Y3/4 Lesson 3 (Cycle A): Local council and democracy

Beginning to understand how democracy works in the local area and how decisions are made by councillors.

Learning objective

  • To begin to understand how democracy works in the local area.

Non-statutory links

PSHE/RSE

Preparing to play an active role as citizens

‘Pupils should be taught:

g. what democracy is, and about the basic institutions that support it locally and nationally;’

 

See: Department for Education - Citizenship programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2.

 

British values: Democracy

See: Kapow Primary: RSE & PSHE: Personal development, SMSC and British values mapping.

Success criteria

Cross-curricular links

Before the lesson

Download classroom resources

Attention grabber

Main event

Differentiation

Pupils needing extra support

Year 3: Could work in a group together and be given five of the cards from the Activity: Being a local councillor so that there are fewer issues to debate.

Year 4: Could take the role of local resident rather than councillor, as it is a more straightforward role. Could use the Activity: Local resident characters to help them in their role as a local resident.

 

Pupils working at greater depth

Year 3: When prioritising spending, challenge them to look at the relationship between different services, for example, if libraries close then there could be an impact on education, or if parks are not maintained there might be health problems.

Year 4: Could take on the role of a councillor during the role play and should be challenged to look at things from the viewpoint of both the residents and the council.

Wrapping up

Assessing pupils' progress and understanding

Vocabulary

Created by:
Sarah Huggins,  
RSE & PSHE specialist
Sarah has over 20 years’ experience in education. Starting as a Primary teacher, Sarah then moved into an advisory role that covered both PSHE education and Citizenship. She delivers courses for teachers, as well as sessions for children and young…
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