Year 12 AS Government and Politics students at Dartford Grammar School For Girls found themselves in the midst of an intense political election on the 17th November as the school's annual political exercise came around once more. The political exercise, hosted by the students, was adapted this year in the honour of the upcoming General Election, and the Year 12 students were faced with presenting the policies of particular parties. The class of 12, and two students who were not part of the class, were split up into 5 parties: Conservative, Liberal Democrats, UKIP, Green, and Labour, and took part in two formal presentations and a debate, as well as the final vote.

 

After three weeks of poster designing, manifesto memorising, and presentation making, the parties were given the opportunity to speak to the entirety of the school's student body, and many of the staff, in two separate assemblies. In these assemblies they advertised their party, explaining what their policies involved and why people should vote in their favour, all in the hope of gaining the student support to push them to victory. On the Wednesday of the week long political exercise the students embarked on the task of being involved in an open question debate, which left them open to criticisms and queries from students of all years, and meant that their knowledge of their policies had to be reinforced to the point of them being used as defence mechanism if their party's statements were questioned.

 

The aftermath of the debate was that the parties had had their say in answering the questions of their prospective voters, and this led to the final vote on Thursday 20th November. The vote, held in the school's main hall, involved all year groups filling in their secret ballots to rallying cries for support for certain parties, as well as the Green party gaining more support as one of their members donned a polar bear costume in an attempt to display the party's care for the environment. In the hour after the votes were collected members of the parties counted the ballots in each box before creating the final total; the Conservatives won with a landslide 363 votes, while Labour came second with 211 votes. Following Labour was the Green Party, then UKIP, and finally the Liberal Democrats, who finished with less than 3% of the votes.

 

As a whole, the exercise encouraged many of the younger years to become interested in politics, as well as providing the Government and Politics class with experience of public speaking, advertising, and political teamwork. Comments from students after the events showed that they found the process enjoyable and interesting, and that the enthusiasm of the Politics class was infectious.
 

By Alice Middlemiss, Dartford Grammar School For Girls