On Tuesday seven of us went to the Houses of Parliament. We had to leave school quite early, so that we could catch the tube. Then eventually when we got there a woman called Stella gave us a tour of the Houses of Parliament. We looked around the House of Commons, also known as the ‘Green Room’. Then we visited the House of Lords also known as the ‘Red Room’. We also learnt that the Queen is not allowed in the Houses of Commons because King Charles the first did not like what was going on so he barged in and wanted to arrest a lot of the Mps and then the civil war started. The king lost and then he got his head cut off. So now they do not let the king or queen in the House of Commons.
After that we had a session learning about how laws are made in parliament with the other children. We sat as the government and some of the other children sat opposite us as the opposition. We decided to debate whether children should be able to bring in their own technology to help with their learning. The debate was run like question time and when we wanted to speak we had to stand up and look at the speaker and he would point at us then we would say what we wanted to say. Once you had said what you wanted to say you then sit down. If Mp’s agree they say, “Hear Hear!” And if they didn’t agree they would go “mumble mumble.” In the end we had a vote on the technology debate and if it was in real life it would have been sent to the House of Lords and then to the monarch and the queen would sign the bill with a yes. We really enjoyed the visit.
The Brixton Learning Collaborative 