Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mrs. Kennedy.

Thanks for joining me for today's lesson.

We've got lots of content to get through today, and I'll be here throughout the lesson guiding you through it.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson comes from the unit, how can we make a difference in our communities? And our lesson today is called, what role does the school play in our local community? By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to explain what role your school plays in your local community.

Let's start the lesson by taking a look at our keywords.

Firstly, we have school, a keyword that we're all familiar with.

A school is an establishment of learning and education.

And next, we have local community.

So a local community is a group of people living in the same geographical area.

So have a think about where your local community is, where do you live? And our lesson today has two parts.

During the first part, we're going to explore how our school is linked to the local community.

So all schools, not just your school, but all schools are linked in different ways with their local communities.

And sometimes those links will have just occurred really naturally without anyone really having put a lot of thoughts behind it.

And other times, those links will have been really deliberate.

So someone will have actively gone out from the school to make a link into the local community.

So the links can be deliberate or they can just occur naturally, but all of our schools are linked in some ways to their local communities.

Schools are often actually at the centre of their local community.

Historically, communities were much smaller than some of the communities we now live in.

And they might have just had a shop, a church, and a school.

And those three things would've been really the central points of that community and really important.

And we haven't lost that today.

Whilst our communities in certain areas will have grown much larger than that, a school is still a really important part of the local community.

And there's lots of different ways that schools can be linked to their local communities.

So you might want to have a quick think about where do you know that your school currently links with your local community.

Examples might include schools getting involved in local events and celebrations.

So schools will often join local celebrations like fairs, festivals, cultural events, bringing pupils and members of the local community together.

And that can help pupils in lots of different ways.

It can help them to learn about the history, traditions, and values of the local community that they're living in.

And they can also share their history, traditions and values with other members of the local community.

Being involved in local events or celebrations can help both pupils and other citizens within the local community to build pride in their local communities.

And it can really help the people who go to that school to feel more connected to their local community.

So thinking about what we just talked about, see if you can fill in the blank in this sentence.

Schools are linked to the local community during local events and, which help people feel more connected.

So what do you think our missing word there might be? So well done if you spotted, but the missing word here is celebrations.

So schools are linked to the local community during local events and celebrations, which help people or citizens in that local community feel more connected.

Well done if you got that one right.

So another way that schools can be involved in their local communities is through volunteering.

Schools often encourage pupils to complete some sort of volunteering within their local community.

Now, I'm sure most of you know what the word volunteering means, but Jun's gonna help us out if any of you aren't familiar with that word.

Volunteering is when people choose to give up their time to help others.

And usually, when we volunteer for something, we're giving up our time for free.

So we wouldn't expect to be paid.

So one way that schools can get involved in their local communities is by encouraging their pupils and also their staff to give up their time and their skills to help the local community in some way.

So let's have a look at an example of what that might look like.

So pupils could volunteer in their local community, for example, by helping an animal shelter or cleaning up a local park, or doing a litter pick down the local residence roads.

Volunteering helps pupils understand the needs and challenges of the local community that they live in, and it also allows them to do something positive for their local community.

So have a look at these options.

Which do you think are describing volunteering? So volunteering is, A, getting paid for doing something you love.

B, giving your time for free to help others.

C, helping at food banks or cleaning public spaces.

Or D, working as a paid newspaper distributor.

Which one of those options, or there might be more than one option there, you think fits the criteria for what volunteering is? So I spotted two that I thought were correct.

So volunteering is giving your time for free to help others.

That's a really good definition of what volunteering is.

But one of the options also describes an act of volunteering.

So volunteering could be helping at food banks or cleaning public spaces.

They're not the only examples of volunteering.

There are other ways you can volunteer, but they are two examples of what volunteering could look like.

So we've talked about volunteering, but another way that schools can get involved within their local community is through partnering up with local businesses who work in that community.

So that can work in different ways.

One example might be that the local business might sponsor an event.

So they might sponsor an event at school by volunteering their time to help at it, or they might offer some funding to help get that event started and become the sponsor for that event.

Another way that local businesses will often work or be linked with schools in their area is through offering work experience placements.

Now that might not be something you've experienced yet, but it is quite likely to be something that you will experience as you move through the school.

When you go on work experience, so you go and take part in work at a local business, you can learn from the leaders of that business.

But those leaders or the people that work in those local businesses might also visit your school to talk about careers and skills and what success in their industry might look like.

Those partnerships between schools and the local business provide a real-world experience for pupils and show you what some of the potential job opportunities in your local community are.

But those partnerships don't just benefit you as a student.

They're also really beneficial to the local business as well 'cause they can help ensure that young people in their area understand their business and the needs of their business and can help develop citizens who can go on and work in those businesses in the future.

So that partnership is really beneficial both for the school and the pupils in it, but also for the local business.

So Izzy asks, do you know if people from local businesses come into our school at Oak National Academy? Let's see what Sam, Lucas and Jun have to say.

So Sam says, yeah, we had a talk from a local bank about managing our money, and how to watch out for scams online.

So a local bank in their area came in and did some skills and knowledge development with the pupils at Oak National Academy to help them be better skilled with managing their money and looking after their money in the future.

So that is one really good example of a local business linking with a school.

Lucas says, hmm, I know when we're a bit older and in Year 11, we get to work in local businesses for work experience.

So it looks like Oak National Academy have a work experience programme where they send their slightly older students in Year 11 out to get some real-life experience in the workplace.

And then Jun says, oh, we also had an assembly from a local charity that provides meals for the homeless.

And after that assembly, I decided to volunteer with them.

So Jun's offered a really good example there of another way that local businesses or local charities can get involved in schools and help raise awareness for the charity and what they're doing in that local area, which might then encourage pupils or again, perhaps the staff at that school to support that charity moving forward.

So that's three really different examples of how businesses can get involved with schools.

True or false, local businesses often provide real-life experiences for school pupils.

Is that one true or is it false? So hopefully, you said that that one was true.

So we know that local businesses often provide real-life experience for school pupils.

And they do that through work experience placements.

These are often offered by local businesses who can provide real-life work experiences for school pupils.

Well done if you've got that one right.

Let's have a look at another example of how a school might link with its local community.

So one way that lots of schools will get involved with their local communities is through joint environmental projects.

So what might that look like? So it could be anything really, from planting trees or looking at a waste reduction campaign in the local area.

Schools could work with the local council, so local councillors who are in charge of running the local area and also local community organisations.

So we already talked about charities and local businesses, so schools could go out and work with those types of people to improve the environment for everyone in the local community.

Another way they might do it is by teaming up with local environmental groups and giving pupils at the school a chance to work alongside people from their local community.

So there are lots of ways through things like environmental projects that the school can work alongside the local community to create change.

Another way, and this might be one that your school does, that schools can work with their local communities and support their local communities is through sharing facilities.

So schools often have lots of facilities that can be really useful to other people within their local community.

So one example of that might be that they let local community groups come and use the sports field at the school or it might be that they've got a library and they can invite in groups of young people as part of a reading club.

Or it might be that they're simply offering out space, meeting spaces for different organisations and groups from the local community who need somewhere that they can meet together.

By sharing facilities, schools are able to create a welcoming environment and that will help encourage people from the local community to come together.

And when pupils see people from the local community using those school facilities, that also helps to reinforce the idea that their school is part of a much larger local community and everyone can support each other within that local community.

Have a read of this, environmental projects that school pupils can get involved in which help the local community are, A, planting trees, B, collecting blankets for the homeless, or C, reducing waste.

So which of those options do you think are good examples of environmental projects that school pupils can get involved in within their local communities? So again, I spotted two answers there.

So I think all of these options are good ways that school pupils could potentially get involved with their local community, but the two that are particularly focused on environmental projects would be A, planting trees or C, reducing waste in the local community.

So thinking about all we have explored so far about how your school could be linked with your local community, I would like you to write the copy for a short leaflet about how your school is linked to the local community.

So depending on how much time you have available, you could go off and fully design that leaflet for me.

But I'm really interested actually in the text for copy and the explanation that you might put in that leaflet, which explains how the school is linked to the local community.

And I've given you some examples there that you might want to include when you are writing your leaflet.

So you might want to think about local events and celebrations.

You might want to think about volunteering and community service.

You might want to think about connections with local businesses.

You might want to think about environmental projects.

And finally, you might want to think about how your school could share facilities.

Pause the video now and have a go at writing your leaflet.

So I asked you to write the copy for a short leaflet about how your school is linked to the local community.

Now all of our answers might look very different because I'm not in your school with you and the way your school links to your local community might be very different to the way that I talked about, so don't worry if your answer doesn't look like mine.

But to give you an idea, you might have said something like, "Our school, Our community." At our school, we're proud to be connected with our local community.

We actively participate in local events and celebrations, bringing pupils, families, and neighbours together.

Our pupils volunteer and engage in community service making a positive impact.

At school, we encourage people to collaborate with local businesses for support and learning opportunities.

Environmental projects are a key focus, ensuring a greener future for the next generation.

Our school also shares our facilities, welcoming the local community to join us in creating a vibrant, inclusive environment for our pupils and everyone who is linked with us.

So that sounds like a school who is really well-connected with their local community.

And you might have thought of lots of other examples of how your school connects with your local community.

And I wonder if when you were writing you might also have thought of some new ways that you might want to connect your school to a local community in the future.

And if you have, I'd really encourage you to talk to your school leaders and your teachers about how you could do that.

For the final part of today's lesson, we are gonna look at why it's important for schools to be connected to the local community.

So we've already looked at how schools can be connected to the local community, but now we're gonna think about why are schools important to the local community? So schools are a really vital part of their local community, and they're vital for lots of different reasons.

But some of the reasons could be that they engage in the following areas.

They build connections and community spirit across the whole local community.

They support local growth by supporting local businesses.

And they can really help promote values and responsibility across the local community.

They can also share resources for community use that we've just talked about.

So Alex asks, how can a school build connections and community spirit, Izzy? I wonder if you've got any ideas of how you think a school can build connections and community spirit.

You might like to talk to someone else in your class about that.

Izzy tells this, our school is used as a central meeting place, bringing pupils, families, and local residents together to strengthen community bonds.

Through events like winter fairs, holiday celebrations, and raising money for charity, we create opportunities for everyone to connect, celebrate, and support one another.

Our volunteer programmes also allow people to contribute to the local community building a sense of belonging and shared purpose.

So Izzy has listed there lots of ways that the school is building connections and building community spirit in their local community.

So they're doing it by sharing facilities through being a central meeting place.

They're doing it through events and celebrations like the Winter Fair.

They're doing it through raising money for charities and creating opportunities within charities and celebrating each other.

And they also have a volunteer programme, which allows pupils to contribute their time and skills to the local community.

And all of those things when you put them together, helps build a real sense of connection and community spirit.

True or false, volunteer programmes give people in local communities a sense of despair.

Is that one true or is it false? So, of course, that one is false.

Volunteer programmes often do exactly the opposite.

They give people in local communities hope and a feeling of belonging.

We certainly don't want them to be giving people a sense of despair.

So another way that schools are really important to the local community is through supporting local growth.

And that can be both economically, so thinking about kind of money and the money that they can bring in, but also socially.

So if you look at it from an economic point of view, a money point of view, many pupils will buy things, pupils and their families will buy things in local shops, maybe on their journey to or from school, and that can help boost the local economy by putting money into local businesses.

So that is one way that schools are important part of, economically, an important part of the local community.

Schools can also collaborate with local businesses for mutual benefit.

And businesses can work in partnership through things like work experience programmes and workshops highlighting the importance of schools in local growth.

So how can schools boost the local economy? Is it through taking part in business partnerships? Is it by using school staff for community services? Or is it by pupils buying things from local shops? Which of those options do you think schools use to help boost the local economy? So did you get those two? So the two ways from this list that schools can boost the local economy is by taking part in business partnerships and by people buying things from local shops.

Well done if you've got that one right.

So schools can encourage pupils to contribute positively to the local community and that can help promote values and responsibility across the local community, which can be a real benefit to everyone.

One of the things that schools do is teach important skills, skills like teamwork.

And they also help pupils explore values like being respectful and kind and environmental care.

And by helping pupils to develop skills like teamwork, communication, research, advocating, and also helping students to develop a really core set of values that will encourage people to become responsible citizens in their local communities.

And actually go beyond just being responsible citizens who are respectful and become active citizens who actively go out and try and make a positive change or positive difference within their local communities.

So schools are a really important part of helping to prepare people to be able to do that both now and in the future.

So ways that they can do that is, for example, pupils might be given the responsibility of planning, budgeting, or helping at certain events, which will demonstrate their skills and values development.

So they might be given responsibility for organising a local celebration, for example.

And as part of that, they will have to plan the event, they will have to carefully write the budget and stick to it, and then they'll have to help carry out that event, all of which is helping build their skillsets up and also helping contribute actively to the community.

Schools encourage pupils to make positive contributions to the local community which promotes values and what? Jacob's given you a little clue there if you're struggling to find that word.

He says you have to take on more of this as you get older.

So what's our missing word? Schools encourage pupils to make positive contributions to the local community which promotes values and? So well done if you said that it promotes values and responsibility.

Schools who share their facilities are a really important part of the local community as it allows them space to run and take part in various activities.

So some examples of that might be schools renting their halls out to sports events or groups like the Scouts or Guides.

And this can really help strengthen the local community relationships through having this kind of shared space that people outside of the school community can use and benefit from as well.

Another way, and I wonder if your school does this, another way that schools are often used within the local community is being used as a polling station at election time.

And that might be when local elections are happening for local councillors, or it might be when national general elections are happening for members of Parliament.

So a polling station, if you're not sure, is where eligible citizens go to cast their votes to decide who they want to represent them.

So be that in a local or a general election.

And there will be lots of buildings, not just schools, that will be used as polling stations for the local residents to come in and cast their votes, but schools are often used.

So this is another reason why schools can be seen as a really central part of the local community.

So Laura says, do you know if our school, so I wonder if Oak National Academy shares its facilities, Sofia? What do you think Sofia's gonna say? So Sofia says, yes, actually, Oak National Academy looks like they share their facilities in lots of different ways.

So Sofia tells us that they rent the hall out to a boxing club from the community two evenings a week.

They also hold coffee mornings for charities and they have some sports clubs in the evenings that rent out the outdoor pitches and courts.

So there's lots of ways that Oak National Academy are getting involved in their local community.

And Laura says, hmm, I wonder if our school shares for facilities in any other ways.

And Sam tells her, well, yeah, our school is used for local elections, so the school becomes a polling station.

All of the pupils in the lower years work at home for the day while part of the school is used by the local community for voting.

So schools are an essential part of the local community.

They build connections, support local growth and support both pupils and local residents.

And some of the ways that they do that is schools can serve as a hub for learning, collaboration and celebration, bringing people together through events, volunteer programmes and partnerships with businesses in the local community.

They also help promote values like teamwork, respect, and environmental responsibility, which means schools are helping to shape responsible, engaged, active pupils, who can actively contribute to the local community's wellbeing.

So have a read of this one.

Schools serve as a hub for, visitors, learning, refreshments or teamwork? Which of those options do you think schools serve as a hub for? So again, I saw two correct answers there.

So schools serve as a hub for learning and teamwork.

By educating pupils, schools teach both those pupils but also the wider community, because pupils can take that knowledge and take those skills and grow into respectful active citizens, active citizens who want and are able to make a positive difference in their local communities.

And one way that schools do that is through lessons like this one you're taking part in today, so through citizenship education lessons, which are all about helping young people develop the knowledge and the skills and the values and attitudes they need to go out and take an active positive role in society.

So Alex says, the pupils in my school had an assembly about helping the local food bank, so I encouraged my whole family to volunteer there last weekend.

It felt great to help the local community as a family, and that's a really good way of showing that the input that happens at school can grow and support the wider community in lots of different ways.

So Alex didn't just go on his own to help support that local food bank having heard about it at school, he took what he had learned and he shared it within his network, his family network, and actually they all went and volunteered.

So the school really helped to spread that support to that food bank.

Aisha, have you taught anyone anything you learned at school? And Aisha says, yeah, I learned all about endangered animals at school and how we could help prevent more from going extinct.

I then shared this information with people in the mosque in my local community.

I enjoy teaching people what I've learned at school.

So I wonder if there's anything you've learned, particularly in your citizenship lessons, that you think actually I can share that with someone in my local community, be that my family, my friends, or through local community groups that I'm involved with, and I can share that knowledge and skills to help support the community even more.

Have a go at filling in the blank in this sentence.

So it says you can help the local community by, at the community nature project.

So what do you think our missing word is there? So you can help the local community by volunteering at the community nature project.

Well done if you've got that one right.

And Jun says you can volunteer in many places in the local community, however, there may be age restrictions for certain roles or situations so it's really important you do your research before you try volunteering anywhere.

Jun says, I used to volunteer at my local library by putting the books back when people have left them in the wrong place.

And that certainly helped his local library by getting them in order.

But it also helped Jun, 'cause it helped further his organisational skills.

So let's have a look at some other ways that schools can help local communities in lots of different ways.

So one way they can do that is providing emergency support.

So a way they might do that is through food to low-income families.

So we saw a lot of that when schools were shut down with the COVID pandemic, and schools became a hub and they were able to deliver food packages to families who are on low incomes and couldn't get hold of food themselves.

They can provide digital skills.

So, for example, they might set up and run a computer club.

And that computer club could be open to pupils in their school who want to improve their digital skills, but it could also look to invite people in from the local community, who need their computer skills or their digital skills to be improved.

They can hold cultural celebrations.

And they can also support the local economy by encouraging people to say shop locally.

They can encourage environmental responsibility.

And they can also promote health and wellbeing.

So these are just some examples of the ways that schools can help within their local community.

And there are lots of other ways that they can do it too.

And I'm sure you could think of some more.

One good example that you might have seen is when schools create Christmas hampers for children or elderly people in their local community.

Other schools make hampers for people in hospital or those from low-income families that might not be able to get as many presents as others.

And again, this is just one way that schools can demonstrate their values of compassion to the rest of the local community, creating connections and helping those who are in need.

So true or false, creating Christmas hampers for those in need demonstrates the value of compassion.

Do you think that one is true or do you think is false? So it's true.

Creating Christmas hampers is a great way of showing effort has been put into thinking and caring about others.

It demonstrates compassion as someone is in need in the local community, and they are benefiting from the action.

So Andeep says, well, how does our school help the local community, Izzy? And Izzy's got a great example here.

So Oak National Academy has a reading buddy system in which pupils at our school are paired up with the younger people from the local primary school and we help teach them to read.

This takes place in the local community library with some teachers after school in the summer term.

And Izzy took part in this reading scheme.

She helped a boy called James with his homework as well as with his reading.

Andeep says, hmm, does that help you too, Izzy? Izzy said, well, this actually it does.

It made me more confident, patient, and has improved my communication skills.

It has made me feel more useful and connected to my local community.

I'm also proud because I can see the impact my support has had on James has his reading improved over the summer.

So Izzy volunteered her time as part of a reading buddy scheme and that definitely helped other people in her local community, so specifically in this case, it helped a little boy called James to get better at reading.

But by taking part in that opportunity that the school had provided to link her in with her local community, Izzy also developed lots of skills.

So she became more confident and patient and improved her communication skills.

So again, the benefits went in lots of different directions.

Andeep's not convinced.

He says, surely you are only helping one people through this reading buddy scheme, you're not helping the whole local community.

I wonder what Izzy's got to say about that.

So Izzy said, well, the reading programme benefits the whole of the community by supporting early childhood education, providing young children with role models, and giving them extra academic help to educate them for the future.

It's a simple yet meaningful way for schools to encourage pupils to give back and make a difference locally.

So the programme benefits Izzy by benefiting her skills, it benefits other individuals like the young children like James, but it also benefits the whole community.

So a reading programme can benefit the local community by, A, distracting them from education, B, supporting early childhood education, C, providing young children with role models or D, educating young people for the future? So which one, or you might decide that there's multiple options there, do you think a reading programme can benefit the local community by? So I found three.

So I don't think a reading programme can benefit the local community by distracting them from education, but I do think all of the other options are brilliant ways that a reading programme can benefit the local community.

So well done if you spotted all three of those.

Okay, I have a task for you, and there's two parts to this task.

The first thing I would like you to do is identify and explain eight different ways that schools can help the local community.

And Sofia's given you a little hint there.

She said, try to think of ways schools can help different age groups in the local community.

So pause the video now and have a go, identify and explain eight ways that the school can help the local community.

So I wonder if your eight ways look anything like mine.

Don't worry if you came up with eight entirely different ones.

That's great.

But I came up with things like organising a local community litter pick, offering school reading programmes, providing spaces and facilities, collecting food, collaborating with local businesses, helping improve local community systems within the local community skills through things like computer skills classes, holding cultural celebrations, and also providing food parcels to families who need them.

So I wonder if your eight looked anything like my eight.

And then for the final part of today's task, I would like you to have a read through of this paragraph and fill in the gaps to complete the paragraph using the words in the word bank below.

Pause the video now to have a go for that.

So let's see if you've got all the words in the right place.

So your paragraph should read like this.

Our school is important in the local community because it serves as a place for learning and connection.

We participate in local events and have unpaid volunteering programmes, helping those in need.

By partnering with local businesses, we create opportunities for pupils and support the local economy.

Additionally, we promote environmental values, teaching peoples to care for each other and the world around them, making our community a better place for everyone.

I hope you got all your words in the right place and well done if you did.

And that brings us to the end of our lesson today.

So I have really enjoyed exploring with you the role that your school and other schools play in local communities.

Let's have a quick look at all the things we've talked about.

So firstly, we know that our school is linked to the local community in many different ways.

For example, event celebration, facility sharing, and local business partnerships.

And we talked about lots of other ways they're linked throughout the lesson.

We know that it's important for schools and people to be connected to the local community, and that schools play a vital role in building community spirit, supporting local growth, promoting values and responsibility, and sharing resources in their local community.

And finally, schools can help local communities through volunteering, taking part in community projects and supporting local people in need.

I hope you've enjoyed talking with me about how schools play such an important part in the local community.

And I will see you in another lesson soon.