Students in post 16 were visited during the election build up by a group born out of a collaboration between the National Downs Syndrome Policy Group, Disability Cornwall and the IoS and Talk More Cornwall CIC.  The aim of this work both with the group and later in school was to give the students, any of whom were older enough to vote for the first time, the knowledge and skills needed to make informed decisions, learn more about how elections work and begin to understand why young people should care about elections. 

The group bought in a polling, voting slips and a ballot box, allowing students to experience what they can expect at a polling station when they go to vote.

In class, students learned what a manifesto is and the kinds of things that they might hear spoken about in the run-up to the general election.

They debated ideas and chose the things that they thought were most important as issues that they would like our politicians to address.

During the lead up to the election, the group spoke to 125 adults and young people, including some of our friends from Pencalenick School.  Most importantly, this had an effect on voter numbers, shown in this picture of our very own Liddy proudly casting her vote at her local polling station!