A LOCAL election and a debate on the Scottish referendum were the topics of the day when an Earley primary school visited the council chambers last week.
Year 4 pupils from Hillside Primary, in Rushey Way, visited the civic offices in Shute End on Friday where they met town mayor Parry Batth and learnt all about local democracy.
The children even had the chance to take part in their own election, with council officers setting up polling stations for the two ‘constituencies’ and counting the votes.
Electoral services officer Julie Kent, who helped organise the day, said: “The pupils visited the chambers as part of Local Democracy Week, a national event which takes place every year so the school asked if they could come and visit the chambers.
“The school has its own parliament so they held elections for the class representatives. We set up polling stations and counted the votes, and the two winners had their photo taken with the mayor.
“They also had a debate on whether Scotland should leave the UK. Some of the reasons they were giving were really funny, one child said it shouldn’t leave because otherwise we would have to get a plane to Scotland!
“It was a great day, the children were so well-behaved and asked some really interesting questions. I think we were buzzing as much as the children!”
