We arrived at Forest School at around 8:40 where we were met by a prefect who took us to the room where we stayed for the day. On the board there were some skills eg problem solving, creativity and leadership. The teacher asked us to come up with a definition of each and share with the rest of the room our best definition.
Then we were given a sheet which had the statement that there should be a £20 fine for people who don’t vote, and we were told to argue against the statement. We were given some facts and wrote down our main points and arguments. Each member of our group got a role and we had a debate against two other schools.
Then we had a quiz about parties and their policies and we evaluated the positives and negatives of each party’s policies on health, crime and education. Then we were asked to choose our favourite policies or come up with other policies we thought were important.
We were then asked to create our own political party with a name, logo, slogan and policies. During this process we were also taught the importance of having a memorable name and logo that stands out from the rest and how this affects the success of publicising and gaining votes in a campaign.
After finalising all our ideas we were asked to create a campaign stall similar to one you would usually find in a regular campaign. Once set up, we started the campaign. We were all given a sheet with numbers 1-7 on them and in each box next to them we had to write the name of the party and once all parties had campaigned we voted on our favourite party. We really enjoyed putting together our campaign and although we only got three votes we still had a brilliant time and learnt a lot, it was a really good experience.
We learned a lot about parties, their policies and how they get recognition through campaigns.
By Honor and Katy, 10B
