The summary provides an overview of the Citizenship PGCE course at Sheffield Hallam University, highlighting its strengths and flexibility. The Citizenship PGCE at Sheffield Hallam is the only fully flexible route to teacher qualification in the country. This flexibility enables students from diverse backgrounds and locations to complete the program. The course attracts highly able and committed students and has strong partnerships with schools. It provides enriching experiences for both students and schools.

1. The publication of this Citizenship PGCE newsletter is testimony to
the growing strength of the Citizenship PGCE in terms of staffing,
student achievement and the course's partnership with schools.
Established in 2004, the Citizenship PGCE at Sheffield Hallam is the
only citizenship course that offers a fully 'flexible' route to QTS in the
country. As such it is designed to be able to meet individual needs in
ways that full-time routes cannot. We have students who are
significantly distant from the university; currently in York, the north-
west of England and the Midlands. It enables many mature students
with various responsibilities to undertake the programme and make a
commitment to our schools. They bring significant life experiences
that can enrich the teaching profession and the teaching of
citizenship. The course also attracts many locally based students for
whom the flexibility is not a priority, and who follow the same basic
programme as full-time students. We are seriously over-subscribed by
applicants, enabling us to recruit very able and committed students.
Our links with schools, local and more distant, have grown in
strength, and reflect our shared vision for the development of
citizenship in the school curriculum. The work of school-based
mentors with our students is tremendous.
I want to thank all the students who have contributed to this
publication. I want to also thank my colleagues who assist in the
leadership of the course, Tim Pinto, who has been responsible for the
coordination that has resulted in this newsletter, and Helen Cook,
who combines her leadership of the RE PGCE with valuable assistance
on this programme.
Gary Clemitshaw sets out the strengths of the
PGCE Citizenship course at Sheffield Hallam
University
SHU CitizenshipA newsletter produced by the staff and PGCE Citizenship students at Sheffield Hallam University
Issue 1 Sheffield Hallam University February 2009
This is the first edition of
the PGCE Citizenship
newsletter edited by
myself, Tim Pinto.
I am currently seconded
part time to work at
Sheffield Hallam
University to assist Gary
with the running of the
PGCE Citizenship course. I
would just like to thank
everybody who
contributed and if you
have any suggestions or
ideas for future articles,
please contact me at
t.pinto@shu.ac.uk
A note from the editor
Health & Social Care
Marie Boswell looks at the
links between the new
health & Social Care
Diploma and Citizenship.
Page 2
MAG-nificient
Helen Johnson describes
the morning students had
the Lifewise Centre at
Magna, Rotherham.
Page 3
Enterprise Champions
John Scott reflects on his
visit to a local primary
school to look at the
development of
enterprise.
Page 5
PGCE students for 2008-09

2. 2
From September 2008, a new suite of
qualifications is available to young people.
The Diploma suite will offer 17 new ‘Lines of
Learning’ (subjects) at Levels 1, 2 and 3. All
Diplomas must be delivered in Consortia of
schools, FE, work-based providers and
employers.
The first 5 ‘Lines’ are available from 2008 in
consortia who were successful in passing
through a Diploma Gateway. Further lines
begin each year prior to a 2013 Entitlement
to choose to study a Diploma.
Society, Health and Development Diploma is
part of the first release. Although it is not
apparent from the title, there is a significant
overlap in content with Citizenship
curriculum. Health and Social Care has been
a successful subject in many schools and
colleges and this is generally where the new
In October, the PGCE Citizenship students visited Winterhill School
Rotherham, for a day to look at the links between Citizenship and
Health & Social Care. Marie Boswell, from the 14-19 team at
Rotherham, explains the possibilities for Citizenship.
SHD Diploma is being placed.
However, the new qualification is designed
by Sector Skills Councils in Health, Adult
Social Care, Children’s Workforce
Development and Community Justice. For
the majority of school H&SC departments,
Community Justice is a totally new area of
content. A direct comparison between the
Programmes of Study for Citizenship and SHD
reveals that significant parts of the content
may be better taught by Citizenship
specialists. In terms of school organisation,
this may pose a timetabling challenge. For
Citizenship staff, it may offer additional
employment opportunities!
For more details about the new diplomas,
you can visit the following websites:
http://yp.direct.gov.uk/diplomas
http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_5396.aspx
"A direct comparison between the
Programmes of Study for
Citizenship and SHD reveals that
significant parts of the content may
be better taught by Citizenship
specialists"

3. 3
As part of the Secondary
Citizenship PGCE programme we
visited the Lifewise Centre, which
is part of the Magna Science
Adventure Park in Rotherham. The
Lifewise Centre is the home of
Crucial Crew, a multi-agency
project involving the emergency
services and other agencies.
It is aimed at Year 6 pupils in
particular, but could also be
adapted for Secondary pupils too.
It was set up to promote positive
citizenship and community safety
across South Yorkshire and deals
with important issues including
personal safety, personal
responsibility and community
awareness, in particular fire
safety and crime and disorder.
The centre is set up like
Coronation Street and pupils are
put into small groups to look
round. The tour involves different
scenarios including a park, a pub,
a bus stop and inside a house.
Actors are employed to act out
the different scenes, which is
followed by a short talk and a
question and answer session from
a member of Crucial Crew.
At each stop the pupils became
actively involved and the use of
the volunteers was extremely
effective. Pupils were given the
opportunities to be involved in
each situation and then
collectively would have to work
out what was the right thing to
do. This gave the pupils the
opportunity to imagine
themselves in situations that may
be dangerous and to think about
Helen Johnson explains the MAG – nificient
morning at Crucial Crew
TofindoutmoreinformationabouttheLifewiseCentreatRotherham,visit:
http://www.lifewise.southyorks.police.uk/
both their own safety as well as the
safety of others.
I think that Crucial Crew is a fantastic
resource for Citizenship teachers as it is
not only a really enjoyable experience
but it delivers really important
information and advice about personal
and community safety that could be lost
if delivered in the classroom.
Overall a fun-filled and highly
educational day for both the pupils and
yourself!!

4. 4
As part of the university days set up by the
tutors, students attend sessions run by Gary
and myself, to help prepare them for the
teaching practice and more importantly,
entry into the profession. Over the past six
months, students have visited Winterhill
School, Thorpe Hesley Junior & Infant School
and the Lifewise Centre at Magna. The bulk
of the university based days are based at the
City Campus and recently students took part
in a session on using ICT in Citizenship.
The use of new technologies is something
that I have developed in my position of Head
of RE/PHSE/Citizenship at Winterhill School
and it is one of the nine strands that David
Hargreaves believes schools must embrace.
One of the key aspects to this can be seen in
the video developed by Karl Fisch
(http://tinyurl.com/6nd7kr) which examines
how technology and globalisation will change
the opportunities for young people over the
next ten years.
Currently at the university, the use of 'Black
Board' is a vital way of communicating with
students and uploading information to one
central place. One aspect Citizenship
students have begun to develop is swapping
useful You Tube links related to subject
areas covered in the National Curriculum.
Indeed You Tube has become an important
resource for students as various pressure
groups post adverts and short documentaries
and the ten minute limit set by the site
providers is sufficient time to develop a
starter or plenary on a specific area.
Obviously, the filter systems at many schools
mean that You Tube is not an accessible
resource to play on a whiteboard, but the
ingenious methods of using sites such as
http://keepvid.com/ mean that clips can be
saved at home and brought to school via a
usb pen drive.
At the university session in January, students
where able to familiarise themselves with
the vast array of support materials available
for them. One such example is the site:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/psp/subject.aspx?t=
2&s=4 which not only provides resources
which can be incorporated into ICT lessons
but video case studies of where practitioners
have used ICT to enhance the teaching of
Citizenship.
Indeed the development of Web 2.0 means
that teachers are not confined to waiting for
the latest video editor to be licensed by
their school or use PowerPoint The following
websites mean that simple presentations can
be done with clipart or royalty free images
at http://show.zoho.com/ or if you want
students to prepare a newspaper article
using ICT, then can use templates at
http://www.cleo.net.uk/index.php?category
_id=317. Some subject areas such as English
and ICT at Sheffield Hallam University have
set up blogs for their students to reflect on
how the hectic year on the PGCE is going. In
schools, blogging is still in its infancy,
however in the US many teachers have
begun to use it as a tool in the classroom
and one interesting site is
http://classblogmeister.com/
When I began to teach Citizenship in 2002,
many agencies provided schools with CD-
Roms to install on school networks which
became out of date very quickly. The
development of 'Flash' rich sites now means
that students can be drawn into issues easily
with 'console game' like graphics and video
and audio resources. Sites such as
http://www.oneknifeonelife.co.uk/ provide
students with a visually impressive
experience of the consequences of knife
crime. Also other sites like
http://www.thehideout.org.uk/ gives
students a graphic experience of the horrors
of domestic violence.
Tim Pinto looks at how ICT
developments can assist the
teaching of Citizenship

5. 5
When I first began my
Citizenship PGCE I was very
nervous. Although I had
previous experience of
working in a secondary
school the thought of
standing in front of a class
of 30 students was daunting.
I worried most about
whether the students would
behave for me or see me as
a push over. I knew I had to
come across much more
confident than I felt. I had
fantastic support and
guidance from the university
and my mentor at school
and after the first few
lessons I settled into a
routine and began to enjoy
myself. Having taught my
first few lessons I realised I
need not have worried
about the students
behaving, because the way I
acted influenced the
behaviour of students.
Learning to teach is
demanding on my time and
of course some lessons have
gone better than others, but
I feel very proud that I am
able to engage students in a
topic that I am passionate
about. I still have a lot to
learn but I am certain that
doing my PGCE is one of the
best decisions I have made.
Laura Dyson reflects
on how she overcame
her initial fears of
being in the classroom
Thorpe Hesley Junior School in Rotherham is probably one of the most
innovative junior schools I’ve heard of, or have been to. As part of the
PGCE Citizenship course, the Head invited us on a visit for the day to
see how Enterprise education is prevalent within the Primary
curriculum in the school, and how Citizenship is part of the main ethos
of the school.
From the moment we arrived at the school, it was clear how much of
an emphasis there was on making this school a place where children
are encouraged to develop skills that will help them throughout their
lives, such as negotiation, critical thinking, and using your initiative.
The curriculum focus within the school has shifted from the standard
QCA curriculum, towards are more enterprise driven curriculum, where
children can take part in setting up businesses, making money and can
apply traditional skills (such as numeracy and literacy) in a ‘real’
context, such as through advertising campaigns and calculating profits
their business may make. All this is done with a strong Citizenship
element, by allowing students to work together and develop personal
and enterprising skills.
The children themselves in the school are probably the happiest I have
seen from the visits to Primary schools I have undertaken on my PGCE.
The atmosphere within the school is a more than happy one. They
seem to relish this innovative approach to their learning, and thrive on
the opportunities it presents to them, with all of them actively getting
involved in the Dragon’s Den style project they took part in before
Christmas to raise money. Ideas ranged from CDs of the Christmas
concerts to Christmas candles, all of which were very successful in
raising large profits, as the children had learned how to minimise their
outgoings through trial and error.
It is easy to see where the success of the school comes from. It has a
head teacher who is very proud of the school and the curriculum she
has worked to put in place. The teachers appear to be on board with
the innovative approach to education and this can be seen within
every aspect of school life.
I would recommend that anyone who gets the opportunity to visit this
school does so. It is inspiring to see such a happy school environment
and one in which the teachers and children are all involved in a
curriculum which could be said to deliver a more rounded and current
education that the standard curriculum that is in place in many schools
today.
John Scott & Angela Taylor look at the
development of Enterprise Champions at a
primary school in Rotherham
"Also, I was able to observe a lesson, giving me an insight into
the teaching style used in primary education. "
Angela Taylor

6. During both of my Teaching Practices I have taken part in two Learning Enrichment or
Suspended Curriculum Days. Pupils responded positively and remained active and engaged
throughout these days.
In my first Teaching Practice this day was spent focusing on Hinduism and in particular the
festival of Diwali with Year 8. Pupils took part in 6 activities which they visited on a carousel
basis. I ran the Henna activity where pupils were given the opportunity to design and create
their own Henna tattoo (obviously parental consent was sought beforehand!). Pupils enjoyed
looking at Indian art and trying to recreate their own piece. I found that by the end of the day I
became an expert in the art of Henna!
In my second Teaching Practice Year 10 pupils spent the day on an Enterprise activity. For the
duration of the day the school hall was turned into a Stock Market. Pupils and teachers from a
local school specialising in Business and Enterprise came in to run the session. The day was fast-
paced and gave pupils a clear insight into stocks and shares. Although incredibly noisy the day
was thoroughly enjoyed by teachers and pupils alike.
I feel that these days, although difficult to organise, were hugely beneficial to pupils in
developing different skills and deepening their learning.
Cheryl Douglas reflects on the use of
enrichment day activities on her placements.
We are extremely grateful to all our mentors for the tireless work that they
do with our students. Remember that you can access various documents
related to placements and the partnership with SHU at:
https://extra.shu.ac.uk/pship
Contact Details:
Faculty of Development and Society
Sheffield Hallam University,
City Campus
Howard Street
Sheffield
S1 1WB
Gary Clemitshaw 0114 225 5555 Ext. 6079 g.clemitshaw@shu.ac.uk
Tim Pinto 0114 225 5555 Ext. 6079 t.pinto@shu.ac.uk
Helen Cook 0114 225 5555 Ext. 6082 h.cook@shu.ac.uk
"I found that by the end of
the day I became an expert
in the art of Henna!"
For you diary
Events related to Citizenship over the next few months…
Friday, 13th March Red Nose Day 2009 http://www.rednoseday.com/
Thursday, 19th March Shelter - Vertical Rush Event http://england.shelter.org.uk/
25th March - 9 May Spring Day for Europe http://www.springday2009.net/
4-7 April Aldermaston Marches Anniversary http://tinyurl.com/dkatok
Wednesday, 15th April Hillsborough Disaster Anniversary http://tinyurl.com/bpjvff