Your analysis piece points out the difficulties of introducing the new subject of cotizenship (“Classes to stop suicide bombs?” and “Why schools need a bit of a kicking”, TES, June 23).
More and more schools are doing so successfully but we will only succeed across all secondaries if we commit to a strategy that gives them an entitlement to training, as we at the Citizenship Foundation have called for in our submissions to MPs on the education select committee and I have argued for in these pages (“Citizenship gets real”, TES, June 16).
Rather than “a bit of a kicking” or the expectation that the subject can address all of society’s ills, those teaching citizenship need support, resources, specialist training and a restatement of the all-party political commitment to Bernard Crick’s original report, Education for citizenship and the teaching of democracy in schools.
Tony Breslin Chief executive Citizenship Foundation 63 Gee Street, London EC1