Katie and I attended a conference of youth council representatives from across Orkney. This required some to stay over the night before, some to travel by boat and some to fly in that day – in all, around 100 attended. The council is keen to establish Scottish Youth Parliament representatives and was approached by two young people who expressed an interest and they later spoke to the organisers. I had the opportunity to meet with Alex Leonard, the genius illustrator of the cartoons we use – and to take part in his workshop as part of the event.
We visited Papdale Primary School and met with a small group of around 10 pupils who manage the playground through organising a number of activities for pupils – I expect they will forward details as part of a right brilliant thing. The school were due to vote the next day and had set up a polling station in the main entrance to the school. The headteacher gave very strong feedback on the materials and in particular, the website.
We visited Glaitness Primary School and witnessed several classes – 30 pupils including 5 pupils with special needs - voting in a special room decorated and set aside for the occasion. The school had used numerous exercises from the resource packs and showed us examples of these. (The pupils were obviously excited about the visit and kept appearing in the corridor when we were in discussion with the headteacher.)
Katie and I returned to the conference to catch the final session and say our thank you.