Challenge Day: A Day in Politics at Dairy Meadow Primary
The School: Dairy Meadow
Now in their third year as an Enabling Enterprise Partner school, the students, staff and teachers at Dairy Meadow are passionate about enterprise education. Headteacher Arjinder Sunner also spoke at last year’s Enabling Enterprise Celebration Evening, explaining what the enterprise skills mean for his students.
In the last academic year, Dairy Meadow students put all their Problem Solving skills to the test in a whole-school Crime Scene Investigation and continued developing key enterprise skills, such as Sharing Ideas and Using Imagination, through Lesson-Time Projects. Reception students are now also involved in the new Early Years projects, including setting up their own pop-up bakeries in the ‘Brilliant Bakes’ project!
Today’s Challenge Day was helping to get the school year off to a super-skilled start on just the second day of the new term, as Dairy Meadow stepped into the world of politics…
The Challenge: A Day in Politics
With a focus on British values and democracy, students were challenged to set up their very own political parties from scratch, devising manifestos, generating campaign materials and ultimately presenting at hustings before a final ballot!
It was clear from the outset that all teams were full of ambition when they tackled some of the biggest issues in our society, most notably the education sector, healthcare and environmental concerns. The students’ sound knowledge of the British political system was particularly impressive as they were able to share their knowledge on the goings-on inside the Houses of Parliament and exchange their views on current affairs with great maturity.
Throughout the day, the aspiring politicians clearly demonstrated they meant serious business, with KS2 students demonstrating fantastic reasoning and confidence as they debated some ‘hot topics’ with passion, insight and respect. They also showed amazing knowledge on current affairs and environmental issues, which led to them producing high-quality manifestos. In KS1, they explored democracy further and took part in a series of votes. Year 1 students were also tasked with tackling some of the biggest issues in their own school, as they grappled with how to give their teachers a break from teaching to enjoy a coffee, and how to keep Mr Sunner’s desk tidy and free from chocolate wrappers!!
Once their newly-formed political policies were set up with promotional stash and persuasive speeches, it was time for the young politicians to convince their peers why they should win the all-important election that concluded their busy enterprising day. It was striking from the very first speaker that these students possessed great understanding of their task and had the confidence to Share their Ideas clearly with the rest of the class, who Listened Carefully before deciding who would win their vote.
“I have been really impressed with their ideas and, most importantly, how well they’ve listened to others’ ideas. It’s great to hear them having serious discussions in such a mature way” – Teacher, Year 2
“You should vote for our party because we have listened to the people and we are going to do everything we can to make this world a better place.” – Student, Year 6
“I wasn’t sure how much some of the younger children would know but they showed great knowledge and have really taken the new ideas on board.” – Headteacher
“I love having the power to make a difference!” – Student, Year 4