Lesson video

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the unit, "How can citizens create change?" So, we are over halfway through this unit, actually, and today we're going to be looking at a really important part, and one of my absolutely favourite things about citizenship, and that is the topic of changemakers.

The reason why I really love this is because it talks about individuals just like me and you who have managed to do something and create such a change, not just for themselves, but for the communities, and in some cases, globally.

And the really vital thing is that any one of us has got the ability to become a changemaker, so it's such an important idea to take with us as we move on through our citizenship education, and I'd love to think that some of you that I'm speaking to right now will be changemakers of the future, and will have a massive impact on our society.

So, I'm looking forward to learning with you all about changemakers, and I'll see you in just a moment to talk about what we need for the lesson and what we're going to be learning, so, see you in a few moments.

Welcome back, everybody, and let's get ready to do some learning then.

Hopefully by now you're in a nice, quiet space for yourself, and if you're working on your mobile, you turned off your notifications so you don't get distracted.

What you need for today's lessons here in front of you, your questioning mind, as always, to ask and answer questions.

In citizenship, this is important, to be able to express your views and ask interesting questions about the information.

And so, it's a two-way process.

You also need some paper or an exercise book to write on, and finally, a pen to do your writing with.

So, if you haven't quite got all of these things together, or you're not quite settled to learn yet, then please do pause the video now so you can get ready.

For those of us that are ready to go, let's get on and find out what we're going to be doing today.

As I said, really excellent lesson, and something that I really enjoy teaching you all about and finding out about, because there's new changemakers every time I do this lesson, so it's very exciting to find out about them.

So, we're going to start off by learning what a changemaker is, so you're able to recognise them in your communities, as well as nationally or internationally.

We are then going to see what changemakers have managed to achieve, and that's recently, in fact, some very recently, so you can see just the impact that citizens can have in creating change in our communities.

We're going to look at a case study around the idea of period poverty, and look at the impact that one changemaker had there.

And also, before we know it, we're going to be at the end of our lesson, and it will be time for you guys to do your exit quiz.

So, let's get moving then without any further of ado.

Citizenship concepts for today that you might want to make a note off as we go through are the idea of a changemaker, so when you see the definition come up, you might want to pause the video and write that down, and also, the idea of democracy, something that we've learnt about a lot in citizenship, and I'm sure many of you are very confident with, but if you'd just like to refresh your minds on what that means, do please make a note of it.

This helps.

So, what is democracy then? Well, the word democracy comes from the Greek word demos, meaning people, you and me, and kratos, meaning power.

So, democracy can be thought of as power of the people, a way of governing which depends on the will of the people.

And if you think about how we create our governments, and how we are ruled, it's based on this idea that we, as the people, or as citizens, vote.

In other words, we express our will, our power, to elect people that are in charge of us.

But apart from the elections, we also have this idea that we can express our views in other ways, allowing those that are governing us to react to the will of the people.

And this isn't just a tradition, or isn't just an idea that we use in our country.

It's written within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"We all have the right to take part in our country's political affairs, either by freely choosing politicians to represent us, or by belonging to the government ourselves.

Governments should be voted for by the public on a regular basis, and every person's individual vote should be secret." So, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies to every single human on the globe, so that's, once you are 18 in this country, you are entitled to vote, and that's a secret vote.

We have our elections at least every five years.

So, every five years, you get the power to choose your politicians, the people that you would like to elect you.

And it's written down in this really important document, the document of human rights, as well as being part of the organisation in which we live, our democracy, an important key part of that.

So, thinking about changemakers then, and how they come into this.

If voting only happens once every five years, how else can we be involved in speaking to those politicians, those policymakers, and what else can we do in order to create change? So, on the screens in front of you, you can see a picture of someone that I suspect a lot of you will recognise, and it may be, I hope, for something more than his football career.

You may have learnt about him in other citizenship lessons.

You may have seen him on the news.

You may have seen him on social media.

What I'd like you to do is write a list of things that you can remember about him.

It should only take you a couple of minutes, so pause the video now, and just write a list or a spider diagram of all the things you can remember about this person.

So, feedback from Task 1 then, everybody.

This is Marcus Rashford, and he campaigned, important keyword that we talked about in this unit, in other words, he organised action to try to influence people to extend the government's free school meals provision to include school holidays during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, took to social media to raise awareness, set up an online petition, and wrote an open letter, urging MPs to gain support for his campaign.

He was successful.

The government announced they would fund free school meals in the holidays until Easter.

So, actually, Marcus Rashford is an ideal example of a citizen who creates change in our community, and this is somebody that is called changemaker.

So, a changemaker is an activist that will make a difference at a local, national, or international level, and we've seen here that Marcus Rashford made a difference at a national level.

By campaigning, speaking to MPs, speaking to the prime minister, getting a lot of support from social media and elsewhere, he managed to make an impact.

But he is not the only person involved in this story.

Often, changemakers can be celebrities and important people that have big social media followings, because that helps them get a lot of support.

But other times, changemakers can be citizens like you and I who don't necessarily have lots of support on social media to start with, but just somebody who's really passionate, and wants to make a difference about something.

So, let's meet our next changemaker.

This is Christina Adane.

Christina is 16 years old, so that's not much older than some of you.

In fact, some of you might have brothers or sisters that are that age as well.

She created an online petition asking Prime Minister Boris Johnson not to abolish free school meals for children during half term and the summer break, which Marcus Rashford then supported.

So, I hope you're seeing the connection here, that it was Christina that actually came up with the idea, and she talked about how she had had free school meals, how important they were to her, and how difficult it would be for families who couldn't have free school meals, especially during the holidays.

1.

3 million children in the UK receive free school meals, and that does include Christina, and not having access to those free school meals puts a massive strain on families.

And Christina explained all of that, and she used one of the online petition platforms to spread her message, and gained many, many signatures in support of her campaign.

And one of those people that supported it, and drew lots of attention to it, was Marcus Rashford.

So, there we can see a connection between two of our changemakers for today.

So, Christina is this great example of a changemaker, as she started a petition for free school meals, and almost 450,000 people signed that petition.

There's been a huge media reach from the petition, and Christina and other youth changemakers have appeared on national news programmes, like "ITV News at 10", BBC Radio 2's "Jeremy Vine Show", and in newspapers such as "The Sunday Times" and the "Mirror".

So, all of that attention on the media helped to gain more and more signatures and more and more support for Christina's campaign and the campaign for free school meals.

Christina belongs to an organisation which campaigns for healthy food for young people.

It is a youth-led board who have a number of aims, and focus on rights, and this is called Bite Back 2030.

And it's all about ensuring that young people have access to good meals, good cooking, and that they aren't constantly targeted with junk food adverts.

So, what's the link to democracy between our changemakers and our system of government? The actions of Marcus Rashford and Christina Adane are important to democracy, because they showed that individuals can campaign about an issue that is important, and make government change a decision.

So, at first, the government we're not going to support free school meals for families during the holidays, but after the changemakers organised their campaigns, had so much support, lobbied the MPs, the government changed their minds.

And this proves that citizens can hold government to account for their actions, and this is the will of the people.

It goes back to that term, democracy.

So, changemakers can be so important, and remember, they're people like you or I, no different.

So, I'd like you to pause the video to complete this task, please.

What do you think made the campaign for free school meals so successful? In your answer, I'd like you to try and write about methods of campaigning, use of a celebrity, and impact of the media.

Pause the video now, and complete the task.

It should take you about five to seven minutes to explain your ideas clearly.

Well done, everybody.

As we go through this example answer, please feel free to alter yours, or make amendments, if you'd like to.

There are a number of factors which helped the success of the free school meals campaign.

Firstly, the petition was shared online, which meant that lots of people could sign it quickly and easily, then share with their contacts.

In addition, the topic was very current.

Many reports at the time were showing the effects of being out of school was having on children, including on their health, by no longer getting free school meals.

Christina and others made very good media appearances, and explained the personal impact this has on them and friends, which meant the public could understand, and increase pressure on their own MPs.

In addition to this, a celebrity supported the campaign, and was able to bring a lot of media influence and followers to support her.

So, we need to remember that Christina and Marcus Rashford's campaign were taking place during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lot of students were out of school, so they weren't receiving their free school meals during term time, as well as not receiving them during the holidays, and it made things very difficult.

Even more reason for people to try and create change.

Now we're going to focus on a completely different case study, and one that people don't always think about from people suffering here in the UK.

This case study is all about period poverty.

So, what is period poverty? Women have to pay for sanitary towels and tampons.

These items also have VAT, or value-added tax, on them, which makes them more expensive.

For some women and girls who live on limited incomes, paying for sanitary items once a month can be too expensive for them.

This can lead to girls not coming to school during their period.

Not being able to buy sanitary towels or tampons is called period poverty.

When most people think of period poverty, they think of women and girls who live abroad, perhaps in India or Africa, or maybe women who are homeless.

However, this is not the case.

In March 2017, Amika George heard of a teacher in Leeds writing to a charity which sent supplies of sanitary products to an African school asking for help.

This teacher had noticed that some of her pupils were missing school, and found out it was because they could not afford to buy these products.

Amika could not believe this, and decided to do something about it.

So, can you remember what period poverty is, and who's affected? Period poverty only affects people outside of England.

I'm going to give you to the count of five to decide what the answer is.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Have you made up your minds? And the answer is false.

Unfortunately, period poverty affects people abroad, but also in England.

Many women and girls from low-income families in the UK struggle with period poverty.

The next day, the House of Lords heard its first-ever debate on sanitary provision.

Referring to the news story, Baroness Burt of Solihull asked the government to consider giving sanitary towels to girls who qualify for free school meals.

The day after, Greg Mulholland proposed a similar motion, signed by 20 other MPs.

Justine Greening, then secretary of state for education, promised to look at the issue carefully.

Determined to keep up the pressure, Amika researched the subject, and launched an online petition called #FreePeriods, calling on the government to provide free menstrual products to all children on free school meals, and for the taboo around periods to end.

So, after this broadcast on the news, there was a discussion in the House of Lords, and some MPs raising the issue in the House of Commons, saying that it just wasn't good enough that girls were missing out on school because they couldn't afford to buy sanitary towels or tampons.

Often, people are really embarrassed about the idea of periods, and this is a problem as well, because if they weren't able to explain that they couldn't afford to buy these products, then they wouldn't be able to explain why they weren't at school and missing out on valuable education.

Amika wanted to not only help people have access to free products, but also encourage people to talk about the fact that they were struggling as well, and not be embarrassed by the issue.

Amika's carrying on with her campaign, and at this stage she was only 17 years old, and revising for her AS exams. But she continued to email as many people as she could, companies, charities, and universities.

She emailed everyone she could think of, and she even persuaded her parents to send the petition around their workplaces.

To her surprise, within two weeks, more than 2,000 people had signed it.

Some girls have contacted her to tell her about their struggles without adequate sanitary provision, which made her want to fight all the harder.

So, some girls that were struggling with period poverty found out who Amika was and contacted her to tell them about what was happening to them, how they were missing school, and how difficult it was.

Once Amika had heard this, she was even more convinced that she needed to do something about it, and it made her even stronger with her will to create change.

How hard have you been listening and taking notes? The method of campaigning Amika used was an online petition.

Is that true or false? I'm going to give you from five, four, three, two, one.

Absolutely, guys, it is true.

And the campaign continues.

When the general election was announced, Amika emailed every political party about her cause.

The Green Party and the Women's Equality Party both responded and included a pledge on free sanitary protection in their manifestos.

After the election, both the Liberal Democrat Party, and later the Labour Party, announced they would fund schemes to end period poverty in school.

So, this idea of period poverty had suddenly become very important to a lot of politicians.

They could see that it was an issue, and Amika's drive to raise the profile of this, and encourage other people to support her, was having a really big impact.

People were starting to listen.

And that's what a changemaker can do.

They can make people with power and influence listen.

With the support for her cause growing, Amika decided to organise a peaceful demonstration opposite Downing Street, and with the help of the activist group Pink Protest, thousands of women and girls turned up with banners, and a number of speakers addressed the crowd, including the MPs Jess Phillips and Paula Sheriff, model and activist Adwoa Aboah, and actor Suki Waterhouse, and Amika spoke herself.

"Everyone should get an education, and if something like periods is holding us back, we have a serious, serious problem," she told the crowd.

"Also, why are we embarrassed about periods? They're completely normal, completely natural.

Half the world's population has a period.

Please talk about your period.

Tell everybody about your period." And there you could see Amika was trying to really build up people's confidence, so they no longer felt embarrassed about something that often people do feel embarrassed to talk about.

By 2018, Amika was thrilled when the government announced it would put 1.

5 million pounds of the Tampon Tax Fund, which came from VAT on sanitary products, towards ending period poverty.

Nearly 157,000 people had now signed her petition, well over her original goal.

Do you remember, when it started, she'd only got 2,000 people from sending it round to her parents' workplaces, and all of a sudden, it's increased to that number.

In January 2020, free period products were introduced into primary and secondary schools, and there's other things happening elsewhere now.

In November 2020, Scotland's Period Products, Free Provision, Scotland Bill is being introduced, so that all women who need access to free period products can have access to them.

So, from Amika's small start in raising awareness to hearing something by accident on the radio, she has gone on to raise awareness of period poverty, and made a real impact, affecting so many girls across the UK.

Task 3 then, everybody.

Write a paragraph to explain Amika's campaign.

Your added challenge is to see if you can include all of the keywords at the bottom of this page.

Pause the video now and complete your task.

It should probably take you about eight minutes to do so.

Well done, everybody.

And here's an example of what your response could look like.

Amika's campaign was about period poverty.

She heard about girls not attending schools because of this and started an online competition.

At the same time, there was a debate in the House of Lords on the topic.

Amika's campaign began to get a lot of support from businesses, political parties, and MPs.

She also appeared on television, and there was other media coverage of the issue.

When the 2017 general election was announced, three of the big political parties included period poverty in their manifests.

Amika also held a peaceful protest outside Downing Street, where she and MPs spoke about period poverty.

In March 2018, the government agreed to support girls from low-income families with sanitary protection in schools.

And we're at the end of the lesson, after learning about three important changemakers who've made an impact in our society, and all of them are quite young, aren't they? So, Amika was 17, Christina was 16, and Marcus Rashford, I think he's only about 22.

So, it just goes to prove that people who are young can make as big an impact, if not more, as people who have experienced other things in their lives.

So, that's what I think is so important about changemakers.

It's not necessarily about the life experience that you have but it's often about the passion you have about your cause, and how important you feel it is.

I think Christina and Amika are perfect examples of this, hearing about something and experiencing something, and really wanting to make a difference.

And exactly the same with Marcus Rashford.

He used free school meals when he was a child, and now he can talk about the difference it makes to families, and use his position in the media to get more people to listen.

So, what can you do to find out about changemakers, and perhaps find someone that inspires you? First of all, changemakers don't have to work on national problems. They can be local, too.

So, see if you can find somebody in your own town or community working to change something.

Perhaps it will be something that you feel really strongly about, and you can also join them.

Can you take action to support your changemaker? Could you write a letter or sign a petition? Getting your voice heard is an important part of our democracy.

So, we know democracy is about voting for our politicians, but it's also about holding them to account, and making sure they hear our voice, and act on our will.

Great work again today, guys.

Really wonderful to have you all learning about such an important thing.

So, we're at the end of our lesson.

No idea how that happens.

But I hope you've enjoyed finding out about these really inspiring people.

And if you'd like to share your work with us here at Oak National, especially me, Mrs. Baker, who loves to hear about all the exciting things you're doing, especially if you find a changemaker that you're going to support, or you can tell me all about them, please ask a parent or a carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, by tagging in @OakNational and #LearnwithOak, and I look forward to finding out about all those wonderful changemakers that you can let me know about, and then maybe I can include them in future lessons with my students.

Just one last thing for you to do then, guys, before it's the end of the lesson.

You know what it is.

Let's pop over to that exit quiz, and show me all the understanding that you've got, and how well you've done for today's lesson.

It's been great speaking to you and working with you, as ever.

I really hope that you stay safe and well, and look forward to seeing you in the next lesson, which is lesson six of six, so we're coming to the end of another unit.

Until then, take good care of yourselves, and see you soon.

Bye-bye for now.