Liberal Democrat Candidate Sarah Yong Visits Sexey's School

A former pupil is welcomed back

Liberal Democrat PPC (prospective parliamentary candidate for Somerton and Frome) Sarah Yong was this week invited to visit her old school, Sexeys's in Bruton. First she was taken on a tour of the school by two pupils and was able to see the considerable improvements that have been made to the buildings and facilities since she was there.

She was then welcomed by the Headmaster, Irfan Latif, before being taken over to the Common Room of the boarding house by Deputy Head Paul Reddick, her old Politics and History teacher, to talk to students.

No ordinary class

There she was faced by an audience of some 35 students. This was not a class, but a self-selected group who had been given the chance to come and hear and question her if they wanted to and they ranged from boys and girls in their first year, to A-level students.

Turned on to politics

After reminiscing about her own school days and how much she had enjoyed school and sport, Sarah recounted how choosing Politics at A-level had enthused her and how a school trip to Parliament and being shown around by David Heath and hearing him speak about his work had inspired her. She then briefly described her time at university reading Politics and History, going to Sandhurst, working in management with Clarks and her last four years running the office of Tessa Munt, MP for Wells.

A torrent of questions

Then it was question time and Sarah was confronted by a forest of hands and so it continued for the next forty-five minutes. Starting with questions about what it was like working in Parliament the questions became more and more political and testing, with the students showing considerable interest and knowledge of what is going on.

Not only was Sarah quizzed about her views right across the board from gay marriage to Europe, from Scottish Independence to the education policies of Mr Gove, she was also asked testing questions about proportional representation, how Parliament could be re-organised to encourage more engagement by voters, opportunities for back-benchers and greater female and ethnic minority representation.

What was striking was how the questions came from right across the age spectrum and from both sexes. Everyone listened with rapt attention and the atmosphere could not have been better. When the session ended quite a few continued with questions and discussion with Sarah. All this made the staff present quietly proud of the performance of the students.

Sarah said:

"I have been amazed by how many questions there were and how well they were asked. It just shows there is far more interest in politics among young people than many seem to think. I really loved this visit to my old school and look forward to the chance of coming back again."

The Head of Politics, Darryl Carpenter, pointed out that Sexey's currently has twenty-two sixth formers studying Politics and thirty five doing History.

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