Lesson video

Hello, and welcome back to our final lesson in this unit.

Today we are going to look at the overriding question that we've looked at in the previous five lessons.

And today we're going to answer the question, How is the UK governed? Now for today's lesson, you are going to need the following pieces of equipment, some paper to make some notes on, some pen and some colours and your enthusiastic learning head.

What we're going to do today then is we're going to recap some previous knowledge.

We're going to look at the all of the learning that we've done in the past.

Then we're going to consolidate what we know about this topic.

And then I'm going to hand it over to you and I want you to create a revision resource that you can read and look back at in the future.

So as a bit of a recap then, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to show you a pyramid and I'm going to show you some questions to get us thinking about this overriding question of how is the UK governed? So here you've got a series of questions, and this is going to recap our previous learning from the previous five lessons that we've done.

What you have to do first is to choose a question from the bottom part of the pyramid.

So, you've got a choice of four questions there.

Then, as you move up, you've got a choice of three questions, choice of two questions before answering the final question at the top.

Now, you have to answer one question from each level in order to proceed to the next level of that pyramid.

And if you want to really test yourself, to test your knowledge on this unit, you can answer all of these questions.

Down On the bottom we've got who is in charge of the United Kingdom? Who has a codified constitution? And what is it? What does the word democracy mean? And what is the civil service? Once you've answered one of those four questions, you can move up and choose between the three.

What is the name of the two chambers in American Congress? What is the name of the two chambers in the UK Parliament? What type of democracy does the UK have and going to include P-D- Then a choice of two to describe an authoritarian resume or describe a full democracy before finally ending up at the top, define the term devolution.

So this is attached to the lesson.

So if you want access to the downloadable resource, or through the workbook, you can't change there so you've got on the screen.

If not, you can pause the screen here and complete that first part of the task for me Okay, then brilliant.

Hopefully your answers are the same as my answers.

We're going to go and start down the bottom.

The head of state is the Queen and the head of government is the Prime Minister Who had a codified constitution? That's the USA and it means that it is written down.

Democracy means ruled by the people, and who are the civil service? They are a public department who assist the current government in running departments such as health and education.

Moving up then to the pink line.

The two parts of the American Congress is the House of Representatives and the Senate.

In the United Kingdom, our two teams are the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

And that PD that we were talking about is Parliamentary Democracy.

Up to the purple line then, an authoritarian regime is one that has central power with no political party opposition.

Perhaps the media is controlled by the government that are in charge.

There are very few if any human rights in place.

And there are no elections or there are elections that are very unfair elections.

The opposite of that then.

is the full democracy like we have in the United Kingdom.

And that's where we have a multi-party-system.

When it comes to a general election, you have a choice of parties to choose from.

We have freedoms of human rights, so that we have the right to protest, we have the right of freedom of speech, the right to an education, etc.

Our press is free from control.

So as long as it's fair, and it's accurate, the press can print any material.

And also we have free and fair election.

Elections that take place on a regular basis and that election process is fair.

Then finally devolution.

We remember a couple of lessons ago, we defined devolution as the transfer of power to a lower level by a central government.

So it's that transfer of power from a main government down to local and regional governments.

Give yourself some ticks there to say that you've got the questions right.

And like I said, if you've got any of those questions wrong, then look back at our previous lessons and cover those parts that you have perhaps, made an error on.

We're going to look at now , what can you remember from this unit? Now remember, this unit was five lessons long, and there were lots and lots of new terms that you have come across.

And I'd like to say well done again for coming this far.

So we're going to have a look at what we've done in this unit together.

In lesson number one, we looked at how the country is run.

That was our lesson title and our lesson focus.

Then we looked at, what does the civil service do? Before moving on to lesson three, we looked at the differences between the local, regional and national governance.

lesson four was, how does the UK political system compare to other systems? Remember that's where we looked at the four levels of democracy, and we compared them to case studies.

And then in our previous lesson, in lesson five, we looked at the differences between the United Kingdom and the United States in terms of their political systems. What I want us to do then, is I want you to create a resource that covers the following questions.

Now you can create that resource in any way, shape, or form.

So it can be a poster, it can be presented in a very similar way to this video.

It could be a speech, it could be something you've done on the computer, it is completely up to you how you present it, as long as you create a resource that covers these questions or these following questions, so to say, and it is aimed at somebody of your age range.

So, it has to be appropriate.

Make sure that the language that you're choosing is suitable for people.

And you've got to assume that they have got no knowledge on the subject whatsoever.

It's really important that you teach them all of the basics, all of the key words that you need to know.

For lesson number one, who runs the country? will simply answer that question with who runs the country in the United Kingdom? You're looking at the Queen, you're looking at the Prime Minister, and you're looking at the branches of government.

For lesson two, then, I just want you to simply define what the role of the civil service is, what do they do and how do they assist the government? How can they help? for lesson three then, I want you to explain what devolution is with some examples.

And I want you to tell the people that you're teaching, how does it work? Give examples of our nation.

Have a look at Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

And look at how devolution affects them.

What powers do they get? Have a look at regional governments.

Remember, we looked at all of those areas of the United Kingdom that have got regional mayors in charge of areas, and really look at, why is it important? Or how is it important? Before then we can go on to lesson four.

And I want you to answer, what are the four levels of democracy? Remember, we did all of those case studies where we looked at the UK, the US, Turkey and North Korea.

So we have the full democracy, the flawed democracy, the hybrid regime, and then the authoritarian regime.

You can even go back and have a look at the case studies and you can use those in your posters or your work that you've done on the computer.

And really look at how can you simplify that.

Maybe you can attach some pictures to that and really teach them about those four levels of democracy.

And then finally lesson five, answer the question, how is the political system in the USA different to the UK? Remember in our previous lesson, we looked at a table, we looked at comparison between the US and the UK political systems. Maybe choose two or three key facts on how they are different from one another.

At this moment in time, you can pause the video here.

And if not, you can stick with me because I'm going to give you some further opportunities to develop these questions.

So this is a recap, you are creating a revision resource and that can consist of a PowerPoint or a post or an infographic that answer the five key questions on the slides to cement your knowledge for this unit.

And as I say, if you need any help, keep with me, but if not, you can pause the video now.

And then press resume once you are finished.

If not, stick with me for the next duration of this part of the lesson.

As I've said, who runs the country in the United Kingdom? We're looking at parliamentary democracy, Constitutional Monarchy, Head of State, head of government, those are the key words that I'd like you to make sure that you use in what other resource you're creating.

What is the role of the civil service? What does the civil service do? What are the features of their role? For example, they might be permanent, and they have to remain politically neutral, etc.

And where does the Prime Minister fit into the civil service? It's really important you define how the Prime Minister fits within that role.

Then we're looking at devolution.

I want you to give a definition of devolution.

I want you to tell the people that you are teaching who has devolved powers and give examples about their parliamentary setup.

Then I want you to say what is meant by reserved powers.

Now that's quite a difficult topic, so you can perhaps simplify it down.

And if you want to use your school as an example, if you're giving devolved powers to people in school, that might be a good way to go about that.

Then, as I've mentioned, we are looking at the four levels of democracy.

Give an example of what a full democracy is, and some features of a full democracy, and then perhaps use a case study.

What is a full democracy? again, features and case study, hybrid regime and an authoritarian regime.

Before finally, we're looking at how is the UK political system different to the USA political system? I'm going to give you a few starting points here and what's different between the Congress and the parliament? How are branches of power, similar and how are they different? And what is the difference between this codified and uncodified constitution? There's lots of information there.

And as I said, you can present that information in any way, shape, or form.

You can pause the video here.

And I'll leave you to it to complete that resource, either online on your computer, sorry.

Or if you want to do it as a post or an infographic, it's completely up to you.

Pause the video here to complete that task.

And if you want to have this as downloadable document, please follow the instructions to access that.

So you've got all these questions in front of you.

That is the end of our unit and the end of today's lesson.

I'd really, really like to thank you for the last six lessons.

I'm really really looking forward to seeing some of the work that you have produced over the last five or six lessons.

And I'm really, really looking forward to these resources that you've created in today's lesson.

If you'd like to share your work with me and with OaK, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and use my personal Twitter feed @DHE_teach, tweeting that with using the #LearnwithOak.

As I say, I'm really, really excited to see some of the wonderful work that you have produced.

The only thing that I've got left for this unit and for this lesson to say, is can you go over and complete the exit quiz which is attached to this lesson, just so that you can really look at all of the units work so that you are completely secure in the knowledge that you have got.

Once again, a huge well done and thank you for committing to these lessons and making the best opportunities and giving yourself that platform to learn new material, because it's really, really complicated.

I know and hopefully you've got everything out of this lesson that I intended for you to get.

I say thank you so much for adhering to all of the work.

And until next time, I've been Mr. Henson.