School Snap Election
Pupils at the Royal Alexandra and Albert School have snapped into action to experience an election.
A Year 10 GCSE Citizenship class at the School experienced first-hand the full election process, from electing leaders to the declaration of the results. Pupils were split into six groups to represent the six big political parties: Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green, SNP and UKIP.
Once pupils were assigned their parties, they elected a leader, created a manifesto, and delivered speeches to win the votes of their peers. As part of their campaigns, pupils also created all of their promotional materials and party rosettes. After speeches from the candidates were heard, pupils then cast their votes. For the GCSE class, Labour were the winners, followed closely by the Liberal Democrats.
The nature of the snap election meant pupils had to act quickly, with little time to organise their campaigns and write speeches. By taking part in an election, it is hoped pupils will not only learn more about the process that leads to a new Prime Minister, but also have a greater understanding of the proposed policies of the six leading parties.
Hannah Ashton, Social Science teacher at the School, explained the importance of bringing an election to the classroom, “With worryingly high numbers of young people not registered to vote, we thought it was important to show our students how much their voices matter. We chose to hold our own snap election to firstly show them how quick and easy it is to register to vote and also to support them to unpick the process of choosing a party to represent them. We hope that by holding our own election, our students will feel confident in engaging in democracy when they are able to vote.”
