Lesson video

Hello.

My name is Mr. Henson.

And I am going to take you through these next six lessons.

Welcome to lesson one.

This is how the country is run.

And our overarching question for the next six lessons is how the U.

K.

is governed.

Now for today's lesson, what I need you to have is a pen and some paper.

And I also need you to be in a quiet space, away from distractions so that I can fully have your attention for the duration of this video.

Feel free to the pause the video here so you can grab that equipment and you can find that space, and once you're, done come back to me, and we're ready to start today's lesson.

Now today, what we're going to do is focus on three key things.

And what I would like to start of with is looking at what qualities make a leader.

So we'll identify what is poor leadership, and what is good leadership.

Then we're going to move on to how do elections work, so we'll look specifically at the general election, and how the Prime Minister is elected through that process.

And then we'll look at the Cabinet and what roles exist within that Cabinet.

Now these are terms that you may not have came across before, but don't worry, by the end of this lesson you will know exactly what each of those are.

So for task one.

Just to get us thinking about leadership, what I'd like you to do is imagine that you are going to elect a leader.

Now, it could be a leader of a sports team.

It could be a leader of a school council, or just in general in a group of friends.

What I'd like you to do is think about qualities make a good leader.

And what I'd like you to do is make a list of those, and maybe characteristics that you'd like to see of somebody of charge of something.

Now you can decide what that something is or you can be really general.

And on the contrary to that, I'd like you to look and explore what makes a poor leader.

And again, make a list of qualities or characteristics that you would not want to see in somebody in charge of something.

So what I'd like you to do is very quickly, just jot those down for me, and pause the video now and complete that task for me, and press resume once you are finished.

Now, I have got a list of qualities here.

Now you may these, you may not.

These are just qualities I would perceive to be good leadership and perhaps poor leadership.

So for my good qualities, I'd like someone that's really honest.

Now, that is one hundred percent of the time that I'd like to know what's going on at all times.

Because my second point there is trustworthy.

I'd like to be able to put my trust in somebody who is my leader.

I'd like somebody that's confident, and able to work in groups.

I'd also like decisions to be made very, very quickly, okay? Now that's not to say that they haven't thought about them, but I'd like to know the outcome of those decisions in a quick manner.

For leadership, I also think it's really, really important to be able to talk in public.

And perhaps the most important quality on that list is the fact that they can listen.

So they've taken advice, and they listen to instructions, and they listen to what's going on, and then they can make those decisions, and they can pass off decisions in public.

On the flip side, fortunately, my list for poor qualities is rather small.

Now I don't want someone that's impulsive, that acts without no reason.

I don't want somebody that's not trustworthy, because I like to know where I stand with people.

People who work as an individual.

I like people who are team players.

And people who perhaps are not confident in speaking.

That doesn't necessarily make you a poor leader, but if we are looking at a sports personality, we're looking at captain of the team, a leader of that team, You need somebody that's able to communicate with you in a group.

So you may have similar characteristics to what I have here, and don't worry if you don't.

But if you want to take some of those down and jot them down in the bit of paper with you, that'll be great.

So now we've looked at this word leader, and want to look at who actually runs the country.

Now you may know the answer to this already.

We are going to explore it in a little bit more detail.

First of all, we need to recognise that the United Kingdom is something called a Parliamentary Democracy, with a Constitutional Monarch.

Now, you may have heard this word, monarch, before.

What that means is, the king or queen is the head of state.

So, our queen currently is the head of state.

She's the recognisable figure across the world.

And the Prime Minister, currently Boris Johnson, is the head of the government.

Now, Boris acts on behalf of the Queen for most of the powers and duties that he performs. A constitutional monarchy is a system of government in which a country is run by a king or queen, but that power is limited.

So overall here, the Queen has control of the country but she gives the Prime minister, currently Boris Johnson, powers to act on her behalf.

So, although she has the powers given to her, she usually passes them off and passes them to somebody else.

How we decide a constitutional monarch then, is through something called the royal line of succession.

So, we know in advance who the future kings or queens of the country are going to be.

So the queen's children, okay.

So next in line would be Prince Charles if he decides to take the throne.

And then after that would be Prince William.

They are known as heirs to the throne.

So there is this line of succession, and we can trace the succession line all the way down, so you'll see that people may be fifth in line to the throne, or tenth in line, or twentieth in line.

And that is their line of succession.

We don't have that for a Prime Minister because the Prime Minister is appointed by the king or queen at that time.

Now, the Prime Minister will be the leader of the party who wins the most votes in the general election.

And what they have to do is they seek permission from the queen or the king to form a government.

So although they win the election, they still have to ask the queen for permission because they form that government in her or his name.

But how do those elections work? What we're going to do is watch a short video, and this simplifies the process of an election and then I will take you through it in a little bit more detail.

So, feel free throughout the next part of the video to pause and take some notes, but don't worry if you just want to sit down and watch, because I will take you through it.

Okay, so there are a few things there that we need to digest.

Now, general elections are supposed to be held every five years, under something called the Fixed-term Parliament Act.

Now, the key word there is held every five years.

Now, every five years Parliament is automatically dissolved.

And what that means is that at the end of the five year period, Parliament is broken up, essentially, and the election takes place.

However, if the government wants to trigger an early election, there is a clause in the Fixed-term Parliament Act that allows this under particular circumstances.

Now, what those circumstances deem is that at least two-thirds of the members of Parliament agree to it by holding the vote within Parliament.

So, it has to happen every five years, but it can happen before five years if there is a clause taken up there and two-thirds of the MPs agree to vote.

Sorry, agree to it by the vote.

Who are the MPs, then? Well, there are six hundred and fifty constituencies and that's a key word that you will need to know.

And a constituency just means area.

Now these six hundred and fifty constituencies make up the United Kingdom and those make up the election process for our country.

Each constituency votes for one MP.

And then they form those six hundred and fifty seats in Parliament.

In order to get a majority, you will need half plus one.

So, you'll need three hundred twenty six seats.

So, 326 members of Parliament from the same party need to have won their constituency seat.

So in essence, really, the general election day is really 650 mini individual elections.

And they take place across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

So the entirety of the United kingdom vote for the general election.

And you can see from the map on the right hand side of your screen there, the United Kingdom is broken down into those constituencies and they closely denote the political parties that won in those areas.

So what happens on election day? Well, on election day, people go to something called a polling station.

Now you might have seen signs, polling stations, out and about on election days.

They can take place in schools.

They can take place in community halls.

And they are closed off only for the purpose of voting.

So if it's taking place in part of a school building, you won't be able to access that part of the school building unless you are going there to vote.

When you arrive at the polling station, you get given something called a ballot paper.

Now if you remember from the video a couple months ago, the ballot paper is the list of names, and all you have to do is put a cross next to the name of the person you wish to vote for.

Now, each person has one vote.

And they mark the ballot paper with a cross next to the name of the candidate they most want to represent them.

Sounds fairly simple, doesn't it? Well, it is a little bit more complicated than that.

So in the United Kingdom, we have a voting method called first-past-the-post.

Now, in a first-past-the-post electoral system, voters cast their vote for a candidate of their choice.

And the candidate with the most votes wins, even if they receive less than half the votes.

Now, that sounds a little bit complicated.

So what I've done is I've given you a table here from Fruit Land.

Now, I've got four political parties here.

So, I've got the Apple party, Banana party, Grape party, and Orange party, and they have had a general election in which Fruit Town has tried to elect their MP for their constituency.

You can see there the Apple party have twenty-five votes, Banana party has twenty-six, the Grape party has twenty-four, and the Orange part has twenty-five.

So you can see the Banana party with twenty-six votes would be declared the winner in this first-past-the-post system, because they have the most votes.

That seems pretty fair, doesn't? The person with the most votes wins the election.

However, if you then look at it from a different perspective, the Banana party only receives twenty-six percent of that vote.

The other parties make up seventy-four percent.

But the Banana party would lead Fruit Town for the next five years, or up to the next five years.

So you can see there that it's a quite simple system, but at the same time some people may argue that it perhaps doesn't give representation to all the parties.

What I'd like you to do now, though, is use the information that we've just gone through.

Can you summarise the process of an election in the United Kingdom? So use the information provided to write a short paragraph that includes perhaps how many MPs there are, how does the general election works, including things like your polling station and your ballot paper, and a quick summary of what is meant by first-past-the-post.

And you can use an example if you wish.

So pause the video now, and complete that task for me, and click resume once you are finished.

So, I've given you a quick model answer here.

Now, don't judge me, it's not perfect.

But, I could say during an election, voters in six and hundred-fifty constituencies choose the member of Parliament, or the MP, they wish to represent them during the next five years.

The candidate standing for the role of MP will have spent months gathering support in the local area, advocating the party's manifesto to the electorates.

Now, an electorate is the people who are entitled to vote.

On polling day, voters in each constituency will arrive at the polling station and place a cross in the box for the candidate they think would make the best MP.

Votes are then counted using the first-past-the-post method.

This method allows the process to be quick, as it gives the person with the most votes the win.

Nice and straightforward.

So if you're answer doesn't look like that, don't worry.

But make sure you've used some key words, and make sure you're using those key words correctly.

Okay, we've had the general election.

What next? What happens after that? What I'd like you to do first though, is pause the video now and watch Clip One in the worksheet which is attached to this lesson.

And when you've done that, come back to me, and click resume back on the video.

Okay, so you've watched the video of Boris Johnson going to the queen and asking for permission to form a government.

But what do we mean by the term government? Well, government is the means by which a group of people organise themselves, and divide up authority and power in order to achieve their goals.

Now goals, we call these policies, and they usually seek to improve life in groups of people in society, often by running services.

Now in the United Kingdom, the government is also known as something called the Executive.

And they are split up into three branches of power.

The Executive forms one part of that.

Now, the Executive consists of about one hundred ministers.

And they comprise of the civil service, who support them.

So three key people here within government, the Prime Minister, who is in charge of appointing all of the ministers.

He chose or she chose the Cabinet and organises the structure of governmental departments.

Now, those governmental departments have Cabinet Ministers.

And they are around twenty senior ministers who each head a government department.

Then we have the Junior Ministers who work underneath the Cabinet Ministers in each department.

And they are each responsible for an area of policy.

Lots of numbers there, isn't there? Well, hopefully this little infographic will make it a little bit more clearer for you.

So, we have a Prime Minister.

One Prime Minister.

Plus twenty Covenant ministers.

So we have twenty officials, plus the Prime Minister.

And then approximately ninety-eight other ministers making up a total of one-hundred and twenty.

Now, the ministers are chose by the Prime Minister from both houses.

So they can be chosen from the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

And they are responsible for actions, successes, and various other departments.

So they are accountable for all of the decisions that they make.

So, what do they do then? Well, the role of government is distinct from the role of Parliament.

So, we've got to make sure that we don't confuse the two.

So, the government is different from Parliament.

So, Parliament is the whole six-hundred and fifty.

Government are those that have been elected and have the majority in Parliament.

So, what does the government do? Well, they perform three main functions.

One, is that they propose new legislation and build a proposed Parliament relating to different areas of policies.

They then look at the budgets, so they look at how much money they've got to spend, and they'll then look at which department needs the most money and which areas of work needs looking at.

Now, the person who heads the budget, the one that's in charge of the budget is called the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

And they are responsible for leading that budget, and presenting that both to Parliament and to the public.

And then finally, the most important one, arguably, the most important role that the government fulfils, is that they run the country.

And this involves day to day decisions made by members of the government and/or the Covenant ministers.

So what do you do then when we appoint the Cabinet? As we've said, the Cabinet is the team of the twenty senior ministers in government chosen by the Prime Minister.

And in theory what they do is, they meet up on a regular basis.

Usually weekly, and they discuss issues of government policy, and they are there to make the decisions.

Now what I've got for you is a little short task.

I've given you seven pictures down at the bottom there.

I would like you to guess which are some of the roles.

We said there that there are twenty.

But what are the roles in the Cabinet? So what you can do is pause the video here, and complete that task for me.

So you just have to write down which icon is which role.

Okay, good job.

Hopefully you've got the following.

So, there are roles for health, education, Chancellor, so those that are in charge of money, housing, transport, equality, and media, culture, and sport.

Now underneath, you can see that the grayed-out images here.

There's something called the Shadow Cabinet.

So for every minister that's appointed by the government, there is a shadow minister.

So, somebody from the opposition.

And they are there to both scrutinise and assist with policy making.

So they will look at policies that have been drafted by the Covenant ministers and they will put that balance and that check in place.

So for if we have a minister for health, there is a shadow minister for health, and so on.

So briefly, in simple form, how is the country run? Well, the queen gives the responsibility to the Prime Minister, who then has the responsibility of electing the Cabinet, but also is in charge of leading the civil service, which we will look at in lesson 2.

Then that power is given down to the sectary of state, the ministers in charge of the governmental departments.

Then we have the governmental departments themselves, followed by civil servants who work in each of those areas.

Now, that sounds pretty complicated.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to try and simplify that into something that you can understand in a school setting.

So if we take student councils as an example, we can say that it performs a very similar function to what the Cabinet does.

So if you're in charge of the student council, what will be your top three priorities for schools starting back in September? So what I'd like you to do is make a list of things that cover teaching and learning, safe guarding, and school community.

So, I'd like you to try and think of areas in school that you feel as a school councillor you could improve, whether that's within the classroom, whether that's in your community, or whether that's keeping you all well and safe.

So you can pause the video now and come up with those ideas for me.

Okay, so I've given you some ideas here.

And again, don't worry if your ideas are far away from mine.

But in terms of teaching and learning, we could say that you might want to improve your homework policies in school.

So, maybe that's more often.

Maybe that's in more depth.

I don't know, however you wish to improve it.

That's not getting rid of it, by the way, that's not improving.

Everything has to be learned, okay? And the more that you do, the more that you will achieve.

How about diversity within the curriculum? So, there's lots of issues going around.

In particular, #BlackLivesMatter, or any sort of movement.

Maybe you might want to add elements of what's going on in the community into your curriculum.

And also maybe you might want more access to careers resources.

So, you might want to have more opportunities to have employers speak to you.

Or maybe on how a particular subject prepares you for a career outside of school.

In terms of safe guarding, and that's keeping you safe within school.

So you might say that more support for mental well-being is necessary within your schools.

Maybe you would like to promote online safety a little bit more through assemblies.

Or maybe you want to change your climate for learning policies.

So, do you want to see changes to behaviour made in your school? And then in terms of school and community, you might think of, does your school recycle? And if not, how could you improve your school system in that way? Does your school have access to free sanitary products? So, the red-box appeal? And if not, how can you get your school involved in that? And does your school do anything for key dates? So do you do things for like Remembrance Day, for Armistice Day? Now those are lots of issues, okay.

You might have more that are specific to your school and your area.

But those are just some things to think about when we're looking at how you could improve.

Now, there's lots of things there.

When we look at the next lesson in the civil service, you can see why people have certain expertise in certain areas.

Because there's lots of things to consider.

What I'd like you to do, though, is I want you to just focus in on one specific suggestion.

So, having looked at all of your suggestions that you've made, or maybe some that I've given you, which area are you going to focus on first? And what I'd like you to do is create a resource that shows your planned improvement for that area.

So, that could be a PowerPoint slide.

It could be a poster.

It could be an infographic.

It could be a speech.

However you feel comfortable presenting that information is fine.

So which area are you going to focus on and how are you going to set about improving that area? So you can pause the video now and complete this final task of the lesson.

And once you're done, come back so we can recap our learning for today.

So, remember at the start of the lesson, I said that we had three key focus points for this lesson.

We looked at what qualities make a good and poor leader.

We looked very quickly over how elections work, and what the responsibilities of Prime Minister has during that election and after that election.

Then we've looked at how the Cabinet is formed and their roles of responsibility before arriving.

at which point would you like to change in your school community in a teaching and learning, or in a safe guarding way.

I'm really, really, looking forward to seeing some of your ideas, and looking at all of the different ways that you've presented that material.

So if you'd like to share your work, all you have to do is ask a parent or carer to show your work on Instagram, on Twitter, on Facebook, tagging @OakNational and using the hashtag #LearnwithOak.

Like I said, I'm really excited to see the work that you're doing, and I will try and make sure that I read as many of those as possible.

So, send them in and if need be, we can have a look at how we can improve our communities together.

Before you go though, I have one key thing for you to remember, now.

And that's to make sure you complete the exit quiz, which is attached to this lesson.

Once you've done that, take a break.

You've earned it.

Well done for today.

I know there's lots of material there, but hopefully you've learned something new, and something you didn't know half an hour ago.

I've been Mr. Henson, and I look forward to you joining me again for our next lesson, which is Lesson 2 of this period, which will be looking at the roles of the civil service.

Until then, well done.

Congratulations for getting through the lesson, and I will see you again next time.