Commonweal school pupils, Sophie Daniels and Sadie Ball met this week with Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for South Swindon Heidi Alexander and Council Leader Jim Robbins as part of the Send My Friend to School campaign.
The two pupils travelled to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday to speak with politicians as part of their campaign to ensure that all children across the world, no matter where they live, can go to school. The focus of the campaign this year is ensuring that education is available in humanitarian emergencies and that the UK provides appropriate financial support to enable this.
Commenting on the meeting, Sophie said: “It was good to be able to chat to Heidi and Jim, as well as other politicians at the conference. We’ve been working on this campaign for the last few months and so it was important to speak to people who might be able to make decisions about this in the future.”
Sadie added: “It was a long day but we enjoyed seeing what happens at a party conference. It was really busy and there were lots of people there but given the work we have done in our own school and at Lethbridge primary school, we wanted to make sure other people knew how much we cared about it.”
Heidi Alexander said: “The Send My Friend to School campaign is such an important initiative as it opens young people’s eyes to the situation for children in other parts of the world and helps them understand how decisions taken by politicians in one country can impact upon lives in another.
When I was an MP in South East London, I always took time to speak to school children who were participating in this campaign. It’s vital young people are educated about global affairs and political processes and so I was delighted to meet with Sophie and Sadie. They were great ambassadors for their school, their campaign and for Swindon.”
Lottie O’Brien, teacher at The Commonweal School said: “An important part of education is understanding how our democratic process works, so young people feel confident they can contact the people who represent them and have their voice heard. It is easy for young people to believe that world issues are something beyond them that they can do little to change, but part of education is to empower them so they understand they can shape a more just and sustainable world. We are very proud of Sadie and Sophie for all their efforts during this campaign.”
