As part of our Focus Week, we marked ‘International Day of Democracy’. As a school we know it is imperative for all young people to have an awareness of democracy and how this applies to the country we live in.
Along with a team of students, Emma Mackenzie, our Head Girl, delivered a series of assemblies for each House, exploring what democracy means and looking at the key issues that face young people such as housing, university fees and the rise of fake news on social media. Students also worked through an activity on the US Presidential election in tutor time, consider how this is important to us in the UK.
One exciting part of this Focus Week was our school referendum: ‘Should the voting age be lowered to 16 ?’ Many parents took part in this, with hundreds of students filing through our polling station during lunch times. Every student had the opportunity to take a polling card and post their vote. Certainly, the numbers of parents and students who took part only served to emphasise how significant this issue is.
The referendum result saw 245 students vote: with 163 voting for the change to 16, and 82 voted for it to remain at 18. However, the older generation – our parents / guardians – cast 126 votes and were overwhelmingly in favour of the voting age remaining at 18.
Emma Mackenzie, Head Girl, said: “I have written a letter to the MP for Lichfield, Paul Robertson, to inform him of our findings. As Head Girl, I support the vote of my peers and supporting the lowering of the voting age. Essentially, if an election takes place when I am in Year 13, my peers and I will have no voice on decisions that will see me gather £10ks of student debt over the parliament, face an inability to get onto the housing ladder, and a lack of graduate level jobs. Perhaps if 16 years olds were allowed to vote then these sort of issues would be addressed as a priority.”
