Election Hustings held at The Cotswold School

Last week, The Cotswold School hosted a hustings event for students, staff, parents and carers, ahead of the General Election on July 4. The event was a unique opportunity for students to engage directly with the candidates standing for election in the North Cotswolds constituency. Students posed questions to candidates on a range of topics that are important to them. Audience members also had the chance to hear from each candidate about their policies and vision for the future.

All local candidates in the area running for MP were invited to attend. Paul Hodgkinson, Liberal Democrats; Anna Mainwaring, Labour; Chloe Turner, Green; and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Conservative Party, took part in the afternoon of political discussion, taking questions from an impressively engaged student body.

While many of the students are not of voting age, they were keen to hear what the candidates had to say on a variety of topics including the cost of living, climate, mental health, education, internet and social media, the NHS, and issues specific to the North Cotswolds. Questions posed to the candidates included:

• The climate crisis is the greatest challenge facing humanity. How would you propose creating a sustainable future? (Blake, Year 12)
• Schools need to be able to recruit and retain high quality teachers and to afford excellent learning resources for the students. What would your party do to ensure high standards of teaching and learning? (Lotte, Year 9)
• The number of children in mental health crisis has reached record levels in England, analysis of NHS data by the mental health charity YoungMinds show. What would your party do to support young people? (Sid, Year 10)
• What do you consider to be the single most important local issue in the North Cotswold Constituency? If you are elected as MP, what would you do about this issue? (Theo, Year 9)
• What do you consider to be the single most important National/ International issue and, if your party wins the General Election, what would your party do about this issue? (Maxine, Year 12)
• What would you and your party do to ensure there are enough doctors and resources to meet increasing demand? (Oliver, Year 8)

Will Morgan, Headteacher, commented: “At The Cotswold School, we recognise that education is equally important outside of the classroom as inside, and we value educating students on the democratic process ahead of the upcoming General Election. It was a real privilege for the school to host this event where so many young people were given the opportunity to quiz party candidates.”

We are extremely grateful to the candidates for giving their time so generously.