Frome Valley Elections!
On May 7th, as the country voted in the General Election, Frome Valley First School children also voted in our Mock Elections. This was the culmination of a week of presenting manifestos and campaigning!
The Election Campaign
Three Year 4 children volunteered to run as candidates after the Year 4 class spent the morning learning about elections and our country's electoral system. There were 3 colour parties: the yellow party, the red party and the blue party. Each party leader had a badge as well as their 3 party members that helped them with their campaign!
The 3 candidates were given a set of instructions on how to run their campaign. These instructions included how to create their manifesto and campaigning rules!
The 3 candidates presented their manifestos to the whole school in a special assembly. Children were allowed to ask them questions about their pledges. There were some interesting pledges such as a skateboard park and longer playtimes!
The candidates could campaign during break and lunch times, telling the chidlren about their campaign pledges and hopefully securing votes!
All children in the school were given polling cards, based on the design of real polling cards. On the day of the elections, children brought their polling cards to the polling station. Year 3 children were in charge of the polling station and checked off each child's name (to ensure noone voted twice!) and gave them their voting slip. All children them went into the individual polling booths to vote.
At the end of election day, we all gathered in the hall to announce the results. THe whole school discussed what they had learnt from the process. It was interesting to ask the children how they had chosen which candidate to vote for. Many children were swayed by the manifestos though the Reception children often voted for their favourite colour!!
The Election Manifestos
Photos of the Election Campaign and Election Day