Teacher leads the way as pupils discover democracy

Amy Duke, who leads year 6 classes at the Ribbon School in Murton, has been become a gold standard accredited UK Parliament Teacher Ambassador award in recognition of the work she has done to educate the next generation about how democracy works.

Now the youngsters are preparing to visit the House of Parliament for themselves next month as part of a visit to the capital.

It comes after they took part in a project which saw the school dissolve its school council and elect members to its own parliament and lords - with headteacher Ashleigh Sheridan its monarch.

Mrs Sheridan said: “We have been looking at the role of parliament and how we can relate that to what goes on in school, democracy and how we can promote that.

“It’s helped them understand how it operates in school and how decisions are made and how everybody can have their say, as well as what we have here in school is replicated on a different basis elsewhere.
“We are so proud of Miss Duke.

“She was absolutely thrilled and has been putting in a lot of hard work into this.

“We mentioned it on Facebook and a lot of our parents left really positive comments.”

Now Miss Duke, who has also been sharing information with her colleagues at the Barnes Road School, is to act as a mentor to other teachers on the programme and will be visiting Westminster in July when she shares her experiences and advice with others following in her footsteps.

In the meantime, a visit to the House of Parliament has been arranged with the help of Easington MP Grahame Morris.

Lord Shipley, a Liberal Democrat peer, is to also visit the school to talk to children about his career and answer questions.