Politics Question Time
.jpg)
Just before the Christmas break, the 6th Form held a Politics Question Time event to promote political literacy and democratic participation whilst tackling some of the important issues of the day!
Ex-Tupton Hall student, Green Party Local Councillor and prospective parliamentary candidate for North East Derbyshire Frank Adlington-Stringer joined the Year 12 A-Level Politics group to talk about his journey into politics and answer questions around voting systems and the role and influence of political parties.
This was followed by a lunch with Housing Minister and Conservative MP for North-East Derbyshire, Lee Rowley, Frank and Ross Shipman (Councillor for the Liberal Democrats) where debate raged over the UK government's response to the conflict in Gaza.
For the main event, Lee, Frank and Ross were joined by Labour MP for Chesterfield and Shadow Rural Affairs Minister, Toby Perkins for Question Time. Questions came from the audience covering a wide range of current topics ranging from the growth in use of food banks to the government's Rwanda policy and the responsibility of politicians to not inflame tensions through their use of language.
With an audience consisting of the whole of 6th form and some Year 11 students, the debate was lively! A-Level Politics students Jess Siddall and Henry Percival did an excellent job of chairing the discussion. Many of our students wished to continue the debate after the end of the event and so an impromptu breakout discussion continued with Lee, Ross and Frank discussing specific issues in depth with small groups of students. The respectful nature and quality of debate, despite these being passionately held views, demonstrated the value of person-to-person debate key to democratic societies.