Today the School Council went on a special trip to the Houses of Parliament. We were very excited to go!
We were welcomed by Ewan who told us that the Houses of Parliament are where all the MPs decide on all the new rules for the country and we realised that we are like the MPs for St Vincent’s as we are elected by our classes and meet each week to share ideas.
We started with a film about the history of Parliament. This covered about 800 years of British history so there was lots of interesting information to learn. Did you know that they often spoke French and that is where our word ‘parliament’ comes from. Parler means to talk in French, and they were meeting to talk about how to make things better for everyone!
Then we were taken to the Houses of Parliament. As we were walking, we spotted lots of dents and holes in the building. These were from bombs that were dropped on London during the wars. It was incredible to see them. We were then taken to Westminster hall. You might recognise this hall from the Queen’s lying in state. There is now a plaque marking the place where she lay. It is also where lots of important speeches are made and when Henry VIII lived in the Houses of Parliament (before he moved to Hampton Court because the 1000 rooms weren’t enough for him!), he played tennis and even roasted meat during large feasts. You can see the wood in the ceiling is different colours from where the heat burnt them!
Ewan explained the difference between the House of Lords and the House of Commons. We were so lucky because we were able to visit both and sit in the galleries while debates were taking place. We learnt all about the role of the speaker and how there are strict rules about what MPs can say to ensure that their debates stay polite!
We then had a very special visitor, our own MP! Nickie Aiken is the MP for Cities of London and Westminster and came to speak to us to tell us all about her role and what she does for Westminster. Nickie is the first women to have the role of MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, which is impressive as it is the third oldest one!
During our tour we also got to see the ‘Votes for Women’ scarf that Emily Davidson (a suffragette) tried to put on the King’s horse in 1913 when she was protesting for women to get the right to vote. We learnt that some women were able to vote in 1918 and that men and women had equal voting rights in 1928.
It was a very interesting day and we felt very inspired to be in the place where decision about the running of our country are made. We learnt so much but we left with even more questions! Nickie said that she can visit our school so that she has more time to answer them all!
Well done School Council, you represented the school excellently on the trip today!
It looks like you guys had so much fun !
You guys look like you had an amazing time.
What a brilliant trip! Year 2 will be so excited to hear all about it from our class representatives. We’ll have to think of even more questions to ask, if Nickie has the chance to come to visit us.
The Parliament was really fun! We learned a lot about the Parliament and the old days. We saw lots of statues. I liked sitting on the green bench.We ate lunch in the creativity room. After the trip we ate a snack.
I learnt at the Parliament that Emily Wilding Davison was the lady who fought for woman to get the vote.
We had such a fun trip- thank you! I learnt a lot about King Charles the first, and how unpopular he was. He was even thrown out of the House of Commons!
This is an incredible opportunity or our school!