It was really inspiring to visit five of our local schools to mark Parliament Week, an annual event to increase understanding of Parliament, our democracy and participation in public life.
The school council at Woodham Burn Primary School asked brilliant questions and were full of great ideas for adding new equipment to the playground. After our meeting, the school council members took me on a tour of the school. The students were a real credit to our town.
The school had also run a competition for the students to pitch their ideas to me about how we can all improve the environment. I’m very grateful to the 65 students who wrote down or drew their many ideas for what we could do. From these brilliant ideas, I’ve picked three winners, who will be receiving certificates and small prizes from the parliamentary gift shop very soon!
At St Joseph’s Primary School I took questions from a number of classes in the school hall. To add some fun and give a taste of life in Parliament, I asked the pupils to ‘bob’ to ask questions rather than raise their hands – this is the tradition in the Commons that members stand up to show they’d like to speak. What followed was an energetic and enthusiastic question time! Again the questions were excellent, with the young people showing real concern about a wide range of issues and coming up with lots of ideas for improving our town and wider world.
At Elemore Hall special school in Chilton, the students in the junior leadership team showed me round the school, so I could meet and take questions about Parliament and democracy from a range of classes. It was great to hear about the work happening at the school to involve young people in democracy – shaping ideas for the changes they want to see.
I also had wonderful visits to Ferryhill School, where I took questions from year 10 about a wide range of issues and to Dean Bank Primary School to meet the pupils there.
All of the visits showed just how interested young people in our communities are in the world around them. I was struck by their motivation to make a difference and to powerful ideas they had to improve their schools and society more broadly. Really inspiring and I look forward to continuing to encourage young people to have their voices heard as I visit schools throughout the year.
In other news, the Labour government has delivered its Budget for this year. I was particularly pleased to see full compensation announced for members of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme which affects many of us locally. I’ve been campaigning on this since my election, both in the House of Commons and privately with ministers, so I’m really proud to see a good resolution for members of the Scheme.
It was also good to see measures in the Budget to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, which I know has been having a huge impact on people in our area. Because of steps taken by the Chancellor, an average of £150 will be taken off the cost of household energy bills. I’m also really pleased that the Labour government have frozen prescription charges and rail fares, and have expanded free breakfast clubs to save more families more money, putting more money in families’ pockets.