Lesson video

Welcome to our citizenship lesson today.

I'm Mrs. Barry, and we are looking at a series of lessons about what are our identities and communities.

Today's lesson is lesson four of six and we're looking at how our communities changing.

So today's lesson, you're going to need your brain which hopefully you've already got with you.

And you need to make sure you've got something to write with such as a pen or a pencil and something to write on.

So some paper or something similar would be really good.

Make sure you turned off any apps or notifications, and that you've got yourself into a quiet place where we can do our lesson together today.

And when you're ready, we can get on with that.

So we're looking at this overarching question of how our community is changing and there's a few different things we're going to look at within that.

So we're going to start with early communities and what happened in the early days up until today.

We're going to think about how and why communities have changed.

So making sure we understand what sorts of things have changed and what has caused those changes to happen within communities.

We're going to look at some examples, look at some modern society and the technological changes that have really changed communities sometimes for the better, not always.

And then we will make sure you've understood that all before we end the lesson.

So let's get started.

So we're going to start by looking early communities, and communities have developed over time as things have changed.

There have been lots of different events and changes in society which means that communities have had to change according to what is happening in people's behaviours.

If you compare to early communities to now we have developed and changed a lot.

You could go back to cavemen and think about the small communities they had, to today where we have lots of communities in larger areas in larger groups, such as in London.

We can travel and share with community globally which they couldn't do in those early communities because of a lack of transportation.

Or even today, we could think about the use of the internet and the fact that we can communicate globally with different communities.

So if you think about evolution, evolution is the way in which things change over time.

People adapt to their surroundings as communities adapt to the people living in them.

So a good example here, I've already talked about the use of the internet is communication.

The top telephone in the picture there on the right had to been wired into your homes.

The only way you could call someone was to be at home and call them.

In today's society, we have mobile phones and the very nature of mobile means we can move around with them.

And this has changed the way in which we live and changes the communities we live in and how they function, how they work.

Historically, lots of changes have happened within communities.

And we looked at this timeline in lesson two where we considered changes in identity and just like events in history, changing people's identity and how people perceive themselves to be.

They have changed our communities as well.

So for example, in 1066, there was an expansion of religious communities with the arrival of Norman Jews.

So that would have changed some of the facilities and some of the cultural attitudes that were in Britain at the time.

Our local facilities, things we enjoy would have changed with new skills tradespeople settling, which happened in the middle ages.

The diversity of our communities will have changed as a result of different cultures, settling in Britain.

And remember diversity is where we think about different.

So lots of different people living in one place will impact the way a community works and what is available to the people within the community.

How and why have communities changed.

And there's five ideas and that we could use here and we've just looked at history thinking about what life was like previously and the impact that it's had over time.

Sometimes things change positively and sometimes it's negative.

But, historically events do change things.

Communities might come together to make something a success such as people working together in the 2012 Olympics, which can become something for communities to celebrate and remember and there are four other things on here, that we haven't looked at yet.

And we're going to look at them each, individually, but briefly now, politics.

What decisions are made by government and local councils they will always impact your community and the communities around the country.

Individuals, so separate people can make change happen.

You could make change happen in your local community.

You might know of someone or some examples of people who have made changes to their local or in around the world, global communities.

You've got economy, so looking at money and the amount of money spent or an investment in an area, changes communities the more money you have, the more changes you can make or implement.

And lastly there demography.

So demography is about who lives in an area.

What sort of people make up that area? If you've got lots of older people then the facilities and community needs to ensure that those people are looked after and cared for.

If you've got lots of young people you'd expect to see things like playgrounds and schools so that those young people have got what they need in their communities.

So lots of different things about how and why communities have changed.

And we're going to go into a bit more detail on that next.

We're going to start with having a look at how politics changes our communities.

And an example of a social community that you might know of is the Scouts.

And they have changed and adapted over time.

And one of the ways in which they've had to change and adapt as a result of politics is their boy-only rule which they dropped in 2007.

Since 2006 there was a new law brought in, an equality law, that meant that you had to treat people fairly including on basis of gender.

And so the Scouts couldn't be a boy-only club anymore.

And so political influence has changed the way the Scouts run.

Eventually there are lots of different equality laws that were put together.

And the one that you should be aware of now is the Equality Act of 2010.

And in it it says the Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.

So you can see here, one example of how politics has made an impact to change to our communities.

In this instance, definitely for the better ensuring that there is equality for everyone.

We going to have a look at demography, which is who lives in an area.

We're going to think about how that's changed our communities.

I put a graph up here and I want you to have a look at the difference between the urban trend.

So the red line at the top and the rural trend which is the blue line at the bottom and I've got three questions for you to do in a moment.

So what does this graph show us? So what trends? What do those lines do? Why do you think that might have happened? Who do you think is more likely to live in which area? And you could think about culture or gender or age whatever category you'd like to think about that third one.

So when you're ready, press pause.

Have a go at those three questions.

Just short answers take you about three or four minutes.

And then when you're ready to carry on with the lesson, press play.

Okay, welcome come back.

We're going to have a look.

So you can see here that the red line, the urban line is on the rise and the blue line is on a decline which means it's going down.

So since 1950, which is the years at the bottom of that graph there the number of people living in urban areas has increased.

So that was where that line goes up.

So we've gone from 80 to 90% perhaps.

And the number of people living in rural areas has decreased, gone down.

So you can see in 1950 we're looking at about 20% and then down there's 2020 we're looking at about probably 18, 17% predicting in 2050 that that's going to go down even further.

Now, why might that have happened? Job opportunities.

There were more jobs in urban communities, they're more built up.

They didn't have office blocks and and more places to work.

Higher wages in urban communities, the types of jobs that are on offer often paying more.

You got better education.

So you get universities, for example, in urban communities whereas in a rural community you might only have a primary school.

And better facilities, so more to do.

So if you've got an urban community and there's lots of people living there, you're going to have lots of different things to hopefully entertain them.

Whereas in a rural community you might have a community centre, for example where clubs meet up, but not much else because if there's only a small number of people then it doesn't make a lot of sense, unfortunately to have lots of different facilities 'cause they wouldn't necessarily get used.

And then thirdly, one of the biggest reasons for the change is more young people tend to leave rural areas to go and live in more urban areas.

So young people get a bit bored perhaps of there not being that many facilities in their rural community.

And therefore they go and live in an area where it's got more things to do.

And there's a greater number of people for them to interact with.

So you can see the types of people and the types of communities can affect what's going on and how our communities change.

And as people move around those communities in turn change as well.

Individuals, so individuals can change your communities.

You could go out and make a change.

And this is a fabulous example of a group of primary school students who made a change in their local community.

And they embarked on a project to set up recycling.

Their playground was littered with crisp packets which can't be put into a recycling bin.

And so they found a project which recycles them into garden furniture.

Money was donated for each crisp packet and they put that towards a local charity and they run an award for this as well.

But it's just one example of way individuals can change communities.

If you see an issue in your local community then you could contact your local council for example, talk to them about what changes you want to make, and then try and put those changes into action or active citizenship.

So individuals can make a change to their communities as well.

We're going to have a quick look economy and economy is all to do with money and how money can change our communities.

We've got a quick case study here of Ashford.

And Ashford is a neighborhood's community that seen a lot of change.

What I would need you to do is to have a look at the clip and see if you can answer any of these questions but what are some of the reasons for change in Ashford town? What changes have already taken place? And how are they involving the local community to guide future changes? High streets up and down the country are facing challenging times with the increase in online shopping and a need to offer something beyond just a shopping experience.

Here in Ashford, we know residents want more from their town centre and the good news is there are many changes taking place or in the pipeline.

With a new cinema, places to eat and drink, a craft brewery, hotels, new apartments, and major office development, all underway.

There has never been a more exciting period of change within our town centre.

Many high streets are facing decline but Ashford has been able to buck this trend and the number of people visiting the town is actually increased.

However, there's still more to do, and we're looking long and hard at what our town centre could become in the future.

The good news is we're not starting from scratch.

Ashford is already home to the Create Music Festival, Revelations St.

Mary's, and family fun events like the festive Funday.

Our ambition is to build our heritage as a market town.

One that makes the most of its unique location, international connections and strong community spirit.

Ashford has some great heritage to treasure and enjoy.

Alongside this old town, a growing town centre offers exciting new facilities and brings a new dynamism and diversity to cater for a wide range of tastes.

This year, we've seen poignant exhibitions like Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace, eye catching artwork like the Zip building, Splashes of Summer, a series of fun events for all the family to enjoy.

And of course the snow dogs Art Trail.

Ashford does already have an emerging cultural offer.

We'd like to build on this and to do so we need your help.

How can we create a buzz about Ashford and make it stand out from the crowd? How do we sustain a thriving, fun destination in the daytime and at night? How do we create a place that is welcoming and accessible to all? And how can we make Ashford a place we're proud to call home? If you can help us answer these questions then tell us via our website visit www.

ashford.

gov.

uk/towncenter.

So welcome back.

Hopefully you've watched that case study video of Ashford Borough Council, and the questions that I gave you.

I've got some answers that you should have been able to spot hopefully in the video.

So what are some of the reasons for change in Ashford town? There's two reasons that they identified in that video and there was an increase in online shopping.

So less people are visiting the high street.

And this is quite common across lots of different towns in the United Kingdom.

Residents have also asked for change, so people within the community are saying, look we'd like something to be done about our town.

Question two is what changes have already taken place or what is Ashford Borough Council already done.

They've put new cinema in, they've put some hotels in, they've done some office development, they've got new places to eat, and new apartments.

so that they're regenerating, they're developing and changing the community to fit the needs of the people within that community.

And they can only do that because they've been given or they have money to do it in to Ashford in particular has been on the increase in terms of funding because it's got a high speed rail and that means it's got better connections.

And so there is more money being invested into that town without that investment, without the money that they're putting into Ashford town, they wouldn't be able to make these changes.

So that shows you how money, the economy makes changes to communities.

And then lastly there I asked you, how are they involving the local community to guide future changes? Well, they use their website and they hubs.

They didn't say this in the video, but you might have seen it.

Some pop-up events in the town centres.

They put up some stands and some people, and they were talking to people in their local community.

So we're just going to go through some true or false questions just to see how much you've learned so far.

So the first one is political changes are a result of government actions.

So I think true or false, hopefully you said true.

If the government makes a change then this is genuinely political.

Economic changes are based on our history.

And the thing is that true or false.

False, economic changes happen as a result of the money an area has.

And we look to Ashford town centre as an example of that.

Age is a demographic reason why a community might change, is it true or false? That one is true.

So the way a community is built up affects how it changes in time that might include age, gender, wealth, ethnicity.

So who lives, where, and what that community needs.

So we're going to move on.

Hopefully we've got quite a few of those, all right.

We're going to move on to task three and how our community's changing.

In lesson three, we drew our local neighbourhoods community.

And just to remind you, this was my drawing I'm sure you had a better drawing of what your neighbourhood community might've looked like.

What I would like you to do, thinking about what we've learned this lesson, is that anything new in your community, does your community meet the needs of everyone? And what would you do to improve your community? So if you've got your image from lesson three then you could add to it.

Or you could start again completely if you'd like to and just draw your community, adding on anything that you think you would need to improve it, to meet the needs of all the people in your community and maybe anything that's been added that you haven't put on there previously.

So when you're ready, you can pause the video give that task a go, take you about five, 10 minutes depending on how artistic you want to get.

And then when you were done press play and we will continue with the lesson.

Fabulous, welcome back.

This is my example of what a changed community might look like.

So you can see I've just added some extra bits and pieces onto the right.

This is called a spool.

So where an area kind of spreads out and you can see here that I have added a medical centre, so more housing because when more facilities pop up there tends to be a growth in people wanting to live there.

A church and a care home.

And these places you think about the development questions I've put here, why would these new places to be good for a community? These places would suit a growing community because if you've got lots of people in one area and they need to see a GP or a dentist then a medical centre would be really good for them.

It might be that because you've got more people in area you've got bigger diversity, bigger change, different in people there.

So we had the mosque before but now perhaps we need another religious building.

And for those who follow a different faith.

And then we've got the care home as well because if you've got elderly people then we'll imagine in this community there's a rise in the number of elderly people.

Then you might want to be thinking about the care that they will need when they're older.

So you can see here that communities change as a result of the need of those within that community.

And it's thinking about who you've got in that community, what do they need? And then hopefully that community will have the support to be able to make those changes.

If we think about modern society today and the way it's changed some of those changes aren't even visible.

So whereas our community tasks we just did where we did some drawing and thought about different buildings that might be added to our community.

Some of the things that changes in our communities are things you can't see.

So you have technological developments, for example that are an important part of how communities change, but aren't always obvious.

So technology has increased our ability to be part of our global community which connects us with people all over the world.

So it's that infrastructure which is the way a community is built up behind the scenes.

So things like telephone lines, internet cables that's all part of the infrastructure of a community is allowing us to connect better with different types of communities.

Whether that be people next door, or it might be people literally on the opposite side of the world.

So that's a long way.

We've come a very long way in terms of our communities from the cave men that we started with when we looked at those early communities.

And that is a massive way of looking at how communities have changed.

So just to remind you, of a little bit of a timeline in terms of modern society.

If we go back to before the phone, before phones even existed, we had letters.

So you couldn't even speak to someone instantly.

You had to send a letter and wait and hope that they might reply.

If you wanted to connect with someone who was far away.

Luckily today, we now have computers.

We have the internet and that's how we were able to teach you with these lessons but also how you can communicate and be part of a global community.

Well, it's only at seven that brings us to the end of our lesson today looking at how communities are changing.

And we've gone through all the different steps here.

So we've looked at early communities and what they were like.

We've considered how or why communities changed.

We've gone all the way to modern day society.

Looking at some of the new changes that are taking place, That are connecting us globally with people all around the world and we have done some activities to check our understanding.

So that brings me to say that if you've got any of that work that you want to share with Oak National, then that would be lovely.

You could ask your parent or carer to share that on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @oaknational and Learn with Oak so you might share your community picture for example, that we did earlier on and it'd be great to see some of your work from today's lesson.

I also need to ask you to go and complete an exit quiz so that we'll make sure that you just double check that you have learnt everything that we need you to.

And if there's anything you're unsure of you can always rewatch the lesson.

So thank you very much, and I look forward to doing another citizenship lesson with you soon.