As much as I love LEGO and jigsaw puzzles, it was a treat to swap year two’s play afternoon for a trip to County Hall’s debating chamber for our most recent pupil parliament meeting. Two representatives from every primary school in Rushcliffe were in attendance and brought with them notes from discussions that had happened back in their classrooms.
This time there were two themes. The first was how best to tackle the ongoing climate emergency where inspiration and information were very skillfully delivered by a guest speaker from Greenpeace. We talked about global temperatures, habitat destruction and our every growing consumption. Schools shared what they have done to help tackle these issues. Mrs Ballard’s assemblies on palm oil and deforestation in Borneo showed just how aware we were. Copies of Greta Thunberg’s speeches were on offer as prizes but since we were unlucky, I couldn’t resist ordering our own school copy of Amazon. It’ll be with us on Monday!
The second topic of debate was school uniform. For this session, the children each shared their views on the timeless issue that everyone seems to have an opinion on. I was impressed with how well the children listened to one another rather than just forcing their point across regardless of whether or not it had already been covered. If the future of the planet is in the hands of these children, then things are finally looking up…
And they voted to keep school uniforms.
