Every student in school was given a ballot paper from Westmorland & Furness Council with 10 important topics to vote on. Students could only vote once, and had the options of:

• Education and learning
• International relations
• Health and wellbeing
• Rights, equalities and democracy
• Jobs, the economy and benefits
• Crime and safety
• Culture, media and sport
• Climate change and the environment
• Transport
• Youth work and young people’s services

Lynne Murray who is the Participation Officer for Westmorland and Furness Council came in to speak to Year 7 and Year 9 about the vote, and all other year groups had a presentation from their form tutors. Students also have the opportunity to join Young Inspectors or stand for election for our area for Youth Parliament by accessing the information packs on their form group Teams page.

We asked three students in school what they had voted for and why.

Sophie told us how she voted for education and learning as the most important topic to her. “I think education is really important, and anyone who needs extra support like a tutor should be able to get that level of help.”

Saffie voted for health and wellbeing as something she would like to see prioritised next year by Youth Parliament. “I think everyone should have a healthy mind and a happy life. If someone is finding something hard, there should always be someone there to help them, no matter how old you are.”

Ethan told us “I’d like better access to apprenticeships and more information about them for Post 16, and think jobs, economy and benefits is the most important topic on the ballot this year.”

All three students agreed that: “We think it’s a really good idea to get young people involved and having a say in making decisions. We think more young people would be interested and involved with politics and the law by having opportunities like this throughout their time in school, and we would consider joining School Parliament after this. We feel more empowered to make changes and have a say in decision making, and hope others did too.”

This is another great example of our students being active, democratic citizens demonstrating British Values. The results of our school vote will be in soon ready to share our top priorities!