Friends’ School Saffron Walden hosted a talk from a member of the House of Lords on Friday 2nd March to encourage students to engage more with the political and parliamentary process.
Baroness McIntosh met with Year 11 and Sixth Form students for an hour to talk about the work and role of the House of Lords. This was followed by a question and answer session on various aspects of the parliamentary process and life at Westminster generally.
Gill Kinnear, Head of English and Assistant Head of Sixth Form said, “This was a fantastic opportunity for our students to interact with someone who knows the parliamentary system inside out, as it can sometimes seem far removed from their daily lives.” Elizabeth Moen, a Sixth Former at Friends’ commented it was “very interesting, especially from an historical point of view, in terms of how the House of Lords has evolved. After listening to the Baroness I feel that people shouldn’t think that politics and the parliamentary process is irrelevant to them, as it affects everyone”.
The visit was arranged through the Lord Speaker’s “Peers in Schools” programme, which has been running across the UK since 2007 and has so far involved around 15,000 young people. This continuing outreach programme sends members of the House of Lords into schools and colleges across the country to give talks in support of the citizenship curriculum. For further information, see the Lord Speaker’s web page at www.parliament.uk/lordspeaker.