Hello, my name is Miss Wyatt and I'm so glad that you could join us here today for our lesson.

Today's lesson on "What can we do as active citizens to improve our community?" comes from the unit "How can we make a difference in our communities?" By the end of the lesson, you will be able to describe what we can do as active citizens to improve our community.

The following keywords will be used throughout our lesson today, and these are: active, citizenship, campaign, and active citizen.

Active citizenship means the process of learning how to take part in democracy and use citizenship knowledge, skills, and understanding to work together and try to make a positive difference in the world.

Campaign are actions or events organised by an individual or a group of people to achieve an aim.

An active citizen is a person who actively takes responsibility, becomes involved in areas of public concern and tries to make a positive difference in their community.

Our lesson is broken up into two parts today.

The first part we will look at, What skills do we need for active citizenship? And then once we've learned that we will look at How can we plan an active citizenship campaign? Active citizenship requires skills that allow us to engage effectively in our communities and contribute to positive change.

So it's a positive thing.

Key citizenship skills are essential for addressing community needs and influencing decisions.

People campaign for issues in their communities that they want to change.

By understanding and developing these skills, we empower ourselves to become informed and responsible active citizens that can prove our own communities.

Sofia says, "To empower ourselves, means to make us stronger and more confident to decide important decisions." It's a real great thing to feel empowerment and to empower ourselves.

So let's check our understanding.

If we empower ourselves by developing our skills, we can: A: damage our communities, B: improve our communities, or C: ignore our communities.

Pause the video and have a think about this question.

Hopefully we worked out that if we empower ourselves by developing our skills, we can actually improve our communities.

Well done if you got that correct.

Jacob says, "I think you would need to be a good communicator so that you can make your points well and convince change-makers to support your active citizenship campaign." What skills do you think you need to be an active citizen, Izzy? Izzy says, "I think you need to be able to budget sensibly and be able to use money wisely.

If you don't budget for your campaign, you might not be able to complete it successfully.

I am good at maths, so I am confident I could do this, Jacob." So Izzy's saying you need to be able to budget and use your money wisely, so don't spend all your money at once.

Budget it, try and save some or try and think, "Right, I'm gonna need that amount to do that." Otherwise it you might not be able to actually do the campaign.

So, how should you use money when being an active citizen? A: sensibly, B: rashly, C: recklessly, or D: wisely? I will let you know that there may be more than one correct answer here.

So pause the video and read back through the options and think how should you use money when being an active citizen? Okay, hopefully we worked out that when we're being active citizens, we need to use our money sensibly and wisely.

If we use our money rashly and recklessly, then we're not budgeting and we might end up spending it all before we actually get to complete in our campaign.

Well done if you've worked that out.

There are many skills in citizenship that will make you become a more effective active citizen.

These include: advocacy, active participation, communication, raising awareness, collaborative working, political literacy, and planning.

Now, some of these words you might not be very familiar with.

So advocacy, it means to publicly support for a cause or a policy.

Okay, so if you are an advocate, you are trying to support something.

Let's see about political literacy.

So political literacy means to have the knowledge and understanding of the political process and issues which enable us to be effective citizens and active citizens.

True or false? Independent learning is the most important skill in active citizenship.

Is that true or is it false? Hopefully we're all shouting at me that it is false.

It's false because collaborative working is a more important key skill in active citizenship.

Being independent is useful when planning a campaign, but working together is what active citizens are best at.

So collaborative working and coming together and teamwork, that's the best skill that you can have in active citizenship.

Sofia says, "Do you know what advocacy means, Andeep? It's an important skill for successful active citizenship." Andeep says, "Advocacy means representing or supporting a person or an organisation publicly by writing, speaking, or taking action on behalf of that person or organisation.

Sofia, you are right, it is an important skill because we all need to protect other people's rights and make sure we work collaboratively to campaign for everyone to be safe and healthy in our communities." Laura says, "What is collaborative working, Jun?" Jun says, "Collaborative working is when people work together towards an outcome, or to produce something.

A campaign group, for example, should support each other and communicate well in order to show the skills of collaborative working.

This is a vital skill for active citizens." And Aisha says, "Do you know what political literacy is, Jacob?" Jacob says, "Political literacy is where a person has the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to allow them to both understand and how to engage in public events and debate.

For active citizenship campaigns we could get involved in, we would need to know who to contact and how to involve these political change-makers in our campaign." So which words are associated with active citizenship? Is it independence, collaboration, indifference, or advocacy? So which words? Pause the video and have a think about this question.

Okay, well done, everyone.

So the words that are associated with active citizenship are collaboration and advocacy.

If independence and indifference isn't associated with active citizenship, those aren't necessarily the skills and the words that we need to be using when it comes to active citizenship.

So, what I would like us to do is to have a go at explaining what skills are important for active citizenship to be successful.

That means for it to work.

Include at least two examples, explaining why these skills are needed.

So Sam is gonna give us a tip and says, "You could use the examples we have looked at in more detail.

So we've looked at advocacy, collaborative working or political literacy." So explain what skills are important for active citizenship to be successful.

Try and include two examples and explain why these skills are needed.

Pause the video and have a go at this task.

Well done, everyone.

Great efforts.

So your answer may have included some of the following: Active citizenship requires collaborative working, which means working together to achieve shared goals.

For example, collaborative working helps people organise campaigns by sharing skills and ideas.

Advocacy helps raise awareness of things in the community that people would like to be changed and encourages others to take action.

These skills help active citizens solve problems, include everyone, and make a positive difference by campaigning for everyone to live in a safer, healthier community.

So well done if you've got any of our ideas.

You may have written about the skill of political literacy rather than either or collaborative working or advocacy.

Well done, everyone.

We have now looked at what skills we need for active citizenship, and the final part of our lesson, we're going to look at How can we plan an active citizenship campaign? So being an active citizen is about taking part in democracy by having your say and making a positive difference.

We can all take part in planning a campaign to take action to improve our communities, and this is called active citizenship.

So what we've just looked at are the skills that we needed for active citizenship, okay? By focusing on campaigns that address things in the community that you want to change, we can become active citizens to create a better environment for everyone to live in.

So what do active citizens take part in? Is it aristocracy? Is it bureaucracy? Is it monarchy, or is it democracy? Pause the video and make your decision.

Hopefully we remembered that active citizens take part in democracy.

Active citizenship has many processes like planning a campaign, running and reporting on the campaign and evaluating your success are all important parts of the active citizenship cycle.

Let's have a look at our active citizenship cycle, which is on our screen, displayed as an image.

So there are lots of different steps.

There's seven steps altogether and there's three parts to it.

So planning, taking action and measuring impact.

So for instance, when we start to get planning, you'll choose your issue, you'll research possible actions, then decide on your actions.

You'll decide how to measure success, and plan and get ready to actually take action.

When it's time, you'll take action and put your plan into it.

Once it has taken action, we need to measure the impact.

So step seven says, time to reflect and evaluate and report your story.

So what went so well about the project? What didn't go so well? What could we improve on next time? That's what it means to evaluate.

The first part of the act of citizenship process is deciding the issue that you want to campaign to change in your community.

There are many issues in your local, national or global communities that you might want to change.

These might be similar things for everyone or you might be interested in something different that you want to advocate for change in.

Lucas says, "If you had to plan a campaign, what would you choose to change in your communities?" Sam says, "I'd want everyone to be treated equally and given the same opportunities in life." Izzy says, "I would like more buses in my community.

It's really hard to get to school, work, or appointments on time." And Jun says, "There is not much affordable housing in my community, so I would advocate for more of that." So we can see that Sam, Izzy, and Jun all have different issues within their community that they would like to try and campaign on to change.

The second part of active citizenship process is deciding who and what can help.

Finding people to help is often difficult, but there are change-makers in every community that want to advocate for lasting change, to improve things for everyone.

You have to think of who the best people to help are and what you will need to help your campaign.

So true or false? The second part of active citizenship process is deciding the issue you are going to change.

Is that second part true or false? It's false.

Well done if you got that correct.

This is the first part of active citizenship process.

The second part is finding out who and what could help.

You might want to research who the change-makers are in your community and what resources you might need for your campaign.

Lucas says, "What people could help us with our campaigns, Alex?" Alex says, "All active citizens can help, Lucas.

The change-makers in our local community are: our councillor, our local councillor, Members of Parliament, or MP for short, members of charities, non-governmental organisations or NGOs or community groups, schools, or individual citizens striving to campaign for change in their communities." So actually a lot of people can help you with your campaign.

Lucas says, "What resources might we need to campaign?" Alex says, "Firstly, we will need money and we will have to plan how to use it.

It would also be helpful to have a phone and a computer to contact important change-makers.

We will need different things depending on what our campaign will be about and what we decide to do." So the third part of the active citizenship process is deciding what you will do in your campaign.

There are lots of ways to campaign effectively.

It will depend on the issue you choose to focus on, but some campaign methods can be used by active citizens across different issues.

Sofia says, "I know that some people campaign by holding protests or gatherings, signing petitions, and I've seen some people refuse to move from a particular place to make their point.

Maybe you've seen that too, in the media.

Andeep says, "There are campaign events held in my community.

They collaborate with local businesses and raise money to help." Sofia says, "People also use social media to campaign.

They use it to post videos or comments that will reach a wider audience.

Lots of campaigns have started on social media." It's such a good tool, social media, if it's used correctly.

You can put something out on there and it can spread within seconds.

And if you are going to use it to campaign, it's a brilliant idea to do so.

Andeep says, "I often see posters and leaflets with important messages on.

I also know of people that have written to their MP, council leaders or other change-makers to lobby them to make the changes in the community." So you can use social media, but you can also use posters and leaflets.

You can go to your local MP and your council leaders.

Which of the following is not an example of active citizenship campaign? So not an example.

Is it protests, social media, donating money, or petitions? Pause the video and have a think about this question.

Okay, hopefully we recognised that donating money is not an example of active citizenship campaigning.

Protests, social media and petitions are because they raise awareness, they get a message out and they want to campaign for something.

But donating money isn't necessarily an example of an active citizenship campaign.

Well done if you got that correct.

When we take part in a campaign, we need to make sure we have decided how we will measure its success.

This is the fourth part of an active citizenship process.

The following steps will help decide if the campaign was successful.

So the first step, measure achievements and check if the campaign met its objectives, like raising awareness, collecting donations, or increasing participation.

For example, did you reach a target number of signatures on a petition? Second step, assess if the campaign made a positive difference, such as cleaner parks, improved services or greater public engagement.

For example, is there less litter in the area? Third step, look at how many people got involved or provided positive feedback like social media shares or attendance at events.

For example, 85 people filled in a survey and left positive comments.

And the fourth step, consider if the campaign sparked lasting improvements such as new policies, ongoing programmes, or greater community involvement.

For example, policies were changed, so improvements could continue in the area.

Campaigns have short-term or long-term effects, and even if the effects seem small, it is still worth carrying out a campaign on an important issue.

People are often unrealistic about their success and expect campaigns to change everything at all once.

Sometimes campaigning can take time if it is to result in lasting change.

Events may have to be reported or new events organised to keep raising awareness of your campaign.

Now the fifth part of active citizenship process is planning and getting ready to campaign.

Aisha says, "Remember, being active citizens means working collaboratively to achieve your aim and actively participating.

So you must all contribute to your campaign." To come together and work together to make sure that this campaign goes through.

So let's fill in the missing word.

The fifth part of the active citizenship process is planning and getting ready to blank.

What is that blank? Can you remember what we said? Okay, three, two, one.

It's to get ready to campaign.

Well done if you remembered that.

So in a group, complete the fifth part of the active citizenship process by planning your action to improve your community.

So remember, it's really important to work collaboratively to do something to do with active citizenship.

So you need to get into a group.

Discuss your ideas as a group, and answer the following questions about your campaign.

So first one, what issue have you chosen and why? Who and what can help? Can you identify any people? What kind of action will you take and how will you know if it has been successful? So try and have a go at completing the fifth part of the active citizenship process by planning your action to improve your community.

Have a good go and enjoy.

Well done, everyone.

So we should have discussed our ideas as a group and had a go at answering the questions.

So the first question said, what issue have you chosen to focus on and why? You might have included some of our ideas.

We have to decided to focus on preventing loneliness in the elderly in our community.

In our neighbourhood, we have met a few lonely elderly people who have spoken to us about not being able to get out much or not being able to meet new people.

You might have chose the same issue to focus on as we did.

Then we had "who and what can help?" So the local counsellor and MP will be able to help with policies and programmes for the elderly in the local community.

Schools will be able to help us too.

We will need to raise money to fund our project and contact the local media.

So I wonder if you got any of the same people as we did.

And then "what kind of action will you take?" We're going to set up a coffee morning at school and invite local elderly people to meet new people to prevent loneliness.

We can introduce people, play quizzes, tell stories, and make connections with one another.

We will buy food and drink for the event and work together to provide a safe space for the elderly in our community to meet other people.

And then the last question, "how will you know if it has been successful?" We will ask participants if they have found the coffee morning helpful for meeting people and ask them to complete a survey to find out whether it has made them feel less lonely.

We would ask if they wanted to make the coffee morning a regular event, and if they did, it would mean it's a success because they enjoyed it so much that they wanted to have it again.

So your issue might have been different to ours and how you've taken it out and how you've completed it and how you've noticed it's successful may be different as well.

But as long as we understand how we can plan an active citizenship campaign, job well done.

We have come to the end of the lesson and therefore I would like to summarise it into a few points.

There are many important skills to have as active citizens, including advocacy, collaborative working, and political literacy.

By improving our citizenship skills, we equip ourselves to be informed and responsible active citizens, capable of making a positive impact on our communities.

Being an active citizen means engaging in democracy, expressing your views, and contributing to lasting change.

Active citizens need to select a community issue, discover who and what could help, decide what action to take, how to measure its success, and they can then start planning their campaign.

I really hope you have enjoyed today's lesson on what we can do as active citizens to improve our community, and that you actually take this lesson on board and start to become, if not already active citizens.

Well done on all of your efforts and I will see you in the next one.

Bye-bye.