St John Fisher Catholic College came down to the UK House of Commons as part of a visit to London recently. It was very good to have a Q&A session with them in Westminster Hall. We talked about my work as their MP, the situation in Ukraine and women's safety.
I am very keen to get as many schools in the constituency down to Westminster as possible. It is a great thing for pupils to do both on an educational level and for fun.
During the pandemic school tours and tours for the general public were stopped but I am glad that they are now back open. The usual format is a coach trip, arriving in London during the morning for a free walking tour of the Palace of Westminster. Travel costs are not covered.
Parliament’s Education Service works on behalf of both Houses of Parliament to support students and teachers in developing their understanding of Parliament and democracy. All its programmes and resources are freely available and aimed at young people aged 7-18 in formal education (see https://learning.parliament.uk/en/ for more).
The Parliament Education Service has extensive resources for schools and colleges. They can arrange school visits to Parliament, provide teacher training about citizenship and political literacy, and create resources to help teach these subjects in the classroom.
Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) can be accommodated in mainstream school tours, or special tours can be arranged for whole classes of children with SEND.
If you are a teacher and think this is something which might be of interest to your pupils, then please get in contact with me via aaron.bell.mp@parliament.uk