Armed Forces Day
Debate between Melanie Onn and John Slinger(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Melanie Onn
I am very happy to do as the hon. Lady asks. All the organisations working with young people do an amazing job. The fact that the young people involved show up and commit themselves is testament to their resilience, and to their belief that they can achieve. They are putting time and effort into preparing themselves for their future.
The Westward Ho barracks opens its doors to our local community every year, providing hot food and drinks. It is a place for families to come to, and for everyone to get together and reflect on the day. It provides a little bit of community spirit, connection and conversation on a very important day in our constituency. We regularly see hundreds of people lining the streets as the procession goes from the minster to the memorial near the Grimsby Institute.
This year, as Cleethorpes hosts the national Armed Forces Day event—I do not want to keep saying it, but we are hosting the national event this year, and are very pleased to do so—we will be celebrating not only our nation’s servicemen and women, but the economic and cultural boost that the event will bring to our area. I have to pay tribute to our local armed forces events team. They are volunteers, and they work tirelessly at any event related to our armed forces. They are always there, and they will be working incredibly hard right down to the wire. I am absolutely sure that they will not have the opportunity to enjoy any of the events on Saturday, because they will be so busy making sure that everything is running smoothly, and that those participating and coming from outside the area to make this a grand celebration have everything they need. It will be a moment for our businesses and our tourism sector. Above all, it is about our people, and we will welcome those from around the country who will come to this national event and line the streets to give thanks to our servicemen and women.
Only recently, I had the pleasure of welcoming students from the uniformed services course at Grimsby Institute, who came into Parliament and the education centre. These young people are preparing for careers across the police, the fire service, the armed forces and the emergency response services. Their enthusiasm and discipline were a reminder that the future of our uniformed services is in good hands. They are the next chapter in our proud tradition of service, and I was very pleased to have them here.
We also have some excellent community groups. The armed forces events team have turned an old local authority building called the Knoll into a centre for signposting for veterans. It provides signposting for any kind of mental health support, housing support, or welfare and benefits advice. It is a really nice, relaxed environment, with space for veterans to have a coffee, and there are professionals to signpost them and provide additional support.
We have another brilliant grassroots group called NEL4Heroes, which is run voluntarily by ex-servicemen and women. It brings people together through food and drink, and other activities, and it really helps people who have left the services—sometimes recently, sometimes many years ago—who are finding life a little bit difficult or find themselves in a challenging situation. There is a pride that comes with service, but sometimes that pride means that people do not wish to access the help available to them. NEL4Heroes is a brilliant group that informally builds relationships and ties, and provides support. It encourages people not to feel embarrassed about requiring additional support for a period of time, and it helps them to access it. I congratulate the group on that work.
Our town’s military history runs deep and has lasting connections to our European allies. After the second world war, the Carpathian Lancers, a Polish regiment unable to return home due to the Soviet occupation, made Weelsby Woods their home. In their honour, a plaque and a wooden sculpture of their bear mascot, Wojtek, stands in the park as a tribute to their service and to the many who settled in Grimsby in 1947. I wanted to mention that, because when I was growing up, my great aunt and her mother, my great-grandmother, welcomed into their house one of those Polish servicemen, so I grew up with him, and he lived as a lodger with our family for 50 years until he passed away. I want to remember Michek Włodarczak, because he was a big part of our family’s life. I am sorry—
John Slinger
In my hon. Friend’s very powerful and moving speech, she has spoken about the efforts of the entire community. The right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) talked about the importance of the national endeavour to remember those who have served, and those who continue to serve, irrespective of party. In that spirit, I would like to put on record that former Conservative councillor Kathryn Lawrence is doing wonderful work with her team at the Hillmorton branch of the Royal British Legion. I have met her many times and worked with her, and will continue to do so. Indeed, I will be taking part in the ceremony on Saturday. It is in that spirit that we should support our armed services.
Government and Democracy Education
Debate between Melanie Onn and John Slinger(7 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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John Slinger
I wholeheartedly agree. It is critical that we educate our young people about the different tiers of government and the responsibilities of elected representatives within them.
I will touch briefly on the history of citizenship in our education system. Since 2002, citizenship has been a statutory foundation national curriculum subject at key stages 3 and 4. Luke Brown, a teacher at Lawrence Sheriff school in Rugby, told me:
“A big concern is the increasingly limited time given to Citizenship and, therefore, politics.”
Citizenship remains a non-statutory programme of study at key stages 1 and 2—or primary, to use the old parlance—where, as teachers tell me, a similar situation ensues, and other priorities all too often drown out citizenship. According to the 2018 Lords report, citizenship peaked between 2009 and 2011, and declined particularly under the last Government’s curriculum review in 2013. The report found that
“citizenship was never fully embedded into the education system”.
The same happened with other subjects that were, in my view, wrongly regarded by the previous Government as subsidiary. The English baccalaureate, introduced in 2010, did not include citizenship. Furthermore, there has been a substantial decline in the number of students studying the citizenship GCSE and the number of specialist teachers.
With our new Government’s curriculum review, we have a golden opportunity to put that right. Like all MPs, I make a big effort to visit as many primary and secondary schools as I can. The biggest privilege and—dare I say it?—challenge of being an MP is not speaking in Chambers like this one but answering questions from young people in schools. When I visit schools, I find that young people are generally interested in politics. For example, the children of Paddox primary school in my constituency were hugely excited about the competition that staff are running about politics, with the prize being a tour of Parliament. A constituent of mine, Ian Dewes, the CEO of the Odyssey Collaborative Trust, said that Parliament’s education team “were fantastic” and pointed out that such visits helped to
“break down class and social barriers.”
When children of Long Lawford primary school welcomed me and the early years Minister for a visit, it was clear that their teachers had educated them well about the political system. Those are exemplars of best practice, but they should be standard across the whole country.
I would be grateful to hear from my hon. Friend the Minister about how her Department will ensure a more coherent, better resourced system that gives these subjects the higher priority that they deserve. I hope, first, that she will consider confirming citizenship as a statutory subject in the national curriculum at all stages, not just key stages 3 and 4; as with literacy, the younger we start, the deeper the understanding. Secondly, will she provide guidance to all schools about what they are expected to teach and resources to do so, including lesson packs and training for non-specialist teachers? Thirdly, will she ensure coherence and common standards across the entire maintained sector? Fourthly, will she reform progress 8 to ensure that any new system of measuring schools gives the same value to citizenship as to other national curriculum foundation GCSE subjects? Finally, will she take action to incentivise the training of specialist citizenship teachers?
Another part of learning about government and democracy should, of course, be participating in it within school and the wider world, as other hon. Members have said.
Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) (Lab)
As part of UK Parliament Week, I visited Ormiston Maritime academy, John Whitgift academy and Phoenix Park academy, and what struck me is that young people are very engaged in their local community and raise really important issues that reflect the society they are experiencing. They have an awful lot to tell us about the kind of country they want to grow up in. Does my hon. Friend agree that if we can be more responsive in this place, it will give them a much greater connection to the changes they can make and the influence they can have on their local representatives?
John Slinger
I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend and thank her for that point. It is vital that we do everything we can in this place, and indeed in our constituencies, to listen to young people and empower them. We must not just listen to them but act on their concerns. Anything we can do, we must.
Primary and secondary schools that I have visited often run democratically elected school councils, which demonstrate to young people democracy in action and its role in enabling them to shape their environment. We must give our young people as many opportunities as possible to engage in that way. I will soon be holding a “pitch your policy” event in my constituency to encourage such engagement.
The importance of this topic cannot be overstated. We are fortunate to live in a secure but not invulnerable democracy. I met MPs from Moldova this week and asked about this topic, given the threats that their democratic system faces. They told me that it does feature in their curriculum and that they have school councils that are all about
“encouraging people to acknowledge their own power”.
These changes are about more than just a matter of curriculum rejuvenation, important though that is. If made, they can play a significant part in a democratic rejuvenation in our country. More broadly, to reinforce our system of democracy and government, we must have a campaign of education that goes far beyond our schools, with billboards, social media and mailshots.
I will end with some quotes from the most important people of all: young people. Austin Morris in year 11 said:
“Democracy isn’t just something we learn from a textbook; it’s a lesson we live every day at Rugby Free Secondary, where diverse voices, collaboration and fair decisions shape our school, and therefore shape the next generations of democratic society.”
A child from Paddox primary school said:
“Learning about democracy at school helps you to express your opinions and teaches you about wider topics related to what is going on in the world.”
Another said:
“It is also important to be able to have your voice heard in things that are important both at school and in the ‘real’ world.”
Another said:
“It is important for girls to vote in elections because they had to fight hard to get their vote in the first place.”
Finally—I like this one in particular—another said:
“If you don’t vote, you shouldn’t complain about things that happen because you didn’t use your democratic vote.”
I am sure that hon. Members will concur with that. Let us be inspired by those words and many others like them from schools up and down the country. Let us make sure that citizenship learning is a force that nourishes and defends our democratic system, and empowers our young people with the confidence to engage in it for the benefit of all.