Delivering the influence strand | Secondary 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 secondary schools

Democracy extends beyond elections. Learners can influence decisions and create change through campaigning, collective action and other democratic routes to influence.

This strand gives learners the opportunity to identify issues that matter to them, understand who has the power to act and develop practical ways to influence change.

A key challenge is moving learners beyond identifying a problem or raising awareness towards a realistic action that can influence decision-makers or create change. Teachers may also be uncertain about facilitating contemporary issues while maintaining political impartiality, while curriculum time, safeguarding and opportunities beyond the classroom can present practical challenges.

Schools can address these challenges by:

• Allowing learners to identify issues that genuinely matter to them.
• Helping learners research the causes, evidence and impact of an issue.
• Identifying who has responsibility or power to make the desired change and comparing different routes to influence.
• Supporting learners to develop realistic, achievable and measurable actions.
• Allowing learners to plan, implement and evaluate their own campaigns, social action projects or active citizenship projects.

My approach

My aim is to help learners recognise that they can influence change through informed, purposeful and democratic action. Through teaching Active Citizenship at GCSE, I have found that learners are particularly passionate about issues affecting their schools, communities and wider society.

I would recommend to:

• Start with the learners: allow them to identify issues they genuinely care about rather than providing a pre-selected campaign topic.
• Investigate before acting: learners should research the causes of an issue and gather reliable evidence before deciding what action to take.
• Identify who has power: help learners establish who is responsible for the issue and who they need to influence.
• Evaluate routes to influence: compare approaches such as contacting decision-makers, petitions, campaigning, community action, media engagement and other appropriate democratic methods.
• Focus on action and impact: campaigns should aim for a realistic change rather than simply raising awareness.
• Facilitate rather than lead: teachers should guide learners through the process without directing them towards particular causes or political positions.

At The Bridge Academy, active citizenship is embedded into our Key Stage 3 curriculum alongside learner leadership and enrichment opportunities. This gives learners regular opportunities to identify issues, collaborate with others, engage with decision-makers and evaluate the impact of their actions.

If you only do one thing…

Give learners an opportunity to share and investigate the issues that matter the most to them. Have them identify one action they could take to create change on that issue.

Where this fits into the curriculum

• Citizenship - The statutory Citizenship curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4 enables learners to understand how citizens work together to create change, evaluate ways of influencing decisions and take informed action.
• Learner Leadership – school councils, learner ambassadors, and prefects can identify issues, represent learner views and influence decisions.
• PSHE and Tutor Time – exploring local, national and global issues, identifying concerns, and developing action plans.
• Enrichment Activities – active citizenship projects, volunteering, fundraising, environmental initiatives and awareness campaigns.
• English – persuasive writing, public speaking, speeches and campaign communication.
• Geography – environmental issues, sustainability and community change.
• History – campaigns and movements that have influenced political and social change.
• Art, Media and Design Technology – campaign materials, visual communication and digital content.

Key resources

If you have 30 minutes or less…

• FixMyStreet, mySociety - This website allows learners to see what issues other members of their communities have identified. They can also submit their own issues that they would like to see addressed. Have learners input their postcodes and explore. You could also use your institution's postcode and see what others have suggested needs improvement.

1 hour…

• Campaigning, The Electoral Commission - This resource helps learners to understand about political campaigning and explore what influences people to vote. It will help learners analyse where power is held in their community.

1-3 hours…

• My political future toolkit, Elect Her and Sex Ed Matters – Supports young women to explore their political ambitions and plan how to achieve them, Suitable for KS4 enrichment activities.
• Power and decision making: Run a referendum, The Electoral Commission – Can be delivered in one or several lessons. Learners identify an issue, campaign and advocate before voting in a referendum.

4-6 hours…

• Welcome to Your Vote, The Electoral Commission – A six lesson scheme of work to understand and participate in democracy. Lessons 4 and 5 explores political campaigning and allows learners to work collaboratively to develop a campaign encouraging young people to vote. Lessons can be adapted for more general campaigning and social action to allow learners to apply the campaign planning process to issues that matter to them.

6 hours plus…

• Time permitting, the above resources can be combined/adapted into longer schemes. The Welcome to Your Vote resources can be used for structure, whilst the other resources introduce different routes to influence and examples of effective campaigning.

Considerations for learners with additional needs

Learners with additional needs should be supported to participate meaningfully in campaigning and social action, rather than being given a passive role within a group project.

• Break the action into stages: use a clear sequence such as identify, research, identify decision-makers, choose an action, act, and evaluate.
• Make roles explicit: learners could take responsibility for research, evidence gathering, campaign design, communications, or presenting outcomes according to their strengths.
• Use structured planning tools: visual action plans, checklists, timelines and graphic organisers can help learners organise a campaign and track progress.
• Scaffold decision-making: provide examples of different routes to influence and support learners to consider which is most appropriate for their chosen issue. Use writing templates and sentence stems to support learners.
• Support communication: allow learners to influence through speeches, letters, presentations, posters, videos, digital content or other appropriate formats.
• Build confidence gradually: begin with small, achievable actions before progressing to more complex campaigning or engagements.
• Maintain learner agency: provide appropriate support without adults taking over the campaign or deciding what learners should campaign about.