Everyday Democracy – activities for schools

Everyday Democracy – activities for schools

We’ve been inspired by all the creative things young people have been doing during lockdown, and the ways people are finding of keeping in touch and supporting each other.

We’re always keen to share the experiences of our children and young people. This is especially important at a time when we might all feel more uncertain about the future. We also want to learn from what’s happening now.

Can you help us to try out some creative activities? You’ll be helping us to celebrate the creativity of our young citizens, as well as exploring which activities children and young people might find useful as part of our Democracy Friendly Schools programme.

We’d like to encourage activities that help young people to explore being part of their local place, having a voice or growing relationships. All these things help our young citizens to be part of local democracy.

We’ll share your contributions online and with local councillors. You can also get more involved in helping to shape our Democracy Friendly Schools programme if you wish.


Activities for you to try

~The word 'democracy' made out of sticks and stones
Sticks and stones artwork created for us by Lindley Junior School

1. Everyday democracy

What does the word Democracy mean to you? You could talk about this whilst you make something…

Make the word Democracy out of everyday things, outside or indoors. You could use twigs, paper, food, objects that already look like letters, or anything else you can find. Talk about what it means whilst you’re finding things and making your own democracy.

Please take a photo to share with us. This could be either one photo of the whole word, or a photo of each different letter (particularly good if you want to use objects of different sizes, bits of buildings or even photos of people). We’d also love to hear what you talked about.

As an alternative activity, you could have an online group discussion about what you think democracy is (this might be particularly useful for high schools), then let us know what you talked about.


2. What makes you proud of where you live?

Most of us have been spending more time at home lately and thinking about what really matters in our local places. Can you share something that makes you feel proud of where you live? You could:

  • Take a photo
  • Share some words
  • Create some artwork

Please send us photos or video clips of what you’ve created, and tell us where your place is.


3. One different thing

Lots of things are different for us at the moment. From your experiences over the past few weeks, is there one thing you’d choose to change, or one thing you’d choose to keep? This could be something you’ve decided that you want to do differently. It could be an idea for a project in your local community. Or it could be something you’ve enjoyed doing that you’d like to do more of. We want to hear about your one different thing, and whether you need any help to make it happen. You could:

  • Write your idea
  • Find a different way to show us your idea

Please send us what you’ve created.


4. Being there for each other

How can we be there for each other? Tell us about someone you’ve made a connection with, or a way you’ve found of keeping in touch with someone. This might include new ways of talking, kind things people are doing, and different ways of getting together. You could:

  • Tell us how your school community have kept in touch
  • Share any photos or videos
  • Find a creative way of telling us about someone who matters to you

5. Your own activity

We’d love to see what other ideas you come up with – and we hope to add some new activities for others to try. You could also get in touch with another school to create a joint activity.


How to share what you’ve made

Please share your photos, writing, video, links or anything else you’d like to share. If your photos or videos show people, people confirm that you have the consent of the people who are featured (and parental consent for any children or young people).

Tweet us @KirkleesYC
Email: michelle.ross@kirklees.gov.uk

or call 01484 221000 and ask for Michelle Ross.

Key worker children from Gomersal Primary spent time learning about democracy and made this amazing piece of art in the woodlands. Photo: @GomersalPSchool

Join our Democracy Friendly Schools programme

If your school community would like to join our Democracy Friendly Schools programme, you can find out more and fill in our expression of interest form. Like most things, our programme has been a bit delayed, but please sign up and we’ll get back to you with an update about ways to get involved, as soon as we can:

We are Democracy Friendly

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