Oxfordshire Registration Service has been looking at ways of involving the local community in their citizenship and naturalisation ceremonies and has been working with schools to achieve this.
Both secondary and primary schools have been providing choirs to sing at ceremonies which are held on a weekly basis in the Council Chamber in Oxford. At the same time letters were sent to MPs to ask them to attend a ceremony and all five MPs have attended a ceremony. The combination of schools and MPs is a successful one. MPs make regular visits to schools in their area and the school is keen to impress their MP.
To engage more schools in citizenship ceremonies the Council commissioned a DVD to give new citizens an idea of what the citizenship ceremony entailed. The 7-minute DVD has proved very useful in raising the profile of citizenship ceremonies within the County Council and the county as a whole.
The pupils and teachers commented on how much they enjoyed being involved and how moving the citizenship ceremonies were. Some schools offer a GCSE short course in citizenship to pupils as part of the curriculum. One school, Wallingford, who decided to offer this GCSE but were looking for material for their coursework were given the3 honour of hosting the ceremony and would plan and organise it as well.
In 2006 thirteen year 9 students sat this GCSE and obtained excellent results. The ceremony was held at Wallingford School on 24 April 2006. In the morning Anthony Pilgrim and Jane Whitehead from the Home Office visited the school to discuss citizenship with the pupils. This was a lively session with many pupils entering into debates over whether British people should lose their citizenship if they commit a serious crime for example. The pupils were also shown a presentation about the history of citizenship.
The citizenship ceremony was held in the afternoon. The Lord Lieutenant attended and was greeted by a jazz band playing funky music. The citizens began to arrive at 3pm and the atmosphere was both vibrant and exciting. Local TV reporters were present and interviewed pupils and teachers about their part in the ceremony. The pupils were responsible for: car parking; catering and refreshments; provision of flags; music; writing and delivering welcome speeches and a short history of Wallingford; registering citizens on arrival; handing out welcome packs.
This ceremony was also captured on DVD and has been one of the most requested DVDs. The County Council feel it is a wonderful example of partnership working and was used in the council’s CPA assessment. For the Registration Service it has been beneficial for Chartermark. The few hundred pounds needed to pay for the DVD is considered by the Council been worth every penny.
