Intermediate
40 mins
Teacher/Student led
+55 XP
Teacher-led from the board. Pupils do not need a device, but can follow on one.

Our Class Charter

Students convert rights and duties into a practical class charter made of clear actionable statements. They distinguish usable lines from vague values and agree on where the charter will be kept and how it will guide class behaviour.

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    1 - Start ~4 mins

    Illustration for StartToday you turn the rights and duties you have examined into one short charter this class will hold itself to.

    Key point

    A charter only works if every line is something a person can actually do, or refuse to do, on an ordinary Tuesday. Vague hopes do not count. By the end of this period the class will have agreed its own version, named where it will live, and decided how it will be used.

    2 - What a Usable Line Looks Like ~9 mins

    Key point

    A charter statement has to be something you can check. If nobody could tell whether you kept it, it is not usable yet.

    Listen to each pair. For each one, decide which version the class could actually hold someone to, and say why.

    Pair A: "Be respectful" / "Do not interrupt when someone is explaining an idea."

    Pair B: "Be inclusive" / "If two people are left without a group, invite them to join yours."

    Pair C: "Stand up for others" / "If I hear a joke that targets someone's background, I say it is not okay."

    Pair D: "Be fair" / "Share credit for work that was done together."

    The pattern

    The pattern: name the action, not the virtue.

    3 - Build Our Class Charter ~19 mins

    First, listen while your class's own First lines we owe each other, the list you wrote in the first lesson of this strand, is read back. Those lines are raw material, not the finished charter. Keep, reword, or drop them as you go.

    Key point

    In small groups, draft under the four headings on the board. Each group takes one heading (or finishes early and helps a neighbour). Aim for at most two checkable statements per heading. Every statement must be something a person in this room could do, or refuse to do. Before plenary, each group hands up one line to keep (or reword) and one first line to drop, with a short reason.

    Agreeing lines

    Then the class works as one. Offer lines, challenge wording that is still a vague value, merge repeats, and mark each line agreed only on a clear up-or-down call (about twenty seconds for any dissent, then vote). The finished list is called Our class charter.

    Our class charter

    4 - Where It Lives ~5 mins

    Key point

    A charter nobody can find is not a charter.

    As a class, agree three things out loud:

    1. Where Our class charter will live for the rest of the course.

    2. When you will actually use it (for example at the start of a discussion, after a disagreement, or before a citizenship action).

    3. What happens if someone thinks a line is being broken.

    Keep the answers short enough to write under the charter itself. Be ready in the recap to name one line and say when this class would actually use it next week.

    5 - What You Covered ~3 mins

    In this lesson you:

    • Told the difference between a vague value and a charter line someone can actually keep
    • Used First lines we owe each other as raw material, not as a finished product
    • Agreed a shared artefact called Our class charter, with rights and responsibilities written as real actions
    • Decided where the charter lives and how this class will use it

    Before you leave: pick one line from Our class charter and say out loud when this class would actually use it next week. That is how the charter gets applied, not only where it sits.

    Later work in this course will come back to the charter you agreed.

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