Rayleigh and Wickford MP, Mark Francois, visited six schools in his constituency as part of ‘UK Parliament Week’, which is designed to raise awareness, including among young people about the importance and role of Parliament.
As part of that week, Mark visited six schools including, Riverside Primary school in Hullbridge, Holt Farm Junior School in Ashingdon, Bromfords school in Wickford, Castledon Special School in Wickford, North Crescent Primary School in Wickford, and Wickford Primary School.
During these visits, Mark spoke to pupils (including a number of who served on their respective school councils) about his role as an MP, working for his constituents and representing both in his constituency and at Westminster. Mark was then subjected to a variety of questions, stretching from whether he had ever met the King (and the late Queen), through to his favourite football team and whether he had ever met any celebrities.
Commenting on his visits to local schools, Mark said:
“It was a pleasure to visit six schools in my constituency, over the course of a week, to speak to pupils about the role of an MP and the importance of Parliament. There is a regular program of visit the Houses of parliament, which I very much encourage schools to take up, but on this occasion we did it the other way round as it were, and I was very impressed by the quality of some of the questions, from pupils ranging from as young as 6 through to 18. Whoever people vote for; I think it is important they understand our democratic institutions and the fact we are fortunate to live in a free country and I would like to thank all the staff and pupils concerned for giving me the time to explain why Parliament really matters.”
