Global days and weeks

A number of Developing Citizenship project schools introduced their ideas for a global dimension in Citizenship education through collapsed-timetable (and often cross-curricular) days or weeks.

A recent (2005) Ofsted report sees such days as useful in that they provide opportunities for all students to participate and take responsible action. However, they are only seen as useful when they are part of an overall coherent Citizenship curriculum.

The project's experience has been that while collapsed days are useful in broadening the horizons of pupils (through meeting a variety of people with different perspectives and experiences), and do allow young people to explore a range of issues in a coordinated way, they can be one-off events which do little to challenge (or worse still, reinforce) existing stereotypes:

	Are all African people consummate dancers, storytellers and drummers?
	Do all Indian people understand the background of Bhangra?
	Is all 'exotic' cuisine fun and tasty?
	Do all South Americans live in either a shanty town or in the Amazon?

However, where days or weeks are linked into an ongoing curriculum or whole-school theme or are part of a year group's scheme of work they do provide a myriad of sparks which teachers, students and governors can utilize in further development of the school curriculum. As one school in Suffolk said, successful collapsed timetable days:

	improve student motivation;
	consolidate work from earlier taught modules;
	help to gain staff familiarity with more flexible learning styles;
	enable students to become independent learners;
	raise awareness, tackle stereotypes;
	increase participation in the school community;
	give ideas for further curriculum and policy change.

Practical information

	A Global Month - Black History Month
	Organising your Week

More: Sustaining change

Websites

DFID's 'Bringing the World into the Classroom' portal site gives connections to a wide range of curriculum ideas.