I had my regular student grilling this morning, this time at Stokesley School. We covered a range of topics included: same-sex marriage, economic development in the North, whether tough economic times mean coalition governments are a good thing, school funding, immigration and UKIP, affordable housing and youth unemployment.
It was great to see a group of students so engaged in their future and the issues of the country. The group I met with also were responsible for representing the students at school and have delivered a lot of positive change and work admirably well with the teaching staff and Head Teacher Mrs Brooker. Maybe they have some advice for aspiring politicians like me!
We also talked about the power of technology to have significant impact and the advantage of young people like them in harnessing those opportunities. I told them the story of Esha Marwaha. Esha is a 15 year old school girl who wanted to stop changes to the GCSE geography curriculum (around climate change). She used the online campaigns platform Change.org to gain awareness for her issue, and gained 31,000 signatures! That led to a meeting with Michael Gove, the then Secretary of State for Education, and she was successful in stopping the changes. Esha’s inspiring example shows perfectly how young people, using technology, can have a tremendous impact on the world around them.
Stokesley is a high performing school with 84% of students getting 5A*-C grades and 75% of students getting those good grades in subjects including English and Maths. The School is in the process of converting into an Academy. Mrs Brooker explained to me a key benefit of that for the school would be the freedom for her great teachers to adapt the curriculum to best suit the students. It would also give the school a better opportunity to collaborate with other schools. The school is lucky to benefit from a strong Board of Governors which is essential for Academies to be successful. Over time, they will be able to use even more Academy freedoms to best tailor their education to meet the needs of students and parents.