April 2023 Citizenship Studies subject update
Welcome to your Pearson Edexcel Citizenship Studies April 2023 subject update!
Hello colleagues,
I hope the term is going well as preparation for the summer exam series is underway! I wanted to take the opportunity to share some useful resources, links and reminders with you to support your teaching and preparations further.
As always, if you have any questions about anything within this update or about our Citizenship Studies qualification, please do get in touch with me at TeachingCitizenship@pearson.com
Best wishes,
Susan Currey
Citizenship Studies Subject Advisor
Citizenship in the News: Edition 3
Our 'Citizenship in the News' resource aims to stimulate discussion for GCSE Citizenship Studies by considering contemporary issues and their relevance to our lives. We have compiled a range of recent news articles* and linked these to the key questions, explored in themes A-D of the specification.
You may wish to investigate and integrate into your teaching practice to help contextualise key issues and bring the subject to life!
You can find it on our website under:
'GCSE Citizenship Studies'
'Teaching and Learning resources'
'Citizenship in the News'
*(Any views and opinions expressed through materials linked to this document are solely those of the external provider. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Pearson. Please be aware that the link provided may contain third party video content, which may contain adverts.)
Guide to answering questions on citizenship action
We have put together a resource which explores how to best answer exam questions on the citizenship action in Paper 2.
This resource looks at the assessment objectives for each question, details all past questions on this section of Paper 2 and exemplifies weak and strong responses using past candidate answers alongside principal examiner commentary.
Taking citizenship action submission reminder
Citizenship action is a planned course of informed action to address a citizenship issue or question of concern and aimed at delivering a benefit or change for a particular community or wider society. This is a required part of the GCSE Citizenship Studies course and students are examined on their action as part of Paper 2.
Each year, centres must certify that candidates have completed their Citizenship Action and submit a form to confirm this.
This must be submitted by 15th May.
The links to the Citizenship Action form and the authentification submission are below:
Access to padlocked exam materials
Our exam materials from the summer 2022 exam series have now been unlocked and are available to access without an Edexcel Online account.
Past question papers, mark schemes and examiner reports are offered free of charge on our website. These have ‘restricted access’ for 9 months after an exam series which means they are only available to teachers and exam officers at Pearson Edexcel centres with an Edexcel Online login. This also applies to any teaching and learning materials that include exam questions or materials from that exam series.
The locking of these materials allows centres to use these secure materials for any mock exams as students do not have access to these within this 9-month period. Following this 9-month period, these resources are 'unlocked' and there is ‘open access’ to all users thereafter.
To read more about this, you can access our qualification and assessment publication policy:
Qualification and assessment publication policy
Access to Edexcel Online is managed by exams officers in each Pearson Edexcel centre.
Private candidates
Private candidates who have been entered for an exam series and require access to locked exam materials to support their exam preparation, may request access. We recommend that you first discuss this with the centre that has accepted your entry. Where this is not possible, you may request the materials directly from us. Please download and complete the relevant past paper request form and attach this to a case using our customer portal.
Useful events, links and resources
Association of Citizenship Teachers
The ACT offer a wealth of support for Citizenship teachers, including events, resources and conferences. I have included some of their upcoming events below:
Controversial issues: managing the risks in our classrooms (Tues 9 May 5pm)
Dr Lee Jerome (Middlesex University) and Zoe Baker (ACT) will work with teachers to develop practical strategies on how to develop a strong pedagogy to teach controversial issues in the classroom.
Planning a coherent GCSE curriculum (Wed 14th June 5pm)
During this workshop, GCSE teachers and practitioners, highly experienced in curriculum planning, will discuss how to develop a curriculum based on the examination specification that suits the needs of your cohort.
ACT Teaching Citizenship Conference 2023 (Thur 29th June 10am)
Taking place on 29 June 2023 at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society in Central London. The event will bring together teachers, practitioners and other stakeholders to amplify and exchange ideas that support quality Citizenship teaching.
MASSOLIT video essay competition 2023
This competition is open to UK-based students in Years 10, 11 and 12 to create a “MASSOLIT-style” video lecture running at around 8-12 minutes on any academic topic. The final deadline is 5pm Friday 30th June 2023. The best entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges made up of academics from Brasenose and members of the MASSOLIT team. This competition is open to every pupil in the UK – you do not need to be a subscriber to MASSOLIT.
The Politics Project
The Politics Project work towards helping young people and politicians have conversations that build understanding and trust. They also have a range of useful teaching resources that can be used in your classroom.
Subject advisor
Jenna Wyatt
Citizenship
