Young citizens needed for community missions

The 'young citizens' project sets the children missions around subjects such as the environment, crime and antisocial behaviour, and fire and rescue, and aims to get the children thinking about what qualities they need to be good citizens once they leave school.

The children are introduced to their missions during an assembly, and can pick two each week for three weeks. Missions include: 'in your own words describe antisocial behaviour and design a poster to encourage people to stop doing it' and 'identify three different types of litter and how each can affect the environment' with bonus marks being given for naming as many ways as possible to properly dispose of litter. Representatives from the council or one of the other organisations involved in the project stays with the children for an hour after the assembly to answer questions and encourage the work to be done, and the schools then allocate time during PSHE lessons for it to be completed. At the end of the project the children are rewarded with a presentation of certificates and prizes.

Wellingborough Council's environmental warden Stephen Dunkley explains more: "This is the second year we've been running this project. Last year seven schools took part and this year we've had three involved so far, but we're keen for more to sign up. It's aimed at year 6 children, but we can accommodate different age groups if for example we're at a village school and year groups are mixed.

"The children really enjoy getting involved. We make it as fun as possible for them, and they all get a young citizens pack at the beginning of the project, with ID cards and pens and badges. They get a chance to be really creative - one of the favourite missions is to design a dirt-busting superhero - but they also learn important lessons about ways to make their communities a better place to live. It's useful for us too, as the children often identify problems in their communities that we can then try and rectify. We get a lot of positive feedback from the children and they always ask loads of questions and enjoy having their voices heard. It's a really fun way to get a serious message across and once the children are inspired to make their communities better, they can take that message back to the whole family."