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GCSE pupils tackle the EU Referendum debate at Leeds Beckett politics day
With help from a team of local councillors, around 85 Year 10 pupils from schools in the region (Mount St Mary’s, Allerton High, Roundhay, Cardinal Heenan, Lawnswood, Farnley and St Thomas à Becket), attended the ‘Politics Matters’ day at the University’s Headingley Campus.
On arrival, the pupils took part in their own European Union (EU) referendum, with 69 out of 77 of the pupils voting to remain in the EU.
Throughout the day, the pupils gained detailed insight from the Politics and Applied Global Ethics (PAGE) teaching team at Leeds Beckett into the Brexit debate, with PAGE students presenting a debate on the motion: ‘This house believes that the UK government is not doing enough to help in dealing with the European migration crisis'. The pupils voted in favour of the motion.
They were then given tips on how to prepare a campaign strategy before forming groups and putting together their own strategies for leaving or remaining within the EU. Helping them were local politicians Jonathan Bentley, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Weetwood, Sharon Hamilton, Labour Councillor for Moortown, Alex Sobel, Labour Councillor for Moortown, and Dawn Collins, Conservative Councillor for Horsforth.
At the end of the day, a panel of judges, including the PAGE staff and Councillor Jonathan Bentley, declared Mount St Mary’s the winning team for their remain campaign, based on the quality of their strategies and presentation.
Speaking at the event, Dr Paul Wetherly, Reader in Politics at Leeds Beckett, said: “The students have all been very enthusiastic to talk about politics today and the referendum really is about their future as much as everybody else’s. It’s very important to engage them in the discussion and for them to understand what the referendum is all about.
“It is part of our work to engage with schools to get pupils thinking about politics, perhaps to go on to study it at university but, more than that, to get them engaged in politics because they’re not studying it at school at this age and it is part of our role as a university to engage the people in our community and schools in politics and show them how it is important in their lives.”
Councillor Sharon Hamilton added: “The children I’ve met today are very clued up and very interested. I think it’s a good thing for young people in schools to be taught politics and have their own debate because this sets them for the future. At the moment, out there in the community, there are a lot of people who are not interested in politics, who don’t even register to vote, because they’ve never been taught about politics. So, from a young age, if you get involved then you can form your own opinion and get involved.”