Teacher 

Mrs K McDowell HOD

The aim of the Northern Ireland Curriculum is to:

Empower young people to develop their potential and to make informed and responsible choices and decisions throughout their lives.

A gap was identified, where pupils are given the recognition of young people as citizens who can make a positive contribution to society.  It was with this in mind that the subject of Local and Global Citizenship was introduced to the Northern Ireland Curriculum.

Within this subject pupils address the following areas:

• Diversity and Inclusion
• Equality and Social Justice
• Democracy and Active Participation
• Human Rights and Social Responsibility (which underpins all themes in Citizenship)

All pupils study Citizenship at key stages 3 and 4, and are given the option at key stage 4 to do the GCSE in Learning for Life and Work, of which Local and Global Citizenship is one of the three modules.  The other two modules are Employability and Personal Development

The Citizenship Department has been successfully running for five years now, during which time we have been involving various outside agencies to re-enforce such issues as:

• aspects of the law
• challenging stereotypes and prejudice
• human rights 
• social justice 
• equality
• democracy in action

These agencies have included:

• The Police Service of Northern Ireland
• Amnesty International
• Visits from MLA’s
• Visits to Parliament Buildings
• The British Red Cross