Year 10 Democracy & Law Day

Year 10 debate, engage and have their say…

On Monday 12th January Selby High School hosted its first ever Democracy and Law Day.  All our Year 10 students were brought off their normal timetable for the event and took part in a series of workshops throughout the day. 

Selby High School was both pleased and enormously privileged to collaborate with a range of different partners in order to host this event, which included Selby Town and District Councils, UK Youth Parliament, University of York Debating Society, UK Parliamentary Education Service, University of Law and our former Subject Leader for PSHEE and Citizenship Mike Dobson.  

The main aims of the day were to help our students have a greater understanding about the importance and significance of democracy, particularly in the UK and what can happen in the absence of such processes both at home and in the wider world.  Furthermore, how can and indeed will, democracy affect them now and in the near future and why does it matter so much that they are fully engaged with politics.  Given that we are now in a General Election year, this event bore even greater significance, especially given the debate surrounding lowering the voting age to 16 in the United Kingdom.

Working in groups the students had around 25 minutes to spend in each workshop on a range of group activities and debating sessions, as well as the opportunity for Q&A with each of our visitors, in order to tap into the specialist knowledge and expertise that each one of them brought to the event in their respective roles.  Student participation and engagement was excellent and many of them thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to debate and express their own thoughts and opinions on a range of topical issues. 

“For me the best part of each session was when the students took part in a House of Commons style debate.  Not only did this help to bring the atmosphere of the debating chamber to life, it also enabled groups to discuss such topics as - bringing back the death sentence; lowering the legal driving age to 16; and removing the age classifications on films and computer games.” 

Diane Hedditch, Education Outreach Officer, Houses of Parliament    

With both students and our visitors alike thoroughly enjoying the day and giving some fantastic feedback, the event was a huge success and an exceedingly thought provoking one for everybody involved.   

It just remains to say a massive thank you to all our visitors for taking the time and effort to provide our students with this excellent opportunity, as part of their Citizenship studies at Key Stage 4.  We look forward to welcoming them back next year for some post-election debate!     

Dr Paul O’Gorman
Curriculum Area Leader - PSHEE & C