Too young to vote!?

Today there was much discussion around room 8 about the 2017 election. The students have heard a lot about this election from the media, advertisements and billboards around Auckland. We all had ideas about who we might vote for and many of the students have met their local MPs, or those who are currently running.

After discussing the elections, some students took to Google to learn a bit more about the parties and candidates. Miss Stone delivered a quick lesson about voting and how the government is selected. We then decided that we should have a class election, using a voting form very similar to that which is currently used.

While our government was vastly made up by the same party (3/4 of the votes went to them and their MP), the remainder of the votes were made up of lots of different parties. It was great to hear our different reasons for voting for different MPs and parties, like their beliefs, level of experience and commitment to visiting/ working for our community.

We then took part in part in a breakout about the New Zealand Elections, by Michael Davidson. This helped us to put our new learning in use and to discover more about New Zealand politics. This was our most successful breakout yet - all teams broke out within the time limit and many of them either used one or no hint cards from Miss Stone - what a fabulous effort!

The first to breakout today was Telesia, Tumanako, Salote and Winnie's team. The girls split up the different locks really well and communicated to ensure that everyone contributed to the win. They were closely followed by Alex, Dekorah, Mathew and Trent, who started with the lead. Both of these teams demonstrated fabulous team work and determination.

However, Miss Stone was very proud of the final groups, who watched their classmates win the challenge, but who persevered and also managed to breakout within the time limit.