Citizenship at Telford Park School shows pupils how the country they live in is actually run, and how an ordinary person can change something. It is a GCSE course, and it is also a preparation for adult life in a democracy.
The institutions and vocabulary come first, because a debate about power is empty if pupils cannot say what Parliament does or what a right is. Pupils learn democracy, legislature and the rule of law, and use them in their own writing, before debating how well Parliament serves the country. Alex Quigley makes the case that the words of public life must be secure before the arguments about it can begin. Every topic is then required again inside later ones, so the course ends as a single picture rather than a pile of facts.
Pupils study identity and life in modern Britain, why laws exist and how they are made, who guards our rights and where power really sits, elections and voting, and how government runs from day to day. They finish able to explain how a decision gets made in this country, and how to go about changing one.