Education policy

Help children and young people have a say on their education

Young Citizens is supporting a youth-led review of the curriculum and assessments - and we want to hear your pupils' views!

Teaching resources

Join The Big Legal Lesson in February 2025!

Last year, schools across England and Wales introduced the law to over 100,000 children and young people. Join them in 2025.

Immersive Programmes

Build skills and community connections with the Make a Difference Challenge

Access training and our programme frameworks to deliver a classroom community action project with your students this year

Political Literacy

Planning lessons after the general election?

With a new Government in place, explore our flexible democracy resource packs to help you embed political literacy in the classroom. Suitable for ages 5 to 18.

Teaching resources

Economic and Financial Literacy teaching resources

A free suite of lesson plans all about money - from personal finances to government spending.

Bringing citizenship education to life.

Young Citizens is a UK charity that helps state schools and colleges to deliver great citizenship education for children and young people.

Established in 1989 by Lord Phillips OBE and a group of democracy education experts, we specialise in civic literacy and linking political, media, economic and legal literacy to real-world contexts for 5- 18 year olds through our interactive learning programmes.

See how our charity can support your curriculum, SMSC and personal development plans below.

Our mission

Working with a huge network of schools and partners, we deliver learning experiences that light the spark of active citizenship from an early age. We believe citizenship should play a part in every young person’s education before leaving school to help them thrive in and contribute to society today.

We want to empower children and young people to shape their communities, institutions and society, building skills and knowledge for life.

3,000

schools use our resources each year

3 in 4

UK local authorities are reached by our work every year

1,000

volunteers gave their time and expertise in the past year

Teaching resources

Access our free library of over 200 lessons, assemblies and other flexible citizenship and PSHE resources.

Learning programmes

Legal Workshops

Legal Workshops are a perfect volunteering opportunity for busy legal professionals. Working with local school children at your offices,...

Mock Trials

The Mock Trial Competitions are our longest-running active learning experiences. Since 1991, we have provided unparalleled exposure to the...

Make a Difference Challenge

A child-led social action programme that empowers some of our youngest citizens.

1 in 5

UK schools have downloaded our teaching resources

300,000

school children have taken part in our social action programmes since 2008

15,420

primary teachers have been trained by our team over the past decade

Support us

Whether as volunteer, donor or organisational partner, your support helps us create informed, empowered and confident young citizens.