Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, recently paid a visit to Plumberow Primary Academy in Hockley, where he had the chance to meet the school council and learn about their role as councillors.
Mark met the assembled school council in the library, where the children preformed a confident presentation to explain the role of the council as well as some of the tasks they have recently been responsible for, including the design and supervision of the school’s new mural.
The children also used the meeting with their MP as an opportunity to question Mark on his role as a Member of Parliament and his constituency, as well as asking a number of questions about how Parliament works. Given their interest, Mark subsequently invited the children to come on a visit to Westminster and take a guided tour around Parliament for themselves.
Following his meeting with the school council, Mark was taken on a tour of the school by Headteacher Ian Barton and was even able to join the children at lunchtime to sample a school dinner from the newly opened "Deli Bar" which, in addition to hot school meals, offers children a variety of other options including pasta, baked potatoes or salad. The new Deli Bar has proved so popular with pupils that the school now caters for 3 times as many school dinners as it did previously.
Commenting on the visit, Mark said:
"I really enjoyed my visit to Plumberow and I was very impressed with the presenting skills of the school council. They are clearly a very well organised and bright group of children who are a credit to both themselves and the teaching staff at the school. It was also good to be able to tour the school and see the new Deli Bar which has recently been installed as a result of a Government grant. It was good to see the school in such good order and I look forward to remaining in touch with Mr Barton and his staff in the future."