P5A’s Political Week…

What a busy week ‘Saving Our School!’

We heard an incredible, true story that gave us an inspirational lift this week. We watched a video of children that live in the desert region of Cholistan, Pakistan who are in a battle for their education. They are often expected to work with their family’s livestock instead of going to lessons and many girls are kept out of school completely. Even if their parents want them to go, a lot of children in Cholistan live so far away from the nearest school that it’s dangerous for them to travel there.
In 2009, the regional government announced funding for 75 schools in Cholistan. This project changed the lives of 5,500 children over five years before disaster struck: it was announced that the project would end in March 2014 and that the schools would all have to close. Even though many of their classrooms were not fully built and they had to have lessons on the dusty floor outside, the children of Cholistan loved their schools. They needed to fight back against these closures. We found this story inspirational as they were successful, fighting for their cause. In Cholistan, the media helped to make change happen. The Governor couldn’t ignore the issue as so many people were talking about it.
In a democracy, we can all help to hold leaders to account for their actions by reminding them of things they have promised to do. We explored democracy and how people take part in it. We looked at how we would fight to keep our school open and how important education is.
We created our own political parties where we had to decide on the following:
*Make up a party and decide on a name.
*Decide who will be your candidate.
*Produce a manifesto.
*Write a speech for your candidate.
*Create posters for display.
* Write a press release.
We delivered our speeches and voted today for which party we thought would be best. The political party that won was W.W.W ‘What We Want- well done!! Sophie was their candidate and they all worked really well as a team! Primary 5B were our audience and voted also, thank you so much P5B! Fantastic effort by all!!
It left us realising that we have a voice and how lucky we are to get educated daily. There are still millions of children around the world who are without access to education.

You can watch the videos that inspired us on the Action Aid website.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone! The countdown begins to Santa coming…

Mrs McCartney and P5A x ho ho ho

Things to remember:
*P5A ‘Christmas Activity Afternoon’ 1.15-3.15pm on Monday 19th December (‘party clothes’ many be brought in and your child can get changed before party.)
*St Michael’s Family Carol Service 7pm on Tuesday 20th December
*School stops for holidays on Wednesday 21st December at 3.15pm
School returns Wednesday 4th January 2017.