Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of the inclusion of citizenship education in Key Stages 3 and 4 of the National Curriculum on understanding of democracy, government and how laws are made and upheld.

The Citizenship programmes of study were revised to focus on the core knowledge of citizenship such as democracy, Government, and how laws are made and upheld. They are designed to prepare pupils to play a full and active part in society. The Department has not made a formal assessment of these changes.

When inspecting schools, Ofsted considers the breadth and balance of the curriculum, including provision for pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare, as well as their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This includes how pupils develop and demonstrate knowledge and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain. Ofsted have strengthened their inspection frameworks so that inspectors assess how well all schools protect pupils from the risks of extremism and radicalisation, and promote fundamental British values. High quality citizenship teaching can help schools to meet their obligations to protect pupils from radicalisation and promote fundamental British values. It can also help schools build pupils’ resilience to extremism through knowledge of important issue to enable them to question information, weigh arguments, and make reasoned judgments.