Pupils at South Lincolnshire Academies Trust hold mock election in Bourne, Spalding, Donington and Boston — with Reform UK emerging victorious

Election fever gripped students at four secondary schools last week.

Pupils at the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust might have been too young to cast their vote in the General Election but they were able to take part in a mock ballet on Thursday last week.

Youngsters from Spalding Academy, Bourne Academy, Cowley Academy in Donington and the Giles Academy near Boston were split into 17 constituencies within the exercise.

A trust statement explained “We gave the opportunity for students to choose to vote from six political parties, which were represented by 19 exceptional students from the SLAT Sixth Form at Bourne Academy to provide a test of their debating and presentation skills.

“The Sixth Formers were split across the different parties and travelled to all four schools in the trust to take part in 17 live hustings that were held in front of each year group where they could campaign on various issues and manifesto pledges.

“The topics of ‘national service for 18-year olds’ and ‘allowing over 16s to vote’ sparked lively discussions among the students and they were keen to find out the financial and green credentials for each party. This encouraged students to discuss the issues that mattered to them and our society.

“As well as the campaigning done by our Sixth Formers, students cited that that had taken notice of political information from other sources such as social media, YouTube, TikTok, mainstream media, leaflets in the post as well as conversation within their social groups.

“It was encouraging to see that students across all years and in all schools had voted for all of the political parties on offer. The overall majority across the Trust was for Reform UK with the Green Party coming a close second place. It was interesting the three main political parties were not the most popular choices amongst under 16s and it shows that these parties have work to do if they want to engage with future young voters.”

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