Gillian Keegan MP spent Friday morning at Chidham Primary School to take part in their Citizenship Week. She started with a tour of the school, with the Head Teacher, Miss Claire Murphy who showed Gillian the two new classrooms built by West Sussex County Council and a further self-funded classroom.
On her tour, she spoke to some of the children who demonstrated how technology is utilised in their learning using ipads and smart boards to do projects and homework. The technology allowed the children's learning to reach out from the classroom allowing the children to ask authors questions about books they are studying on twitter, and parents to view their children's homework and progress.
Miss Murphy also explained that the school makes good use of their local environment doing field trips to the beach and woodland to engage the children's learning in a tangible way.
Gillian then joined in the School Council, an elected body of pupils, two from each year, who represent their classes. They spoke about the similar roles they share as representatives. They asked Gillian if she had any ideas on how to become a better council and she suggested talking to other school councils to see how they do it other schools in the area and the wider world.
The MP joined in an assembly where she briefly spoke about her role as an MP and answered some questions. She then listened to a presentation by the pupils on their activities for Citizenship week. The school encouraged positive actions at home, school and in the community. The school had donated to charities such as Stonepillow and St Wilfrid's Hospice and even visited a local Nursing Home where they played games with the residents.
The children then asked Gillian to support their campaign called 'send my friend to school'. Raising awareness for the work that needs to be done to help more children around the world into school. Gillian happily agreed and told the children about her work as co-chair for the APPG for UN Sustainable Goals. Goal number 4 directly addresses this issue.
The morning came to an end with a lively Q&A session where years 5 and 6 asked Gillian a range of questions about school funding, healthy eating, roads and housing. They all asked thoughtful questions and enjoyed hearing Gillian's responses to them.
