Lord Faulkner of Worcester visits Haybridge High School

Haybridge High School and Sixth Form hosted a talk from a member of the House of Lords on Friday 25th November to encourage students to engage more with the political and parliamentary process.

Lord Faulkner of Worcester, former Deputy Speaker of the House, met 75 students and student officers, who are studying subjects including Citizenship, History and Law, from across the school year groups and sixth form.

The one-and-a-half hour session at the school in, Brake Lane, Hagley, on Friday, focused on the work and role of the Lords in the political and law-making process. This was followed by a question and answer session on various aspects of the parliamentary process and life at Westminster generally.

Michael Conroy-Harris, Community Programmes Co-ordinator at Haybridge, who is developing a number of political literacy projects, including Sixth Form study visits to the UN headquarters in Geneva, said: "This was a fantastic opportunity for our students to interact with someone who knows the parliamentary system inside out and is in 'the thick of it', so to speak.

"The world of politics and law-making can sometimes seem far removed from students' daily lives, so visits like this are invaluable."

The visit was arranged through the Lord Speaker's Peers in Schools programme, which has been running across the UK since 2007 and has so far involved around 30,000 young people. This continuing outreach programme sends members of the House of Lords into schools and colleges across the country to give talks in support of the citizenship curriculum.

For further information, see the Lord Speaker's web page at www.parliament.uk/lordspeaker