.

Pause your video and choose whether you think this is true or false.

The correct answer is true.

Let's have a think about why? The women of the Dagenham Ford Factory took strike action and therefore women trade unions arranged a large protest which convinced the government to take action.

This then ended up addressing the gender pay issue.

Well done if you got that right.

Next, do you think change can only be achieved on a national level? True or false? Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is false.

Let's think about why.

Change can be achieved at a local or a national level.

All citizens can bring about this change.

They're being passionate about the issues that they care about.

Well done if you got that right.

Okay, let's put this into practise.

Sam is telling us that his local woodland is very popular within the community.

Families like to walk there and children play there.

However, the local council have recently decided that the woodland will be sold for new housing.

I would like you to explain two or three actions that Sam might take to bring about change and prevent the woodland from becoming new housing.

Pause your video and have a go at this now.

I asked you to explain a few actions that Sam might take to bring about change to prevent the local woodland from becoming housing.

You might have suggested some of the following: Sam could speak to people who use the woodland regularly to gain their views on protecting the space.

She could ask for their help in raising awareness about the issue.

She could present their views alongside a petition at the next local council meeting to explain the benefits of keeping the woodland and why it's an important space to the local community.

Finally, Sam could organise a protest at the woodland to show just how many people want to change the council's mind.

Well done if you included some of that.

Next, we're going to think about who are changemakers? We know from our keyword definition that change makers are citizens who have engaged in actions to bring about change.

They are passionate about issues and make a positive impact on society by enacting that passion.

They see issues in their local community and maybe their country, so therefore national community, sometimes even in the international community, meaning they look to make change around the world.

They then set about trying to make a difference.

They want to have a positive impact and ultimately improve people's lives and are often concerned with the rights of citizens.

Lots of changemakers will have some similar qualities.

For example, they might need to be trustworthy, passionate, resilient, meaning they can get back up if they have a knockback, determined, good at public speaking as they might need to convince people to follow their issue.

Confident, empathetic, and a strong leader.

Okay, let's check what we've done so far.

Which of the following is not a quality of a changemaker? a, being empathetic, b, being a strong leader, or c, being timid? Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is c.

Well done if you got that right.

Some changemakers might be well-known celebrities.

For example, Emma Watson, who is a very famous actress.

She's also a changemaker and has been involved in lots of issues within the national community.

She's very interested in women's rights.

She's an advocate for gender equality and is also a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador.

This means she speaks up for other people.

She has also been involved in the HeForShe Campaign.

This launched in order to encourage men to join the fight for gender equality and has reached millions of people worldwide.

She's also interested in sustainable fashion.

She promotes it and works through eco-friendly brands to raise awareness about the impact on the environment that the fashion industry can have.

Other changemakers are not necessarily celebrities.

They might just be normal people who have seen an issue and try to make a difference.

An example is Theresa Cave.

She founded the Chris Cave Foundation.

This is a charity based in Redcar, which is in North East England.

She founded this charity as a result of the death of her son in 2003.

This happened because of knife crime.

Theresa works with other young people to educate them against knife crime.

Okay, let's check what we've done so far.

How does the Chris Cave Foundation aim to bring about change? Is it a, it aims to remove knives by arresting perpetrators.

b, it aims to help perpetrators and victims of knife crime.

Or c, it aims to educate young people against knife crime? Pause your video and choose your answer now.

The correct answer is c.

Well done if you got that right.

Another example of a changemaker is Amika George.

Amika George was only 17 when she became her campaign.

The aim of her campaign was to end period poverty.

She read an article about how some pupils in the UK were missing school because they couldn't afford sanitary products during their period.

Amika's started a petition and also held a protest outside Parliament in Westminster.

This resulted in the government agreeing to fund period products in schools.

This means that people who menstruate could access school during their period, so wouldn't miss any school days.

Amika George and Theresa Cave are really good examples of everyday citizens who have made a difference.

They've seen something that is problem and sought to make a positive change within their community.

This shows us that anybody has the potential to be a changemaker, not just celebrities.

You can make a positive change through big or small actions.

Your effort is what matters.

Let's do another check.

What method did Amika use to bring about change? Was it a, a sit-in, b, a petition or c letter writing? Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is b, a petition.

Well done if you got that right.

Let's put this into practise.

Sam is saying, "Change can only be made by celebrities." I'd like you to think about whether you agree or disagree with this statement.

I'd like you to mark your judgement on the line and then write an explanation for your answer.

Pause your video and do this now.

I asked you to decide whether you agree or disagree with the statement, "Change can only be made by celebrities." Your answer might have agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement.

You might have said, "Celebrities already have a public platform and people know them.

They can use that image to get media attention.

Celebrities have a wide social media reach, so if they did a petition, they'd easily be able to reach lots of people.

It's hard for politicians to ignore celebrities because they can influence so many voters." Or you might have disagreed.

You might have said, "Ordinary citizens are able to bring about change if they run a well organised and relevant campaign.

Amika George started her campaign from her bedroom, but she gained lots of attention because people cared about the issue.

Equally, Theresa Cave makes a difference by using her personal experience to help others and educate young people." Well done if you included some of those points in your answers.

Now we're going to think about what citizens can do to create change.

We've already seen some examples of ordinary people becoming changemakers.

Ordinary citizens can use a lot of different methods in order to bring about this change.

The important thing to think about is the impact that you want to make, and then you can match your method to the outcome.

So some methods that you might use that we've already seen a few of them before, could include: petitions, awareness raising, protests and marches, community organising, fundraising, sit-ins, lobbying or boycotting.

These are all peaceful methods that can make a change by influencing others.

If we want to convince people to join your cause, we need to also be inclusive.

That means that we bring lots of different people into the conversation.

This might be achieved by talking to others and listening or holding a public meeting in order to gather lots of different points of view.

Andeep is telling us that when he wanted to achieve change in the school lunches, he knew that it was important to listen to everyone.

He talked to other pupils to understand what they wanted and held meetings to get different views.

By involving as many people as possible, he made sure the solution worked for everyone, not just a few.

Changemakers are active citizens who want to bring about change.

To become an active citizen, you can follow this step-by-step process that we're going to talk about for the next couple of minutes.

The first thing that we want to do as a changemaker is to identify the issue.

We need to find out what we are interested in and how we can make that change.

We also might want to find out who might be interested in helping you.

We need to consider what impact we want to have in order to make this plan to make sure that our action is going to be useful.

Let's check what we've done so far.

In the first stage as a changemaker, you should identify who might help you to take action.

Choose whether you think this is true or false now.

The correct answer is true.

This is because it's important to identify which people might help you to take action.

This will improve your chances of success because you'll have a team of people around who want to help you.

Well done if you got that right.

The second stage is to take action.

This means that we use all of the planning from stage one and put it into action.

This might mean publishing a petition and collecting signatures, or maybe organising within our community so people know about this issue and therefore the awareness of the community has been raised.

The third stage after we've done our action is to evaluate our impact.

So think about what has gone well and what could be improved? You should think about all the actions you've taken and then ultimately what happened as a result of those actions.

You should report on progress so others can see what you've done, and you might repeat the process to have even more of an impact next time.

Okay, true or false? In the second stage of being a changemaker, you should think about what impact you are having.

Pause your video and choose your answer.

The correct answer is true.

This is because it is important to constantly consider what your impact is.

Otherwise, you might be taking action without it actually having an effect.

Let's put this into practise.

I would like you to explain in your own words what change means.

I'd like you to consider the role that ordinary citizens play in creating change, why it's important for citizens to be engaged in their communities? What steps active citizens can take to create that change? And lastly, how creating change might contribute to a better society? Pause your video and have a go at this now.

I asked you to explain what change means in your own words.

You might have included some of the following: Change means actively working to improve or address issues in your community or society.

Ordinary citizens can bring about change by speaking out, taking action, and getting others involved.

Being engaged in a cause where the big or small allows people to influence decisions, raise awareness, and make a positive impact.

Everyone has a role to play in shaping the world around them.

Changemakers are active citizens, they follow an active citizenship process, which involves planning the change they want to see, taking action and then measuring their impact.

Well done if you've included some of that.

Next, I'd like you to think about an example of somebody who might be considered a changemaker.

It could be someone we've learned about today, or it could be someone that you know personally or from the news.

I'd like you to describe what was their cause or issue? What methods did they use to create change? And how did they involve others in their cause? Pause your video and have a go at this now.

I asked you to describe somebody who might be considered a changemaker.

Your answer might have included something like this: One example of a changemaker is Amika George.

She started the #FreePeriods campaign to fight for free sanitary products in schools.

After realising that many girls in the UK were missing school because they couldn't afford them.

Amika used social media to raise awareness, gathered support through petitions, and even lobbied the government.

Her campaign led to a change in policy with the government providing free sanitary products in schools.

Amika's actions showed that young people with determination and the right tools can make a real difference.

Today we have been thinking about what are changemakers.

We have learned that changemakers are ordinary citizens who want to have a positive impact on their communities.

Changemakers use a range of methods, for example, lobbying, awareness raising and boycotting to convince others to join them and convince people with power and influence to make a change.

We can all be changemakers by being active citizens and using the process for active citizenship.

The three main stages of active citizenship are: plan, take action, and measure impact.

Thank you for joining me today.