On Thursday 12 December, the nation went to the polls and so did we at St Joseph’s too, when we hosted the St Joseph’s Election 2019.
Mr. Mather, Head of Law and Politics, was the Acting Returning Officer who announced that the Labour Party, represented by Alex Craig and Molly McIvor from Year 12, had won the election with nearly 60% of the vote.
All the Politics students represented a party in the election: From Year 12, Connor Sinclair and Oran McGinness represented the Brexit Party and from Year 13, James Athey and Cade Kirtley represented the Conservative Party with Reece Balai and Niamh Ennis trying to get votes for the Liberal Democrats.
In the campaign, they all produced a party election broadcast, which was watched by all members of the school, in which they presented the key policies from their party to convince St Joseph’s to vote for them.
They did a superb job throughout, including on Polling Day itself, when they spent the day canvassing the student electorate, informing them about their policies and reminding them about the importance of voting in elections when they are 18.
There was a real buzz around the Polling Station, and indeed the school, all day and students were clearly interested in what the parties had to offer and saw the importance of voting to impact their local community and the country overall.
