Year 10/11 GCSE,

Congratulations! Most of you have now completed the short course GCSE 50% of full GCSE – half way there. Full Course is made up of another 2 units – Unit 4 Controlled Assessment Task = 30% – Unit 3 exam held in May 2012 = 20%

What are we going to do for the rest of the summer term? We are going to concentrate on Unit 4 controlled assessment hopefully finish it all by end of term, July Then concentrate on exam next year Topics on exam Community action and active citizenship (already covered) Being a citizen in the UK: democracy and identity (partly done) Fairness and justice (new) Global issues and making a difference (new)

What does that mean? You have to do an action that is more than just advocacy (a presentation to a group) It can be linked to the Short Course (Unit 2) tasks so that suggestions made for further action in Stage 4 of the Assessment Criteria could be pursued, if you are still interested in that topic.

Building on from Unit 2 In Stage 4 of the Controlled Assessment for the Short Course you were asked to suggest future action that you could take to further the issue you had been advocating – a pressure group, voluntary organisation or charity. Use your previous suggestions, recent information or developments and other appropriate strategies to take informed and responsible action to further promote the issue.

What can I do? Fund raising event (sponsored walk, run, bun sale, etc. ) Awareness raising event (eg school assembly, inviting a speaker form the organisation ) Form a branch of your organisation in school Organise a petition on a particular issue Write letters to local council, MP or government

More Advice Need to negotiate democratic decisions within your group. Investigate different forms of action that could be taken and choose one to carry out. Plan and carry out the chosen course of action. Collect evidence of changes in attitudes, policies, or intentions. This could include letters from people in authority, a petition, new people becoming involved, increases in donations, etc. Evaluate the effectiveness of your action.

Further Guidance All of the work for this controlled assessment including the presentation will be done in the summer term As with Unit 2, Candidates are encouraged to follow a particular interest to work individually or in a small group during the research, planning and action stages. Writing up must be done individually. You should spend between 20 hours in total on the controlled assessment. (10 hours in class and 10 hours of homework) You have to arrange yourself or in your group all the details of your action

Do I have to do the same pressure group or charity? No, you could choose a different one But you have done much of the research in Unit 2. So it would be a shame to waste it. Please get permission from your teacher if you want to change topic.

OR something completely new “ My neighbourhood is boring! There’s nothing to do.”

OR something completely new Young people often complain that there is nothing to do in their local community. You need to take informed and responsible action to find out about facilities for young people, and – publicise them, or – take action to improve one of them.

More advice on facilities for young people Use a variety of sources of information to discover what facilities there are for young people in your community. Find out what young people would value most or what should be improved. Discuss what different forms of action you could take. Negotiate a democratic decision on what action to take. Plan and carry out the chosen course of action either – Publicise the information that you find. – Or take other action to improve the facilities Collect evidence of changes in attitudes, policies, or intentions. This could include letters to and from people in authority; a petition; new people becoming involved, etc. Evaluate the effectiveness of your action. Please talk to your teacher if you want to do something like this.