Left to right, candidates Janine Le Sauvage, Mike O’Hara, Lorraine Marson, Ivan Roberts and Mike Hadley look on as Lauren Prevel and Harry Fleet, both 9, cast their vote in the mini-election at closure-threatened St Andrew’s Primary School. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0559370)
PUPILS at St Andrew’s Primary grilled South-East election candidates yesterday on the future of their school.
The 10 candidates present were asked why the school could close, what would they do to stop it and whether they thought it was fair. Each candidate vowed to fight against the closure, much to the satisfaction of the children.
‘I was pleased they said they wanted it to stay open. They could just not bother and let it close. It’s really good that they want to help,’ said 11-year-old Kieran Enevoldsen, who had a strong idea about what he thought made a good politician.
‘You’ve got to be able to trust them and they have to be friendly and nice to talk to. And they can’t be shy because they have to get up and talk a lot and get into arguments. They have to behave well too and can’t get angry if they are called in the middle of the night because it’s a 24-hour job.’
The mini-hustings, which the school had organised for the previous two elections as well, gave children the opportunity to ask what a deputy does, why each candidate thought they would be good at it and which States department they would like to work for. They also asked questions relevant to specific departments.
Those relating to Environment included whether more zebra crossings were necessary, were speed humps annoying and would it be possible to have a walking lane around the school.
For Public Services, pupils asked how recycling in Guernsey could be improved and what would be done about sewage being pumped into the sea.
There were a couple of Culture and Leisure enquiries into whether a play area could be created in the parish.
Connor Harvey, 11, said he would like to see the new States create a park in St Andrew’s similar to Delancey Park in St Sampson’s.
‘There should be more parks and I think they need to make something that older children can enjoy too,’ he said, before adding that there were two candidates who had particularly impressed him.
Head teacher Mary Sebire said she had been really pleased with the high standard of the children’s questions, especially as they had been working on how to ask better question as part of their social skills programme.
She was also impressed with the way some of the candidates had replied to the children and explained their answers. Others, she said, were using it as more of an opportunity to push their own agenda.
The candidates praised the children’s level of knowledge on current affairs, which they had been exploring in lessons.
The mini-hustings lasted for about an hour and pupils were asked to select the six candidates they would like to see elected.
*The result will be announced after the general election on 23 April.
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