Primary 6/7 at Rothesay Primary School have been working on a top secret challenge over the past few weeks. They have been receiving challenges and tasks from a secret organisation called MSB – Making Scotland Better. These tasks were to encourage the class to learn about elections and Scottish Parliament, to work with the local community to identify areas of Bute they wished to improve or change and to set up political parties to get these changes put in place.


The class have had a really successful time working together to research what they could do to make changes on Bute. They have contacted the local councillors and the provost who came in to talk to them about their jobs, they also had a visit from a parent who used to work in the Scottish Parliament which gave them a flavour of what working in politics was like.










After carrying out their market research, the class took the top 4 priorities and set up political parties based on these. The parties were:
MFB – Making Ferries Better – campaigning to decrease ferry fares, speed up ferry travel and encourage visitors to come to the island.
Canine Crusaders – campaigning to try to tackle the ongoing problem of dog mess on the island.
CIA – Children in Activities – trying to set up youth clubs and activities for children and young people at nights.
Llama Liscious – campaigning to clean up the buildings in Rothesay to make the town look brighter, cheerier and more welcoming for visitors and residents.

After a good campaign with manifestos written, political broadcasts filmed and aired and all classes in the school encouraged to think about their top priorities, the P6/7 class had an election on Friday 29th May. All the pupils and staff in Rothesay Primary were invited and they had 267 voters. A fantastic turnout!

After independent pupils counted the votes, the results were announced at house assembly. The MFB Party had piped everyone to the post to win by 3 votes! They were delighted and vowed to put their points across to Calmac to try and improve ferry travel for Bute!




Phew! What a challenge but they succeeded in style! Well done P6/7!

Rhona Watson, Class Teacher