8 June 2017
On Wednesday, a hustings was held at LSA. Jed Sullivan from the Labour Party and Tina Rothery from the Green Party were in attendance with Freddie Van Mierlo representing the Liberal Democrats. Mark Menzies, the local Conservative candidate was invited to the event but did not attend. All the parties' national policies were displayed during the event to enable pupils to decide for themselves who to support.
After a week of assemblies and opportunities in form time to compare all the parties policies and watch political broadcasts, students across all year groups attended to hear what the candidates had to say about themselves and their party. The debate was highly animated and our pupils asked very challenging questions of the three candidates in attendance. The main topic of the discussion naturally focused on the theme of education and the cuts that the system is currently facing. A notable question came from Freya Harrison-Wood in Year 8 who asked how the parties were going to support teachers during this challenging time? Other questions from pupils covered topics of national security, human rights, Europe and Brexit among other issues.
On the day of the General Election every student in school had the chance to vote. The experience mirrored the voting process nationally with a polling station, polling booths and ballot papers to ensure our pupils know exactly what to expect when they go to vote for real as a first time voter. The results of LSA's election are being shared with the National Youth Parliament by Emily Horberry in Y13 who is the Fylde Member of the Youth Parliament.
Turnout was very high at 91% and we are very proud of how our students engaged with the whole political process. A credit to the school and their families.
The Labour Party won the mock election, increasing their majority from the 2015 election.
The final results were:
Labour 624 votes polling approx 61% of the vote
Conservative 186 votes approx 18% of the vote
Green party 115 votes approx 11% of the vote
Libdems 64 votes approx approx 6% of the vote
None of the above - 11 voters (Specifically wrote this on their ballot)
There were 18 spoiled ballots.
Mock Election
