On Thursday 12 December 2019, the nation will go to the polls in the general election to vote for a new Government. Your students may not be able to vote, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be involved and have a voice in this important democratic process.
Why not hold a parallel general election in your class or school? After your election, First News wants to know your results. We will aggregate all your pupils’ votes to get a wider picture of the opinions of young people in the UK. You can enter your pupil votes below.
What is a parallel general election? A parallel election simply means that it uses real political parties, live policies and manifestos related to real knowledge and issues. A mock election, on the other hand, can have made up parties and be based on polices and manifestos on things students decide rather than local, national and global issues.
To help you run a parallel election in school there are lots of resources available from First News Education and our partners.
Association of Citizenship Teaching (ACT)
i) Parallel Election Teaching resource
ii) Briefing for schools on teaching political education and maintaining impartiality
ii) Online CPD – Election Special, 3 Dec 4.30-5.30pm
Join an online webinar with experienced teachers for advice, tips and ideas about how to bring the election to life for pupils in your school.
EducateGE
EducateGE is a collaboration between 24 democratic organisations who have come together to support schools and educators to engage young people in the 2019 general election. At EducateGE you can download resources to help prepare for a parallel election in school, including one-page summaries of the political parties’ manifestos. Everything on the site it free and non-partisan.
First News Education
i) How does an election work? a First News Special Report
ii) Should the voting age be lowered to 16? an Activity Sheet debate resource
After your election
i) Add your pupils’ votes to the First News general election 2019 poll
ii) We would also like to know which issues concern young people most. Please can each pupil vote on which topic they are most concerned about. Count up the votes for each topic. You will be asked to enter them when you enter your general election results.
- Affordable housing
- Animal cruelty
- Brexit
- Crime and policing
- Defence (national security and terrorism)
- Environment/pollution
- Health (doctors, hospitals and dentists)
- International aid
- International relations
- Job chances
- Lowering the voting age to 16 instead of 18
- Mental health
- Refugee crisis
- Schools
- Transport (roads, public transport)
- University, apprenticeships
