On Wednesday 27th November, we were very pleased to welcome representatives of the five major political parties for a hustings with our Year 12 and Year 13 students. Sitting MP, Graham Jones (Labour), Sara Britcliffe (Conservative), Gregory Butt (Brexit Party), Kerry Gormley (Green Party – representing Katrina Brockbank) and Beth Waller-Slack (Liberal Democrats – representing Adam Waller-Slack), took part in a one-hour long, ‘Question Time’ style debate, chaired by Headmaster, Mr Jones. There were a number of questions asked by students, on subjects as varied as Brexit, the NHS, the economy and education. Our students showed a great deal of maturity at the event and certainly weren’t afraid to ask the big questions and hold the politicians accountable. We’d like to take this opportunity to offer our thanks to all of the candidates for giving up their time so generously and being so respectful of young voters, many of whom will be voting for the very first time on December 12th.
A point of particular interest and pride for us as a school is that of the candidates standing for the five main parties, THREE of them are alumni of St Christopher's. Graham Jones, Sara Britcliffe and Katrina Brockbank all attended our school in their youth and we are very pleased to see each of them standing up to be counted in this election.
As we have done in previous elections and referenda, St Christopher’s is running a mock election in school. Student candidates have been campaigning for the last few weeks, plastering the building in posters and taking part in lively debates on a daily basis. This has been supported by our Government and Politics teacher, Miss Gittins, who has delivered a series of assemblies on the importance of taking your right to vote seriously. The results of our mock election will be posted in the ‘News’ section on December 13th and it’ll be very interesting to see if our pupils’ votes line up with the rest of the electorate’s, unlike in the 2016 EU Referendum, when they voted 52% to remain.
For some images from the recent hustings, please see below.