Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, recently attended a briefing held by the Education Service to update MPs on the new Parliamentary Education Centre, which will be located in Victoria Tower Gardens.
The Centre, which is due to open in the summer of 2015, will enable the Education Service to increase the capacity of its visits programme from 45,000 to 100,00 young people a year, with around 600 visitors per day. Mark was a strong backer of this project when he served on the Commons Administration Committee several years ago, and so he was particularly pleased to see the idea making good progress.
The Parliamentary Centre will have five dedicated learning spaces in which Parliament’s Education Service will run a range of workshops aimed at informing, engaging and inspiring young people about the work of Parliament as well as politics and democracy in general.
Commenting on the briefing, Mark Francois said:
"I know from experience that trips to Parliament from schools in my constituency are very popular but, due to the current limited capacity of the Education Service, it is sometimes difficult to book slots. This new facility in Victoria Gardens (just on the other side of the House of Lords) will be an major asset to the Education Service and will ensure hundreds more schools, from across the country, are able to visit Parliament."