Since students at The Academy at Shotton Hall are too young to vote, we decided to host our very own election to get everyone engaged in politics.
In the build up to the big vote, we carried out a number of activities to teach students about the election process and the political parties including:
- Every student was shown the political party broadcasts from the five main political parties in sept. They were encouraged to discuss and debate the points raised.
- 110 Year 8 students were involved in a 'drop down day' where they formed their own political parties and created manifestos. We then hosted a mini election where William Turner and Aaron Carr were elected as joint leaders!
- Each sept came up with their own manifesto points which culminated in a Shotton Hall manifesto; this included: starting school earlier and finishing earlier, improving school wif and more.
- A group of Year 9 and 10 GCSE Citizenship students became election experts and were on hand throughout to provide guidance and support to any student that needed further information.
After taking in all this information, students were asked to vote for a political party in septs; each sept then became a constituency. On election day, one representative from each sept was sent down to the polling station to complete their septs' ballot slip. The results were counted and verified and, by a landslide majority, the Labour party won our election.
The build up to the election has been a fantastic success. It has encouraged our students to engage with the political system and to gain a more detailed and developed understanding of political policies and parties in the UK. Well done everyone.