Dear ,

I have spent the last month talking to and meeting with several of our Teacher Members. It has been extremely useful to discuss your thoughts and concerns for the discipline and what role the PSA should play amongst all of this.

With the ongoing consultations surrounding the Government and Politics A Level in England and Wales, this summer Year 12/Scottish Higher students deciding upon their course choices for university applications and a series of events in the pipeline for the new academic year which need finalising, one thing is clear: it's an important time for the Association and for the teaching of politics in schools.

Please find below a round-up of the latest news and events for our schools' activities - as well as a key "save the date" announcements.

Don't forget, you or your school can follow the PSA on Twitter or search for the #PSAschools hashtag for real time updates.

The PSA and Dr Andrew Mycock, Huddersfield University and co-editor of Beyond the Youth Citizenship, are planning to convene a "Teaching Political Studies: Educating, Inspiring, Motivating" one day workshop.

The workshop will be taking place on Friday 24th October 2014 at the University of Huddersfield. The workshop will be free to PSA Teacher Members.

The final programme will be made available by 14th July and registration will be open from then also. For the moment, if this is something you are interested in knowing more about please e-mail me.

Thank you to all those who have recently supported one of our "studying politics at university" workshops.  I hope your student(s) found the sessions useful.  

Registration for our final stop in Bristol on 11th July is open until Tuesday.

If you have attended a session and would like to give feedback from your experience, please complete the following Feedback Form and e-mail it me.  

Additionally, having spoken to members I know many of you have asked for the information about the workshops sooner.  This is something we will aim to do for 2015.

The PSA hosts a number of briefings throughout the year on topics of interest to the media.  Many of the topics covered in the sessions act as valuable teaching resource for our teacher members.

On 17th June the PSA ran a special session on Scottish Independence. The slides and briefing packs are now uploaded to the Teachers' Resources section of our website.

For a full list of all media briefings and accompanying video footage, please vist the media area of our website here.

This year’s competition, in association with YouGov, asks your students to explore the question: "Europe - in or out?" 

So far we have had lots of interest from schools and students about taking part. Encouraging young people to become more engaged in politics is really important and the competition has been blogged or publicised by many MPs and politicians from around the country.

For last year’s winning entry, all the rules and how to enter, please click here. The deadline for submissions is October 17th 2014.

PSA teacher members are invited to attend the Young People's Politics specialist group conference on 5 September 2014 at the University of Lincoln.

The conference includes panels on Young Women and Politics, Citizenship Education, and the recent Youth Protest Movements, as well as a discussion of the PSA's recent Beyond the Youth Citizenship Commission initiative.

Download the programme.

The conference is free for PSA members, but please contact Dr Ben Kisby if you wish to attend.

On 17th June 2014 London-based social enterprise, Model Westminster, worked with the Department for Education and the Cabinet Office for a joint event which saw a group of students and graduates all under the age of 25, come together to learn about the EU, politics and Education all whilst answering the EU Balance of Competences Review.

The event was an accumulation of different seminars and tutorials, from a debate to a policy-making challenge which all drew out evidence-based answers to the consultation from the students in attendance. It was certainly a good way for me to speak to so many talented and politically engaged young people.

Model Wesminster have now published their final report which was submitted to the Department for Education. You can read the report online here. For further information please visit Model Westminster's website here.

Last Friday (27th June) the PSA's new Chair, Professor Matthew Flinders of Sheffield University, was invited to step into the TEDx arena alongside an amazing array of speakers to give a short talk about ‘an idea worth spreading’.

You can read more about Matt's experience on our blog here. Or watch the video online here [from 20mins].

I’m always keen to hear from you, so please keep in touch or let me know how we can serve you better. My contact details are as follows:

Email: james.ludley@psa.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7330 9284

If you feel any colleagues would be interested in this e-Newsletter, please forward them a copy.

With very best wishes,
James

James Ludley
Programme Development Officer
PSA Head Office, 30 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4UE