Resource

Voting and the General Election

How do citizens play their part in choosing who runs the country? And, how can your students make their voices heard by those in power, even if they can’t vote yet?

KS3 (ages 11-14) KS4 (ages 14-16) KS5 (ages 16-18)

Overview

This resource pack is the second of a four-part set which has been designed to introduce students to the concept of democracy. Each pack can be delivered independently of each other, or combined together to form a broader scheme of work.

During this pack, students consider the democratic process of voting, what happens during a general election and what the barriers and solutions are in relation to young people voting. Through taking part students will be able to answer key questions such as:

What is a general election?
How do people vote?
Why should people vote?
What are the barriers that stop people voting?
How can these barriers be overcome?

How does the pack work?

Each pack can be delivered in a number of different ways depending on the time you have available:

Use all the content to deliver a drop-down day on democracy;
Pick and choose the activities you want to focus on and use these to build individual lessons;
Where full lessons are not available each activity is further broken down into 5-15 minute segments, perfect for tutor-time.

The accompanying PowerPoint covers all the key learning points from the pack and could be used as the activities are being delivered. Alternatively, it provides a perfect introductory assembly to what a democracy is.

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