Fifteen Conisborough College Year 7 students attended the House Of Lords on Friday afternoon.
It saw the pupils being given a behind the scenes tour kindly offered by Lord Kennedy in the Houses of Parliament and specifically the House of Lords.
The National Literacy Trust also attended the event as well as Millwall Community Trust’s Education and Employability manager John Scarborough.
They are currently working on finalising their short project/presentation which they feel passionate about which Roy and the National Literacy Trust Co-ordinators Jim Sells and Kirsty Bailey listened to and gave their feedback on in the Committee room in the House of Lords.
The students have worked hard during the whole of the last term with Beyonce our Represent Millwall facilitator reading all the texts but importantly learning to shape and represent their opinions and also learn to represent the opinions of others.
Well done to everyone involved and all the students for their fantastic debates read out to the panel.
Beyonce Blair, Millwall Community Trust’s Represent Programme facilitator: “Friday was a complete success, The girls were able to tour the House Of Parliament as well as being able to have their voices heard in front of Lord Kennedy himself.
“I feel as if this experience has drastically boosted the young ladies confidence and has really open their minds up to all the changes they can make in life.
“The girls were perfect examples of what women empowerment is all about, I hope schools would see the impact this has had and offer more programmes as such in the future.”
Kirsty Bailey, Alternative Provision Project Manager at The National Literacy Trust said: “The presentations were nothing short of fantastic! The energy and thoughtfulness displayed by the girls while delivering their social action projects thoroughly impressed us.
“It was evident that they had fully embraced the themes of communication and resilience built into our ‘Represent’ programme.
“We hope that they will persist in championing the outstanding issues they have chosen by continuing to raise their voices as they need to be heard.”
John Scarborough, Millwall Community Trust’s Education and Employability Manager said: “Friday’s trip to the House of Lords was a culmination of Millwalls new Represent programme delivered on behalf of National Literacy Trust to a YR7 girls group from Conisborough College as an after school weekly intervention programme.
“The programme intention was to improve the Oracy skills of a targeted group so they were better able to shape their opinion as well as better understand and represent the opinions of others regarding a similar topic.
“The programme saw pupils read 7 different book texts that focused on female empowerment and confidence, as well as get to question a published author online.
“The programme has been a huge success and though we were able to extend the original cohort size from 10-15 we still had a 30+ waiting list which showed the dedication of Conisborough college pupils to want to further their learning beyond the normal school day.
"To have Lord Kennedy offer a tour of the House of Lords and allow each student to represent their view of a topic of importance to them in a venue steeped in famous speeches where Oracy is so important was amazing and the pupils did not disappoint.
“They all spoke with passion confidence and conviction about topics that are so important to them. It was also great to see Conisborough Head Girl Odel impact as a volunteer mentor on the programme who clearly like the pupils all have such bright futures ahead of them and have already been approached by NLT to support their national forum which is great and testament to their performance.
“We are planning to hopefully run future courses with Conisborough and build on the success of this one.”
Millwall Community Trust have many opportunities through the programmes we run like this one, for more information contact John Scarborough: jscarborough@millwallcommunity.org.uk/07855088068
