This is my last newsletter as Director of Communications, although I will remain in post until our conference in November. I therefore wanted to thank you all for your support over the last few years, it has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to be a Director of ADSO. A special thank you also to my colleagues past and present at Essex who have made it possible, it’s an honour to work with such brilliant individuals who make a fabulous team! Life is taking me in a different direction, but I will remain an active member of ADSO and look forward to seeing many of you at the Conference, training sessions and regional meetings. Please contact John Austin if you are interested in standing as Director of Communications.
International Day of Democracy
Last week on the 15 September it was the International Day of Democracy, the 2023 theme was “Empowering the next generation”. Engaging young people in democracy is challenging, yet so important. Local Government doesn’t feature in the primary school national curriculum below, although I noticed that “government”, but not “democracy”, features on the year 5 and 6 spelling lists.
Primary School National Curriculum
extension: pdf
Secondary School National Curriculum
extension: pdf
At secondary school there is a requirement to teach citizenship, although the curriculum above doesn’t specifically mention local government at all so getting young people to engage in something they may not know about is difficult. Some local authorities mark local/national democracy week each year and the International Day of Democracy, whilst others try to engage with schools and young people, especially those in care or carers themselves, throughout the year.
Many of you will be aware of the brilliant work in Kirklees as part of their Democracy Commission, whatever you do with the resources available, thank you for what you do and please do share it via the forum or if you would like to feature in our good practice pages, please send us a case study.
ADSO Webinars
In case you missed it in the summer, you’ll be pleased to know that there are still places available for the forthcoming webinars, Debate Note Hate: Ending abuse in Public Life on 26 September 10:30-11:30 and then All of the power, none of the risk: designing accessible public meetings and information on 19 October, again at 10:30 to 11:30. Both of these webinars are topical and should be interesting. Click on the links above to register to discover more and register for these events and if you would like to see all our upcoming webinars, please visit our webpage.
IIMC conference/VvG symposium – live streaming
For those of you unable to attend this year’s IIMC conference and VvG symposium in Amsterdam this Thursday and Friday, please see the information sheets below which will allow you to either live stream the sessions or watch recordings of them:
IIMC-VvG 2023 – live stream link
IIMC-VvG 2023 – streaming and recording information
Well, I think that is all from me for this week, we hope you find the new time, day and format of the newsletter makes it easy to read. If you would like to get involved and provide content please do get in touch, otherwise have a great week!
Joanna Boaler, Director of Communications