Barclays is helping to usher the subject of citizenship into the national curriculum – the first major addition since it began in 1989 – by sponsoring the national launch on September 27. The new curriculum focus is intended to enable young people to play an effective role in society. The scope includes informing students about their duties and rights as citizens, promoting spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, teaching them about the economy and democratic institutions, and encouraging respect for different national, religious and ethnic identities.
Barclays £450,000 support package includes a teacher’s resource pack, a citizenship film to encourage filmmaking skills amongst young people, a teacher’s support network and website, and a Partners in Citizenship conference in February next year.
Other companies getting behind the citizenship agenda include:
BT, promoting a Schools Award for Citizenship. Developed with the DfES and Institute of Citizenship, BT is offering a £15,000 award for the school with the best citizenship initiative. The winner will be announced next March;
Procter & Gamble, sponsoring a new website (http://www.pgcitizenship.co.uk) to provide accessible material and teaching ideas for the new citizenship lessons;
BMW, providing science, environmental studies and citizenship teachers in all UK secondary schools with resource materials on clean energy Contact Matthew Elton, DfES, on 020 7273 5944 (http://www.dfes.gov.uk)
The UK’s first ‘business academy’ school, complete with its own mini stock exchange, opened in Bexley, London, on September 10. The stateowned school is sponsored by the Garrard Education Trust, set up David Garrard, chairman of property developer, Minerva, and is managed by a private company, 3Es Enterprises. The school is part of the government’s City Academy programme which aims to give pupils a direct insight into the world of commerce, industry and finance. The government’s push to shake up the education system continues, with the new schools minister, David Miliband, floating plans to allow business leaders to run school clusters, through corporate partnerships which merge governing bodies and share staff under a ‘superhead’. Contact Stanley Goodchild, Business Academy, on 0208 312 4938 (http://www.bexleybusinessacademy.org)
HSBC, Freshfields, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and KPMG are encouraging other companies to support the national roll-out of a government-supported scheme that brings maths to life for kids. The rollout of the Number Partners scheme, which currently has the support of 23 education business partnerships nationwide, will extend the scheme from primary schools to include Key Stage 3 pupils. Each of the founding companies brings its time and expertise to the scheme, in addition to £20,000 funding. Number Partners has been successfully piloted in Tower Hamlets for the last four years, with over 400 employee volunteers visiting schools through the programme. Contact Rowena Kilmartin, DRKW, on 020 7474 7121 (http://www.drkw.com)
The CSR business agenda requires management skills that are not currently being taught or developed by mainstream business management education programmes, according to a new report published by the London School of Economics in August. The summary report of the Dilemmas in Competitiveness, Community and Citizenship series highlights how it is in the interest of Fortune 500 companies to embed skills to manage this agenda into MBA programmes. Contact Stephanie Robertson, The Corporate Citizenship Company, on 020 7945 6130 (http://www.corporate-citizenship.co.uk)
ExxonMobil is refocusing its long-term support for tertiary education in the UK, worth £160,000 per year, to help improve the teaching of engineering and earth sciences. Contact Martin Tims, ExxonMobil, on 01372 222244 (http://www.exxonmobil.com)
Booktrust, a national charity, is the principal recipient of a £560,000 grant from the government to promote child literacy. The money will help fund its Bookstart scheme, which encourages parents to share books with very young children. Contact Helen Hayes, Booktrust, on 020 8516 2960 (http://www.bookstart.org.uk)
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