BLESSED ARE THE POLITICIANS

10 September 2009

Yesterday (Thursday) Stafford’s MP David Kidney spent the school day at Blessed William Howard High School helping Year 7 pupils with their citizenship studies. The MP agreed to spend a day there taking part in a special start-of-school study for the school’s newest pupils.

David Kidney says it was a long and hectic day but well worth the effort:

“Every one of the new Year 7 pupils was studying citizenship in 10 classes and I was asked to get round all ten groups in the day. The theme of the day’s study was why voting matters and my involvement was to explain the work of an MP.

“In each classroom I set out what my work is like as an MP and then answered questions posed by the pupils themselves. They asked a range of questions from how to become an MP to detailed questions about policies affecting Britain and affecting Stafford in particular.

“I was one of the Parliamentarians who pressed for a compulsory citizenship curriculum, which was achieved in 2001. I firmly believe that studies like those I witnessed at Blessed William Howard help lay the foundations for every citizen to understand about morality, community support and political action.

“I congratulate the teachers and support staff who organised the day, especially teacher Amy Clinton who made all the arrangements. All the pupils I met were attentive, well-behaved and apparently interested in knowing what an MP does. By the end of the day I was physically tired from all the rushing from class to class, my throat was hoarse from all the talking but I felt a glow of satisfaction in the knowledge I had taken part in a successful day’s citizenship education”.