The active dimension of being a citizen. Volunteering — local, national, international; the commitments and the limits. Campaigning — formal organisations and grassroots movements. Petitioning — Parliament’s e-petition system, council petitions, broader campaigning. Trade unions and professional bodies as forms of civic association. Mutual aid and community organising. Climate action — local and global, individual and collective.
The global dimension — the UN, the role of international law, climate negotiations, refugee and migration frameworks, what it means to be a citizen of a country in a globally interconnected world. The difficult question of how individual responsibility relates to systemic change.
Tested by
- ASDAN Lifeskills Challenge (community / volunteering modules)
- ASDAN Personal and Social Development
Cross-curriculum
- GIGF — Module 6: Green Skills and Future Jobs (the climate transition as the largest civic project of the cohort’s lifetime)
- GIGF — Module 7: Project Governance (the governance literacy translates to civic-organisation literacy)
- KS4 Science — Ecology and the environment (the science underpinning climate action)
- Employability — Work and life (vocation and meaningful work — civic engagement is one of the most common routes to meaningful work)
Suggested evidence types
- Volunteering log (real-world or simulated — what the learner did, what they learned about the organisation, what they would do differently)
- Campaign or petition the learner has researched, drafted, or initiated
- Reflection on a global issue the learner cares about — what is in their power, what isn’t, what they could do anyway
Why this strand matters at NEO
For learners who have spent significant time disconnected from school and from peers, civic engagement is also re-engagement — a route back into being part of a community on terms the learner has chosen. Many of NEO’s most successful re-engagement journeys have run through volunteering, animal welfare, environmental action, or community projects rather than back through traditional schooling first. This strand explicitly names that route as real curriculum rather than as something the learner does instead of their education.