Polling Day

When elections occur, Year Five children form four parties and present their manifestos to the school. The presentations are normally well researched and communicated and the children enjoy playing the part of the politician.

For real elections our hall is used as a polling station, so we take the opportunity to use the authentic equipment. Children from Year 1 through to Year 6 will have the chance to experience using a voting booth by placing their votes. We even do postal votes for children who are on an educational visit.

We are always very impressed by the children’s understanding of the democratic process and their responsibility to vote, which they always take very seriously.

In our last election, after the results were verified and counted, the winning party was the Green Party. The Green Party’s manifesto was that the children could have a creative afternoon designing and making robots out of recycled materials.

“Just a quick note to say thank you for this initiative – our boys were so excited and proud about voting!”

“We spent a good moment in the evening debating about their choices (green/blue parties) and we enjoyed involving them in the recent polls – even though we don’t vote in the UK we have been busy voting for the French president and now parliament!”

“I think this was an excellent idea — a creative, positive way to involve the children in the election and encourage their future civic engagement”