Occupy movement in outreach programme

The Occupy protest movement will target schools with a unique educational outreach programme. The idea developed after members of the St Paul's camp were invited into a number of schools and universities. Former citizenship teacher Jamie Kelsey Fry says that with protesters due to be evicted within weeks, an outreach programme is a natural progression.

Protesters from the Occupy movement have been camped outside St Paul's Cathedral next to the London Stock Exchange since 15 October. But they are expected to be removed on 27 January, after the City of London won a High Court case over their eviction.

Many had joined in its people's assemblies, where issues are discussed openly and everybody taking part is given an equal voice. He said: "So many of the camps, not just at St Paul's but around the country, will be cleared away in the next few weeks so outreach is a really good way to move things on.

"Young people are a very large part of society and they are voiceless. They will be the people who inherit a troubled future." He added: "We will not be trying to indoctrinate or recruit them, we are trying to use the citizenship curriculum to give young people the tools to take up the issues that are important to them."

Classes in schools would cover critical thinking, advocacy and how to take responsible action amongst other things, he said. Bishop's Stortford High School in Hertfordshire is likely to be the first school the Occupy outreach team visits. The school's head of citizenship, Simon Etheridge, told the Times Educational Supplement: "I invited Occupy to stimulate debate and discussion among the students about their politics and their world at the moment, as well as their views, for and against about the protest outside St Paul's Cathedral."