Langley Park School For Girls just held a mini General election – Here’s why it matters:
Whatever your political alignment may be, wherever your opinions fall on the spectrum , I strongly believe that it’s inarguably important for local schools to keep their students informed. With the real world election results looming, and the this week’s political campaign ramped up, its time young people were properly educated on the importance of voting. In just a few short years, we will be voting ourselves, even less if Labour win the next election.
First up this past week, several students and sixth formers volunteered themselves as representatives of each main party campaigning for parliament. This was a fantastic show of bravery from the girls, as they stepped onto the stage for a formal debate. They were asked questions from the hostess and then from the audience. All of them implored the audience to vote for their party, delivering their speeches with clear evidence, natural orating skills and passion.
Siân Clarke, of the Liberal Democrats kindly allowed me to interview her on her experience. I asked her how it felt to speak publicly about her views and she told me ‘I felt nervous, of course, but it was easy because I cared about it’. Clarke continued, telling me that she believed it to be a great thing that she believes that it’s a great thing that the school got involved with politics because:
‘This stuff does go on in our daily lives, its not all sunshine and rainbows – there’s a lot of messed-up things. I think it’s good to spread awareness so people can learn to make informed decisions’.
I couldn’t agree more.
Today, Thursday 12th December, voting boxes and slips for all year groups were all over the school, with masses of girls ready to have their say. Particularly in girls, I would suggest it is necessary to spur a passion for politics at an early age. We women, gained the vote 100 years ago, yet surprisingly, as I’ve found, still several of us still feel as though it is the husband, or man’s job to understand the political climate. Women more often than one would think vote for whatever their partner votes for, or worse, don’t vote at all. By introducing girls to the relevance and power of their say in schools, we are ultimately setting up for a better, more equal future with all demographics reflected in the results of our elections.
Tomorrow, the results will come out for both mini and major elections. It should certainly be interesting to compare the thoughts of young, newly educated girls against the wider public!
