Parliament Week Activities

In 3V recently we have been learning all about the role of Parliament in the United Kingdom, and how the electoral process works.  This afternoon, we held a mock election.  

Each of the children designed their own manifesto with election pledges - there were many inventive ideas, including promises to limit plastic waste, introduce compulsory swimming lessons, promote kindness to animals and abolish wars and homelessness. 

Each table group acted as a constituency, with each child promoting their own party in a brief election hustings.  At the end of each debate the children in the rest of the class had to vote for their favoured candidate, who was duly elected MP for their constituency.

We then held a final contest between all the MPs, with the winner elected by secret ballot as Prime Minister for the class for the rest of the day.  

Although this isn't quite how a real general election works, it gave the children a flavour of the election process, and an insight into how political parties promote their policies and achieve election success.