On Wednesday 17th June, we were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to visit Europe House and the Houses of Parliament. It was a really enjoyable and beneficial day for everyone involved.

We began our day by visiting Europe House, home to the European Parliament and the European Commission. We were all given lanyards which showed a Member of European Parliament and information about their country, we used these to complete Europe bingo, an undoubtedly competitive event, by filling in facts about countries in the European Union. We also chose a picture from those scattered around a room which we believe most represented the EU and explained why. Pictures ranged from hedgehogs to blood vessels. We then had a talk from Asher who taught us about what countries are in the EU and how the European Parliament is run alongside background context of why the EU formed. Our final activity at Europe House was to organise into our political parties and make a speech on whether Turkey should be allowed to join the EU. Fantastic speeches were made by all the parties but after casting our votes the decision was made against Turkey joining the EU.

After we left Europe House, we travelled to the Houses of Parliament where we all had to hand in our phones, something very stressful for us teenagers! We began by watching a debate which we all found very exciting and coincidentally made by the Henley MP, talking about colleges and apprenticeships, something very fitting for those of us soon contemplating leaving school. We then had a tour of the building and learnt about how the government is made up and ran. We then were split into political parties where we had to create a manifesto and try to win seats for our MP's. We learnt a great deal about the political system in England such as methods of voting, including first past the post and proportional representation. We cast our votes within our constituencies and failed to reach a majority so formed a coalition between the APT Party and the Civic Party. Finally, we were able to meet our MP, Ed Vaizey. He spoke to us about his role as both an MP and in government as well as happily answering any questions we had for him.

We all found the day very interesting and it improved our knowledge on the running and formation of parliament. We are all very grateful to have participated in the trip and had a really lovely day.