STUDENTS at Christopher Whitehead Language College in Worcester have been learning how to become 21st century citizens.

The school held a Citizenship Day last week to celebrate work carried out over the past few months, by pupils of all ages.

During the day there were speakers, workshops, activities and games on offer.

The students looked at world media, creating an international newspaper, planning and presenting radio and TV broadcasts for the year 3000, the environment - with a huge earth balloon that students were able to climb inside, disability - with pupils from New College Worcester visiting; democracy, with a question time with the headteacher and governors, multicultural Britain, with Bhangra dancing, a Drumlove session, Polish, Portuguese, Thai and Chinese workshops and crime and personal safety, training in self defence. Community Support Officers and Youth Offending team officers visited the school to carry out workshops. Headteacher Neil Morris said: "Developing 21st century citizens is a key skill all schools have to address. I'm delighted our multi-skilled teachers embrace this responsibility and are developing Worcester citizens to be proud of." Indy Bassan, citizenship co-ordinator, added: "I love days like this. Citizenship comes alive - not theory but practice. It is a fantastic opportunity for our students to move away from their everyday subjects and take a more global approach in a fun, practical way." Since September the school has been divided into mixed age groups - or a vertical house system, as they call it - to study values and ethics.

The vertical house system sees five students from each year group all placed into one tutor group, mentored by one member of staff.

Head of Curie House, David Hunt: "The vertical house system has been very successful over the last five months. The students bring a range of different experiences to these sessions and develop their understanding together."