Y5 / 6 Trip To Parliament
In the early weeks of Spring 2, Y5 and Y6 went on a surprise trip to parliament. We were told two days before the trip itself but we all came prepared, with lunch at 11:30 and some snacks for the long bus journey on the C10.
On going into parliament we were given passes and headsets so that we could hear our tour guides and so we were not loud. We split into two groups - a mix of year fives and sixes and set off. First each group got a chance to visit the house of commons and view a debate happening. There were only a few MPs but it was a really cool experience.
After a few class photos, the groups came together, thanked our guides and headed to where our workshop would be held. We started off the workshop by using voting pads to answer questions about parliament. Here are some facts we learnt:
That anyone could be nominated to be a Lord or Baroness
If politicians agree they say ‘here here’ and if they don’t ‘no no’
The queen visits once a year
There are no nails in the big hall to hold the roof up!
Then we had our own debate about whether we thought smoking should be banned. Aran took the chair’s position and when we wanted to give our view we had to bob up and down. The best part was saying ‘here here’ and ‘no no’ if we agreed or not. At the end we did a vote if we thought that we should ban smoking. The majority was for it and so the proposition was sent to the house of lords, then back to the house of commons and then to the Queen to stamp.
We thanked the staff, and headed across to the bus. Unfortunately at first, the bus was half full and so those who had a club did not come aboard. However, the walk along the river presented itself to be rather nice, the sun was shining and we had lots of energy still. It was a great and factual trip and everyone enjoyed it very much.
Here is what some of the students said:
Mia- It was very interesting and I loved doing the quiz on parliament in the workshop
Audrey- It was cool to see a real debate in the house of commons about Welsh affairs.
Joanna- The tour was very informative and everyone was very friendly.