This year Dartford Grammar School for Girls are taking part in a whole school election and politics a-level class are taking the lead. I interviewed a student in year 12 who is taking part in this.
When asked how she has been preparing for our school election she said ‘ We have made individual presentations and speeches to be given in form time and assembly, and have been working on posters to put around the school to advertise our campaign’. I have seen some of the posters around the school and they have clear messages of what each party believe in. Every student was allowed to choose any party the wanted and the student told me about her experiences choosing ‘ I was torn between supporting labour and lib-dems but chose lib-dems because they are more centre than the other parties and I admire them having a woman as a leader to combat the misogyny in politics’.
I also asked about what this student wants to do in the future and why she took politics and she said ‘ I want to become an MP representing the party that I would support at the time, as well as my local constituency’. Finally, I wanted to know why the school election is so important to her and for our generation ‘ I think it’s important that young people have an awareness that there are options in politics as we are seen as a two-party system and the smaller parties such as the lib-dems are pushed to the side’. She also commented on women in politics ‘ Politics is a very male-dominated industry and environment so by introducing some kind of awareness for women it may create more voter apathy in the future.’
