Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mrs. Haynes.

And today I'm going to be teaching you some citizenship.

Right, let's just have a look at that introductory slide again together.

Okay, so I've been looking at a whole series of lessons that are considering that top question, how does the economy work? And today is actually the sixth lesson, the final next in the series.

Okay.

And today's lesson is going to be particularly focusing on that second question there.

What role can citizens play in the future of the UK economy? So it might be a good idea if you make a note of those key questions that we're going to be looking at today and ensure that you've got somewhere nice and quiet to work, not too many distractions around you.

That will probably be a good idea as well.

Okay.

Alright So I'm also going to suggest that perhaps in today's lesson, as well as something to write with, and some paper, a ruler might be useful.

So if you don't have a ruler with you at the moment, just pause the video for a moment and get one and then come back.

Okay, if you've got one, then that's great, we'll just carry on.

Right, so just overview quickly of the different things we're going to be covering in today's lesson.

So our lessons going to have four different sections in order to consider the role that citizens can play in the future of the UK economy.

First of all, we're going to recap what is needed to ensure a healthy economy.

We're then going to have a consideration of the UK economy post COVID-19, UK wide lockdown.

We're then going to have part three, a discussion regarding the role citizens can play.

And then finally, we're going to end with a written exam style task.

Okay.

So just so that you know roughly where the lessons heading that might be nice to know.

Right, let's start with the first bit then, a recap of what is needed to ensure a healthy economy.

So this is going to be something that we've looked at in previous lessons, just to kind of remind ourselves of some of these key points.

Okay? So four elements that make for a healthy economy, I've got four things on the screen here with us, I'm just going to read through these boxes, top left, high employment levels, cross the other side wages keeping up with the cost of living, beneath that on the left, credit, inexpensive, and then on the right, high demand for goods and services.

So what I'd like you to do, is just pause on the slide for a moment and see if you can explain for me how these headings would help support a healthy economy.

Okay, which we should be able to do from the previous lessons.

Okay, so pause the screen now, if you're able to go and do that, pause the lesson now.

If you're not too sure, I'll move on and show you the answers and then hopefully that will help you to remember some of the things that were covered in previous lessons.

Okay, So I've got some sentence starters here, cause I thought these might be helpful and just give you a bit of a, bit of a heads up for you for how you would actually go about answering these.

So I'm just going to read through these sentence starters and perhaps those might be just enough to jog your memory.

At the top there, high employment levels would benefit the economy because most people would have.

I can almost hear you saying the next word there Okay? So you've got to explain why that was good to get the economy going.

Okay.

Next bullet point.

Wages keeping up with the cost of living would assist economic growth because people being paid enough to afford the things they need to live would help them to also, then you can go on to say what they could perhaps also do with their money.

Third point there, credit being available inexpensively would encourage people to take out a loan, they could then go and do something with that loan.

Okay.

And then the final one there, a high demand for goods and services will mean that businesses can, Alright, so if that was enough to help you, then you could just pause there and have a go at those sentences.

So, let's see how those sentences would then be developed as to a complete answer.

So we can take the first two, so I'm going to read these through for you.

So remember, you can pause it anytime.

So if you think to yourself Ah, yes, that's a good point, I wanted to make sure I included that in my answer, then you can just pause me.

Okay, you have total control.

Okay, let's have a look at that first one there, high employment levels would benefit the economy because most would have jobs so less benefits would be required.

This would reduce government spending and more taxation could be raised by our income tax.

People would have wages which would increase their spending confidence.

Second one, wages keeping up with the cost of living would assist economic growth because people are being paid enough to afford the lessons they need to live, sorry, to be able to afford the things they need, that's better, to live would helped them to also save a bit for additional high cost items to buy in the future.

This then stimulates a different market.

So you need people to have enough money in their pocket to be able to buy not just what they need to get buy, but also to be able to save to buy the most of luxury items, because that means too many so luxury markets okay.

So pause if you need to, I'm going to move on to the next ones.

Top bullet point, credit being available inexpensively would encourage people to take a loan out, then they could go and purchase something that could increase their productivity, such as a tractor.

So if you've seen my other lessons, you'll know I talk about tractors.

Okay, and the bottom one there, a high demand for goods and services will mean that businesses can grow, recruit more staff and expand their premises, all further increasing economic growth.

Okay.

All right.

So well done with that if you could remember some of those points in my earlier earlier lessons.

And of course, just add anything extra in there to your notes if you want to from those.

Right we're going to look at the next topic.

A consideration of the UK economy post COVID-19 UK wide lockdown.

Okey dokey.

Now, several different independent financial analytical groups have looked at where we stand to do with the economy.

Okay, so I'm just going to be referring to some here.

So the EY item club forecast, I don't know what that is either, I don't think it really matters particularly, what's more important is the messages we're getting.

In June 2020.

So they forecast in June 2020, that the UK economy would shrink by 8% and would not fully recover until 2023, according to an article in The Guardian.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development also predict that the UK economy will shrink more than any other developed country.

So it's not a particularly brilliant message.

However, okay, however, there are some green shoots already that demonstrate that we have the means to have recovery here for our economy.

We talked about green shoots in previous lessons as well didn't we.

So PwC is a global network of firms which can offer financial services and consulting services for business and they have stated that's early signs of recovery are evident, so can be seen.

They reported that in May alone, the economy grew by 1.

8% driven by the expansion in the manufacturing and construction sectors.

Some good news there.

Around 89% of the UK businesses were in operation at the end of June 2020, with a further 4.

3% planning to start trading in early July.

Okay.

So it's just showing you that recovery will occur.

it may just be a bit slower, but it will get there.

Right.

Well, with that in mind then, I'd like to pause the video to answer this question and it only needs to be a couple of sentences.

What evidence is there that economic recovery may be underway? So just pause there for a moment.

What's the lesson now? Okay, here's an answer that I'd written.

You can see that, I'm sure your answer is just the same, there is a evidence of some economic growth in areas such as manufacturing and construction, even during the pandemic, so recovery, although slow will happen.

Okay, so it's kind of a positive message there, mixed in with some of the concerns that we've had.

Right, Government action to support the economy.

I just want us to look at this before we moved on to the role of citizens.

A report by cross party Think Tank called the Social Market Foundation suggested that the government could use its UK pension fund to invest in long term projects, such as building roads or communication networks.

Australia and Canada have done this quite successfully already.

So this might be something that's done in the future.

I don't know if that is going to be done.

That's just something that was maybe a possibility.

The government at the moment has taken several measures already to try and support the UK economy and is also encouraging spending.

And I think it's worth kind of just referring to some of those, some of the actions that have been taken, when you've probably have heard of things like the furloughs scheme, you may have heard of things like the fact that small businesses got some grants, there's low interest loans available.

And there's also the government has reduced VAT on one of our taxes.

We've talked about it in a previous lesson, on some outlets, such as restaurants to try and encourage us to use those.

The government's investing in research and technology and also energy reduction schemes.

Okay, so there's quite a lot going on already, that the government is doing to try and make sure that our economy, you know, picks back up again fast.

Okay.

So let's have a look now at the role that citizens can play.

Now, this is an important point, I think, citizens we all want,, don't we? the economy to improve, but we do have to weigh up our sort of personal health concerns against the Want to improve the economy, Okay, so there's no one answer here really, for all citizens, because everybody's got quite different circumstances and will feel that they can support the economic growth in their own time.

Okay, so the kind of things I'm going to go through now aren't something that all of us want to rush out and do.

They're just things that people will begin to do and will support economic growth.

Right, let's have a look at some of them.

Some ways to systems can support economic growth in the UK.

So I think perhaps here as I go through these, you might just want to pause and jot down maybe three or four different suggestions perhaps so you've got some suggestions of mine on a list in your notes.

Okay.

So we've got, some things that we could do, a UK based holiday, rather than abroad.

Buy a car that's made in the UK, invest in home improvements, cause that will require us perhaps using different shops, different builders etc.

Go to the cinema, eat in UK food outlets, restaurants cafes, invest in UK companies, perhaps if we have any spare income, use the high street, so not just things that are on the internet, so look to see if we can support our local retailers perhaps and buy British made products, which encourages our markets, pay our taxes, seek employment.

So if it is that, you know we're out of work, perhaps we could make sure that we try actively to gain employment somewhere else.

Go and watch live entertainment.

So just a few sort of suggestions, that are of things that I thought of that perhaps we could do as citizens, but I bet you've got a few of your own that you can think of.

So what I'd like you to do is jot down a couple of mine two or three of my maybe and then see if you can add anything else that you think citizens could do to kind of kick start and get this economic growth going? Okay, so just pause for a minute and do that and then we'll discuss some other ones.

Okay.

Pause the lesson now.

Okay, now I'm sure you've come up with lots of other different ideas.

These where just a few others that I thought of that didn't fit on my grid that you could go and do perhaps, I thought perhaps you could campaign to spread the message, you know, the sort of buy British message, or you could maybe join a political party that you thought had some policies which might encourage economic growth.

You could stand for election as a local Councillor to try and make a very active role, than a reactive citizen, or you could maybe look to retrain, you know look at the skills you've gotten, perhaps you need to change those skills or update those skills to make yourself more desirable in the marketplace for employment.

People like the Chamber of commerce, which is a group that supports the interests of businesses are quite interesting and involved in this sort of stuff because they can often support businesses with retraining their staff to ensure that they've got the kind of skills they might need in a changing marketplace.

Okay, as well as offering other kinds of advice.

All right.

So perhaps you might want to add one or two of those, if you like, some of my suggestions, and I wonder if we got anything the same there, maybe we did.

I'd like to think so.

Okay.

So then have a go at a written exam style task now.

Okay.

This is the question Using your own knowledge, and the source image here that you can see on the screen.

Okay.

You can see it on the screen there, I identified three challenges facing retailers after the COVID-19 lockdown and explain three ways in which citizens can support local economic growth.

Alright, you should refer to business rates, sales on the internet, health and safety, the role of local councils and individual action.

Alright So I recommend that you now pause and write down that task, including the bit that says you should refer to, cause often if you're taking the GCSE and it says that you should refer to, what they really mean is you must, you must refer to.

Okay, so write down all of that and if you feel confident enough, just give it a go.

Okay, but if you want to stay with me, I'm going to go through some more advice on how to tackle exam questions and also kind of structure your answer for this.

Alright, so I'll see you in a minute if you're going off now to do this on your own.

Pause the lesson now.

If you're still with me, we'll have a look at the next bit.

Okay.

Now this might be something you're familiar with, it's something that I sometimes do when I'm kind of looking at these kind of questions and it's, it's called to bug the question, okay to bug the question B-U-G.

Right? And what it really means is that you look at the question there and you just quite often, you know, in class will just be asked to highlight important bits in the question and this kind of gives you a bit more focus.

It says, box around the command words.

So that's things like explain, evaluate, identify, compare state, Okay.

And then the U, is underline the key words that are topic related.

And G is to glance back at that question to look for any hints, okay, in that question, and then glance at the question regularly to ensure that your answer is keeping closely to the topic.

All right, bug to the question.

Okay, maybe that's a new one on you.

I quite like that one.

Right.

So let's just have a go with that with our question that we're doing at the moment.

So you can see at the bottom there, I have buged my question, I have put a box around, identify and explain in green there on the right hand side, and I've underlined the bits that seem to relate to the knowledge, the content that I have to put in there, the topic, okay? And actually, I turn the fact that I've got to do three challenges and I've got to do three ways, I changed the colour of that as well.

So I think if I was doing that, on a question, I might have put a circle or something around that.

Okay.

So what we're assuming there, say you are in exam hall, and you don't got time to change your pen or highlighter or whatever, you're just going really fast writing everything that's in your huge brain right down on paper, then you just got the same pen, haven't you? Just go down the Command word, underline the important bits, you know, circle anything else you want.

It's just a quick, quick technique.

Right? So let's, if you're happy now to go and have a look and do that question on your own do, stay with me if you want me to go through it a bit more with you and give you a bit more structure.

So with our question today, the first thing we've got to do is think about three challenges that retailers, so that's people who try and sell you things, are facing at the moment.

So this needs to be your first small paragraph, so use the clues that are given to you when it says to those things you have to refer to.

So business rates, sales on the internet, health and safety, role of local councils, individual action.

So can you spot at least two things there that might be related to challenges that retailers have? Yeah? did you spot the same ones as me? I thought perhaps, you know, that kind of internet sales, competing with internet sales and keeping their customers safe.

Okay.

So you know, we've kind of just ensuring that there's sort of hand washing available or that there's a one way system all these things that retailers may have to think about post COVID lockdown.

We still need one more than don't we? So think a little bit logically now what else can we use? Is there anything else in those things you can refer to that we haven't used that you could use in this particular section here? Well done if you spotted this, you could say, that the challenges that retailers are also facing is that they have lost income due to the closure, and that they're still having to continue to pay their business rates, which you know, is a tax on the, that the local businesses will have to pay.

Okay, from a previous lesson of ours.

All right, so hopefully that gives you enough now to feel that you could have written that first paragraph.

I'm going to move on to the second paragraph.

Now we need three ways that citizens can support local economic growth.

Okay, and you're asked to explain these not just identify this time but explain them.

So you need to identify them and then add an additional sentence or two to explain what you're talking about.

Okay, that's what it's asking you when it says explain.

So look again at that question, and the bits that you're supposed to reference, we haven't yet mentioned the role of local councils or individual action, so we want to make sure we've got those mentioned somehow, you also still remember, got to make some kind of reference to that source.

We have a picture of the high street, didn't we on the question? we mustn't forget that.

Okay, so the kind of things here that you might say so this is how you explain the three ways the citizens could support local economic growth.

So I've got some suggestions here for us.

Citizens could write to their local council, to encourage them to take measures such as reducing business rates.

And the next one citizens could ensure that they shop on their local high street rather than online.

And you could refer to the source image there.

Citizens could use social media to share that they felt safe in the outlets on the local High Street, and then that might encourage others to come along and shop there.

Now, that's not an exhaustive list, is that? you may well have had quite different ideas for things that citizens could do.

But if you like any of mine there, you could steal some of mine as well.

And you can see I've been really careful to make sure I've systematically included all of the different things they asked me to refer to and that source.

I really hope that's been helpful.

So let's just look back at what we've covered today.

There's been four sections to our lesson.

We've recapped what is meant, will how you ensure that you have a healthy economy.

We've had a consideration of the economy post UK wide lockdown.

We've discussed the role that citizens can play and we've looked quite carefully at a written exam style task okay.

So we've done quite a lot there in quite a short period of time.

Make sure that you have a go at my exit quiz, see if you can get all of those answers right.

I'm sure you can.