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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Sami Quadri

Hackney primary school students chant in streets urging people to vote

Hundreds of east London primary school pupils took to the streets for a mock election parade on Thursday, urging Londoners to vote.

Footage shared on social media shows youngsters from Millfields Community School marching through residential streets in Hackney, wearing high-vis jackets while chanting loudly.

Emma Ruane, Assistant Headteacher at Millfields Community School, explained that the march took place as part of the school's annual Democracy Week activities.

She said: “Democracy Week is a whole week of activites that helps children work out what matters to them and to see themselves as changemakers.

“Lots of activities have been happening throughout the week and today is the big day where they march around the block with banners of all the different parties they want to vote for, and they come back to school and listen to speeches from the candidates. After that every child in the school votes.

“We leave school and do a little circuit around our area and in our party groups, chanting, getting children excited about speeches and getting party leaders to do a speech and convince the electorate to vote for them.”

The march involved pupils aged 5 to 11, representing all year groups at the primary school.

Many UK primary schools, including Millfields, hold an annual Democracy Week featuring mock elections and debates to educate pupils about civic engagement.

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