Civitas (think tank)

Civitas: The Institute for the Study of Civil Society was founded by David George Green and Robert Whelan early in 2000 as an independent think tank. It is a British registered charity (No. 1085494),[1] financed by private donations. It receives no government funding and has no affiliations with any political party. It received a large donation for a three-year programme of research from The Reece Foundation in 2011.[2] The Civitas website states that "We publish the names of donors who, on request, are willing to be identified". However, its website provides no up to date information on its funders.[3]

Activities

The stated underlying purpose of Civitas is to deepen public understanding of the legal, institutional and moral framework that makes a free and democratic society possible.

They state that what they do is:

Policy interests

The think tank describes itself as "classical liberal" and "non-partisan". However The Times and The Daily Telegraph have described it as a "right-of-centre think-tank".[4][5] Its director David G. Green writes occasionally in The Daily Telegraph and its deputy director Anastasia de Waal frequently contributes to The Guardian's "Comment is free" section.[6] Its areas of policy interest include:

People

Publications

Books

Crime

Education

Family

Health

Immigration

Manufacturing

Involvement in schools

Civitas provides teaching materials and guest speakers for schools, in particular on family structure and on the EU.

The EU project publishes a series of free factsheets on the European Union, designed for use by A-level students.[8] Civitas also arranges speakers for talks and debates in schools on the subject of the EU.

Civitas runs supplementary schools on Saturday mornings and after school hours. The schools teach English and maths to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, emphasising traditional approaches such as phonics. There are now twenty supplementary schools in King's Cross, Hammersmith, Camberwell, Keighley, Birmingham, Great Yarmouth and Bradford providing classes for over 600 children per week.

Civitas is adapting the American Core Knowledge curriculum for the UK. It is a year-by-year outline of the specific and shared content and skills to be taught in Years 1 to 6. The first Core Knowledge book, What Your Year 1 Child Needs to Know, aroused controversy when released in 2011.[9] The books for Year 1 and Year 2 were published in 2012.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Charity Commission. Civitas, registered charity no. 1085494.
  2. ↑ WhoFundsYou? Civitas
  3. ↑ "About Us", Civitas website, https://web.archive.org/web/20170301114033/http://www.civitas.org.uk/about-us/ (accessed 01 March 2017, most recent donor information provided is for 2013)
  4. 1 2 "Gove allies say 'Sixties-mired' Ofsted should be scrapped". The Times. London. 24 January 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  5. ↑ Philip Johnston (7 April 2014). "A close encounter with the property boom". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  6. ↑ Anastasia de Waal profile at guardian.co.uk
  7. ↑ David Green biography at civitas.org.uk
  8. ↑ http://www.civitas.org.uk/eufacts/index.php
  9. ↑ English version of US fact bible for Year 1s hits the shops at the Times Educational Supplement
  10. ↑ http://www.coreknowledge.org.uk/
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