Introducing pre-service citizenship teachers to the design and implementation of focus days to enhance their professional learning

Much attention has been give to the comparative efficacy of a range of approaches to the delivery of citizenship education in England. A recent inspection report (Ofsted 2010) expressed concern about a perceived over-reliance on collapsed timetable days (referred to here as focus days) as one such mode of delivery.
The effectiveness of focus day planning and delivery is considered in this article by scrutinising the purpose(s), activities and outcomes on a post graduate pre-service programme for citizenship teachers in which such activities form a central theme. The motivation and aims behind the inclusion of focus day planning is clarified and the extent to which these aims are met is discussed. The discussion is informed by data collected from teachers with whom the pre-service students liaised regarding the impact of the focus days on the schools where they took place, and their immediate and longer term impact on the student teachers who were involved. Most of the aims were found to be met and student and experienced teachers identified several benefits of the activity.
Key words: collapsed timetable Ofsted QTS Standards student teachers