King’s Bruton pupils are enthusiastically engaging with the General Election

June 3rd 2024

King’s Bruton pupils are enthusiastically engaging with the General Election...

Monday’s School Assembly saw five L6^th Form A Level Politics pupils run us through key features of the election. Alexina did a superb job at explaining why this election especially matters, both from an historic perspective and also given the current geopolitical climate. It was clear how important it is that we all engage with the election. Following this, Jeevan and Harriet outlined the differences in policy for the Labour Party & Conservative Party in the following areas: the economy/spending, education, immigration, the NHS, the police & security, and energy/climate. It was important to learn the areas of notable contrast alongside the policies where there is a notable degree of overlap. Following this, Tom and Max explained how the First Past The Post (FPTP) electoral system leads to an unproportional result inside the House of Commons. The two boys got the assembled pupils to pretend to be the House of Commons - different sections of pupils were told to stand up to represent the number of seats a political party has. Then, they compared this to the percentage of the popular vote a party won. It was eye-opening to visualise how the Conservatives got 57% of the House of Commons’ seats despite only getting 44% of the popular vote. Equally, it was concerning to note how the Lib Dems got 1.7% of the House of Commons’ seats, despite winning 12% of the popular vote. My thanks to these five pupils for putting on such an informative and engaging assembly.

After internal and external exams are completed, King’s will be running our own mock election during the final week of term. It will be an exciting time as candidates pitch their party’s policies, answer questions during hustings, and, alongside their campaign managers, canvas for votes in creative ways. The results will be announced in final assembly!

Rev’d Beverly - Head of Politics