Food for thought after Stevenage pupils get a chance to propose their policies

Stilianos Rama from Bedwell School takes part in Stevenage children's parliament (Image: Archant)

Their debating session in Stevenage Borough Council’s chamber raised hot topics including wasted food in school kitchens and play facilities in the town.

Head of St Nicholas CofE Primary and Nursery School Sarah Stevens said: “It went really well.

“We had around 90 people and the council chambers were full with children and teachers.

“We opened the floor with some feedback from the mayor and council officers about how they imagined being able to support children.”

Cllr Sharon Taylor takes part in Stevenage children's parliament (Image: Archant)

After some consideration the youngsters decided on three key issues – the amount of food waste school kitchens produce, improving park and recreation facilities for children and allowing students to use clubs at schools which they don’t attend.

They suggested that all of the wasted food their schools produce should be donated to foodbanks.

Pupils will now go away and see how much waste is produced and look at ways of donating it.

To improve recreation facilities, every child at school in Stevenage will soon be polled on what they expect to see in the town’s parks.

These results will then be sent to the council for consideration.

The pupils also suggested that they should be able to use clubs in other schools which aren’t available in their own one.

They will now look at making this possible and see if it would be more practical to set up a website with information on all the different groups for everyone to use.

Sarah added: “I think the children learned an awful lot and showed that they would like to make their community better.

“They really became aware and weren’t afraid to ask for things and worked together to make it happen.

“Quite often kids from different schools don’t mix but they all worked together on this.”