As the statutory requirements for citizenship loom closer, many schools will be looking for resources to help implement this new challenge. It is clear that the wrong approach would be yet another curriculum audit, assigning parts of citizenship to history here, other bits to PSHE there, and so on. The true spirit of citizenship extends far beyond a tangled exercise in curriculum mapping.

At its heart there is a need to re-ignite students’ passion for involvement and a practical understanding of the mechanics of a civilised society. And with a recent general election that proved less gripping for many British citizens than Big Brother, it is clear that there is plenty of re-igniting to do.

This resource pack from the Schools Council is as practical as they get. It is called a toolkit and that is what it is - a series of well-presented, admirably clear resources for helping to set up a school council, explore rights and responsibilities, learn actively about sub-committees, chair discussions and hold elections.

Everything is here for assessing current practice and developing your own school council. We sometimes forget that our students need to be trained in how to debate, how to be assertive rather than aggressive, how to balance points of view, reach decisions, take minutes and publish them. This pack gives them the know-how. It is straightforward, unfussy, and highly usable.

The accompanying video provides useful propaganda for anyone who needs further convincing that school councils make a difference. With all the production values of a home video, there is something quietly charming about this footage from Lipson Community College, Plymouth. Students consider the business manager’s response to their request about toilet paper. More fundamentally (if anything can be more fundamental than providing toilet paper) they consider aspects of the school environment and learning.

It is a genuinely uplifting case study, and a tonic to those who might have feared that citizenship was just another exercise in bureaucracy.

Geoff Barton is deputy head at Thurston Community College, Suffolk.