Springfield Elections

June 2017

To tie in with the General Elections and to understand how the democracy porcess works, all children in school were given a challenge of spending £500 on a project for and within the school grounds.

Teams of between 2 and 6 children were asked to think of an idea which would improve the outdoor area, write up a proposal in the form of a manifesto and present it to the shortlisiting team. The shortlisting team who comprised of Mrs Nasim (HT), Mrs Maskell (DHT), Mr Brown (Sports coach) and Mrs Buchannan (governor) then considered each teams proposal.

Five teams went through to the final round. Each team produced posters and campaigned throughout the week including presenting their ideas at a whole school assembly and then on the final day of hustings each team leader had to face a barrage of questions about their proposal during Leaders Question Time.

During the voting day the returning officers, Mrs Marshall and Mrs Crawford made sure that every school member got one vote. We borrowed the ballot booths and ballot box from Burnley Town Hall and made sure everything was just like a political election.

After each pupil, staff member, parent and passing Governor had voted the returning officers carefully counted each single vote, not once or twice but four times to make sure that the right team won.

It was a tense wait for the results and everyone one in school was on tenterhooks.