The Academy at Shotton Hall has just hosted a talk from a member of the House of Lords to encourage students to become more engaged with the political and parliamentary process.
Lord Shipley met with Year 10 students for an hour to talk about the work and role of the House of Lords. This was followed by a question and answer session on various aspects of the parliamentary process and life at Westminster generally.
Lesley Powell, Executive Principal at the Academy said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for our students to interact with someone who knows the parliamentary system inside out, as it can sometimes seem far removed from their daily lives. It was a real honour and delight to be visited by Lord Shipley and everyone learned lots of insider things that we did not know about the parlimentary process."
The visit was arranged through the Lord Speaker’s Peers in Schools programme, which has been running across the UK since 2007 and has so far involved around 75,000 young people. This continuing outreach programme sends members of the House of Lords into schools/academies and colleges across the country to give talks in support of the citizenship curriculum. For further information, see the Lord Speaker’s web page at www.parliament.uk/lordspeaker