Making rules and laws

Ahead of the lesson ask pupils to do a quiz, on line, to help them understand the powers of a number of bodies that makes rules or laws. Responses could be in drop down multiple choice menus and correct answers scored.

For example:

• Student Council: change the uniform, decent food for school dinner, soap in the loos
• Parish Council: get equipment for children’s play area, new bus shelter
• District / County Council: get the waste collected more often; get the roads mended; get more houses built for people who need them; more ‘bobbies on the beat’
• Westminster Parliament: cut taxes, take soldiers out of Iraq, build new schools
• European Parliament: make us safe from terrorists, save our fish, stop climate change, make beaches safer, should we have the same laws for speed limits on roads?

The European Parliament chamber in Brussels - called the Hemicycle.

Watch a 5 minute video

How does the European Parliament Plenary work? A French MEP and a European Parliament usher explain to 14-year old pupils Eileen and Pedro how the only internationally elected parliament in the world works.

• Democracy in action - find out how EU laws are made
• Discuss why new laws may be needed
• Role-play the debates for proposed EU laws
  Click here

Who am I?

I am a member of

• My family
• My school
• Network of friends
• My church
• My football team
• My village/ town where I live
• My country
• Europe
• The global community
• The human race.

What does it mean to be a member of these groups? How does it change the way I behave? The way I see other communities, the language I use, how I feel about myself?

What does it mean to be British? (Speak English, support the British Olympics team, vote in elections, live in Britain, pay for things in pounds and pence, drive on the left, eat fish and chips, drink tea, what are your rights?)

What does it mean to be European? Does it mean anything? (Have European passport, citizen of group of countries working together to ensure peace, have better standard of living, wear lederhosen, cap with green feather, what are your rights?)

In preparation for class session

Game/ quiz: from a list of attributes/ activities/ habits decide on what makes up an average Briton and European. Have table, pictures to choose from. Print off the profile and bring them in to class.

Game/ quiz: from list of facts, build up a British ID card/ European ID card and print off the card. Look at other European ID cards for ideas.

Class debate. ID cards, for and against. Other European countries have them. What’s the objection? What about personal privacy?

One half of the class discussing what it should contain and not contain (religion? political membership? sexuality?), the other half what it might be used for.