Delivering the influence strand | Primary school
Key topics
- Local, national, and international issues.
- How change happens and the role of changemakers.
- Campaign methods and routes to influence.
- Planning and delivering campaigns and social action.
Why the Influence strand matters in primary schools
This is the strand where learners move from holding views to acting on them. It is about agency; the understanding that things can change, that change is something people make happen, and that learners themselves can be part of it. Primary-age learners have real power to improve their class, their school and their community, and experiencing that early builds a lasting sense of efficacy: the belief that participation is worthwhile, which is the opposite of the apathy and powerlessness that can otherwise set in.
Social action can feel daunting to teach precisely because it seems open-ended and unpredictable. The key idea in this strand is that it need not be: campaigning and social action follow a process that can be planned, taught and repeated, just like any project. That process - Plan, Research, Carry out, Evaluate - draws on the human-centered, iterative approach of design thinking and on the disciplined project method older learners use in the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), adapted for KS1 and KS2.
In Key Stage 1 the cycle stays small and concrete; a single improvement to the classroom or school, worked through simply. In Key Stage 2 learners take on a real issue they care about and move through a fuller version of the process. Throughout, the work rests on safe agency: learners need to feel that their action is genuinely their own, that they are supported, and that setbacks are an ordinary part of the process rather than a failure.
My approach
I start with what learners genuinely care about, the issues and injustices they have already noticed in their own world. That connects this strand straight back to the questioning of Navigate and the voice of Experience: learners have information and a view, and now they do something with it. My job is not to have the answers or to run the campaign, but to facilitate the process, to keep learners moving calmly through each stage.
The process has four stages, and I teach it explicitly so the learner can see the shape of what they are doing and use it again.
The four-stage process:
- Plan - Decide what we want to change and what success would look like. Set our aims and objectives. (Empathise & define)
- Research - Find out about the issue: who is affected, who can change it, and what has already been tried. (Understand)
- Carry out - Choose how to make our voice heard and take action. (Create & deliver)
- Evaluate - Look back: what difference did we make, and what would we do differently? (Review, then begin again)
After completing the above steps learners can begin the process again. Using what they learned from evaluating, learners can begin the next plan.
In Key Stage 1 I run a light version of the cycle, sometimes in a single afternoon: We decide what to change, find a little out, do it, and talk about how it went.
In Key Stage 2 learners work through the full version over several sessions; written aims and objectives, real research, a considered choice of how to influence, and a proper evaluation.
A note for teachers: you do not need to be an activist - you are facilitating a process:
- Keep the first issue small, concrete and winnable, so learners experience completing the cycle successfully. And hold the process above the outcome: a campaign that does not achieve its aim but is well planned, researched and honestly evaluated is a genuine success in learning terms.
- Modelling that setbacks are normal, and part of how change happens, is one of the most valuable things this strand teaches.
- I also love the opportunities here to involve members of the school community, from the administrative team to the caterers and cleaners. They can provide excellent insight into what or how things could change and encourage the learner to feel safe to become a changemaker in an inclusive environment.
If you can only do one thing…
Pick one small, real thing your class would like to change, and walk them through the four stages once. Completing the cycle, however small the issue, is what teaches learners that change is something they can make.
Where this fits into the curriculum
Social action is naturally cross-curricular and project-based, so it fits many parts of primary life:
- PSHE / RSHE / Citizenship - active citizenship, taking responsibility, and contributing to the community.
- Project or topic work - the Plan–Research–Carry out–Evaluate cycle maps onto enquiry in any subject, from science to geography.
- English - persuasive writing, letters, speeches and campaign messages as real routes to influence.
- Computing - designing posters, presentations or campaign materials.
- Whole-school life - assemblies, awareness days, eco-councils, fundraising and school-improvement projects.
It also draws strands together: learners research their issue (Navigate) and make collective decisions about it (Experience) before they act.
Key resources
If you have 30 minutes or less…
- Make a difference challenge, Young Citizens - Work through the Plan stage on a real class issue — what would we change, and what would success look like?
1 hour…
- Being part of a school community, Young Citizens - Run a quick version of the whole four-stage cycle on a small, winnable classroom issue.
1–3 hours…
- Being part of a school community, Young Citizens - Plan and carry out a small social action — a poster campaign, a letter, an assembly — with a simple evaluation at the end.
4–6 hours…
- Citizenship and the wider world, Young Citizens - A fuller project through all four stages on a school or local issue, with written aims and objectives and real research.
6 hours plus…
- You could also support learners to run a sustained campaign or social action project - Learners research the issue, choose their routes to influence, take action, and evaluate and share the difference they made with a real audience.
Considerations for learners with additional needs
- Show the four stages - Plan, Research, Carry out, Evaluate - as simple symbols, so learners always know the next step.
- Break each stage into small, manageable steps.
- Keep the issue concrete and winnable, especially the first time.
- Work collectively so no child carries a campaign alone, and treat setbacks as normal.
- Offer many ways to take part, such as drawing a poster, recording a message, helping to plan.
- Let learners help choose the issue and how they take part.
- Celebrate effort and the process as much as the result.
