Introduction

This series of three programmes - Rights and Responsibilities, Community and Democracy, and Primary Philosophy - has been developed to introduce teachers to many of the issues they will encounter as they introduce citizenship programmes of study into primary and secondary schools. Secondary schools will have a statutory duty to teach citizenship from September 2002 and for many subject coordinators, there will be a considerable job to do in preparing colleagues to teach the new syllabus and think more clearly about the wider implications of citizenship across the whole school.

The programmes may be used individually or together and can be studied by a single teacher aiming to get acquainted with new approaches, small teams of teachers working together or in whole staff settings. The accompanying notes have been written on the assumption that the programmes will be used by a subject coordinator or a trainer working with non-specialist staff, or even governors and parents. Each set of notes points to the main issues covered and suggests ways in which these might be tackled along with suggestions for further reading or follow-up. The notes also attempt to provide some discussions of background issues that trainers might encounter during in-service education and training (INSET) sessions.

It is in the nature of video programmes such as these that the material is designed to create awareness or arouse interest. It cannot provide a comprehensive introduction or detailed analysis as a written resource might. Having said that, there is a good deal of material here which is sufficiently detailed to be able to speak for itself, and one of the most effective ways of using much of the material will be to ask colleagues to engage in critical evaluation of what they see and hear from their own perspectives and those of their school. Colleagues should be discouraged from viewing this as a video that will 'tell them what to do'.