On Thursday 12 December, the nation headed to the polling stations to vote for who they wanted to see in residence at No. 10 Downing Street. Back at Shiplake the pupils and staff also got involved by participating in our own mock election, to see how the next generation of voters would have voted given the opportunity.
Politics A Level students put themselves forward to represent seven of the main political parties, including Northern Ireland's DUP and the 'Party of Wales' Plaid Cymru. The pupils worked hard to get their respective party manifestos across to the voters before they placed their crosses in the voting booth.
In the week prior to election day the candidates were introduced to the pupils and staff in the school assembly, in which they each had one minute to highlight where their party stood on key issues such as the NHS and Brexit. That Friday there was a hustings held in the Lecture Theatre, which was a well-fought debate and the students all did their parties proud.
With election day coinciding with Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Dinner, everyone was in great spirits. The Harrison Room in Skipwith became a polling station, with pupils and staff voting as they headed to their House Christmas lunch. The turnout was high with 365 people participating, including 78 members of staff. An impressive 94% of Skipwith House members voted. Once the polling station closed at 2.00pm, the count began and, as with the result of the official election, the Conservative Party won! The Party, represented by F Westbrook-Burr, achieved 47% of the vote, which was slightly lower then the 51% victory for the Tory Party in Shiplake's 2017 mock election.
Also reflecting the results of the 2017 Shiplake election, the Green Party came second; this time increasing the share of votes from 13% to 22%. The Liberal Democrats came third, with 18% of the vote. For a detailed breakdown of the school election results (including how each House voted, as well as the staff), please see the table below.
Thank you to all the candidates who participated and to Mr Kevin Dickey and Mr Stuart Read from the Politics and Economics Departments for overseeing the mock election.
