Today the School Council representatives attended a workshop all about the Houses of Parliament.
We were given a virtual tour of Parliament, including both houses. We learnt that there are two houses – The House of Commons and The House of Lords. We learnt that there are 650 MPs in the Houses of Commons and they are elected by the people’s vote. Everyone is allowed to vote from the age of 18. We also saw the golden chair where queen sits whenever she visits the House of Commons.
It was very interesting to find out how the laws are passed in the parliament. Laws need to be approved by both the houses and then they are forwarded to the Queen as she has to sign the laws to check them.
We got a chance to do our own vote! Finley (one of the Year 4 representatives) put forward the proposal of having free ice cream for everyone on a Tuesday. We had a debate and then put his idea to a vote. If we agreed we had to say ‘aye’ and if not, we said ‘no’. Having heard all the different options, most of us voted against the proposal so the bill was not passed.
My favourite bit was when I learned about the debate in Parliament.
My favourite part was when we learnt about the Queen and the rule of the Lords.
I really enjoyed learning about the voting process.
I really liked the Parliament workshop because I learned lots of fun facts about the House of Lords and the House of Commons. I found out that the House of Commons have more power than the House of Lords. My favourite part was when I got to do a bill which was ‘Free ice cream on Tuesday’ and everyone thought that was funny. I really enjoyed it and hope you go to parliament soon. I want to go there because I want to see where the House of Lords is and sit in one of their seats! Thank you for such a brilliant experience!
Caspian: ‘I really enjoyed it! I learnt that Big Ben is a clock. I saw Parliament on the computer. I learnt what is inside the Palace. We met someone on the computer. We learnt about voting. Some people said we should have ice creams on Tuesday. Some people voted yes and more people said no. The vote didn’t pass. I liked it when we went inside the building on the computer. I would like to go there in real life.’
Indigo: ‘There are red seats and green seats. If one of the houses makes a decision the message is like ping pong – it goes back and forth until they agree. Then it goes to the Queen. Boris Johnson goes to the Houses of Parliament in the green house, he also brings his helpers and they come and sit at the front. I really enjoyed it!’
Our favourite part was the Queen’s chair and learning about the voting.