Visit
Eastbourne
College

Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen

St Andrew’s hosted a talk from a member of the House of Lords last week to encourage students to engage more with the political and parliamentary process.  Lord Dholakia, who is the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords and one of the most senior Asian politicians in Britain, met with our Year 8 pupils for an hour to talk about the work and role of the House of Lords. This was followed by a question and answer session on various aspects of the parliamentary process and life at Westminster generally. Lord Dholakia said ‘the greatest ambition of people abroad is the British education system’.
 
The visit was arranged through the Lord Speaker’s “Peers in Schools” programme, which has been running across the UK since 2007 and has so far involved around 50,000 young people.  This continuing outreach programme sends members of the House of Lords into schools and colleges across the country to give talks in support of the citizenship curriculum.  For further information, see the Lord Speaker’s web page at www.parliament.uk/lordspeaker