30 April 2015
On Wednesday 29th April LSA students took part in a Hustings event with the Fylde candidates from the 3 main parties who are likely to form the next Government. LSA students quizzed the candidates about the General Election and each parties’ manifesto.
On the panel were
- Mark Menzies , the Conservative candidate and current MP
- Jed Sullivan for Labour
- Freddie Van Mierlo for Liberal Democrats
- Yr 12 Hal Meakin also attended. Hal is LSA’s own member of the National Youth Parliament representing the Fylde.
One of the candidates suggested that the general consensus is that young people don’t really care about politics, which resulted in some friendly booing! They definitely care about what’s going on, particularly when it comes to education, and how the younger generation will be affected by the outcome of the election.
Students were very keen to find out more about policies on the benefits systems, immigration and the changes to the education system such as the change of GCSES from modular to linear. Also spoken about was the increase in University tuition a few years ago and future plans.
Gillian Clegg, Assistant Head Teacher at LSA said ‘’The pupils who came to the candidates' Question Time yesterday were absolutely fantastic. I felt very proud. There was no coaching just their genuine questions so we were all really impressed. Plus about 30 students stayed for an extra 45 minutes after school to continue asking questions so they certainly put the candidates through their paces!”
Over recent weeks all our students have been learning about how we elect our Government and about the policies of ALL the different parties who are standing for election. Despite many not being old enough to vote in the General Election, our students still wanted to be involved so;
On Thursday May 7th the whole school will have a chance to vote on 2 things
1. They will be voting as if they were voting for the real candidates for this constituency in the general election
2. They will also be getting to vote on a referendum "Should 16 year olds be allowed to vote?"
Both of these results are being shared with the National Youth Parliament and with Granada Reports. Watch this space for our election results!
