Democracy

Key Stage One explored the British value of democracy by engaging in a book vote! The children discussed how many votes everyone should have to make it fair, and we counted the results together to see which book the children preferred. We all agreed to accept the winning book even if it wasn’t what we voted for. 

Pupil Voice: 

“We all only get one vote – all the kids and the grown-ups. That’s fair.” – Mahmoud 

“We did a vote for what book we could read. We counted all the cubes together to make it fair” – Ollie 

“Democracy means everyone gets a vote and it’s fair.” – Esma 

We held elections for school council representatives, explaining the importance of the voting process and how fair voting means we are in a democracy. We gave speeches, sharing skills and readiness for the role. Everyone had an equal vote and our choices were a collective decision.

Pupil voice:

We voted for one person each. It was fair – Henry

We got to vote for our next Just Read book in class. I liked how it was our choice – Amelia-Rose

In year 6 we revisited our work on the Ancient Greek invention of democracy, and compared the Greeks’ method with how voting happens in the United Kingdom. We followed this by carrying out a series of polls on truly vital topics. In order to carry out these votes, we tried four different voting systems used around the world – to choose the best children’s cartoon we used First Past the Post – the standard UK system – which declared Bluey as the clear favourite. This prompted some discussion, as Alfie pointed out that some children hadn’t seen the cartoons in question (apparently Pingu and Sarah and Duck aren’t that popular), which made it harder for them to vote and highlighted the need for more prior information before voting.

Next, we used the Majority Voting to choose the best pizza topping. This required a second-round vote with the lowest two choices eliminated (ham and pineapple and vegetarian), before a clear majority of pepperoni votes won.

To determine the best shape (circle, according to Mount Fuji, beating square by 1 point), we used the Ranking system, choosing our top 3 shapes and assigning them points based on their ranking.

Finally, we used the Weighted system to decide what we should have as a class pet. This meant that different groups were given additional votes to place, in order to balance the group size. This meant that despite naked mole rat receiving more votes, purple frog gained more points in total. On the plus side, this meant we didn’t get a bald uakari or a saiga antelope (much to Mr Armstrong’s disappointment). This system did not go down well with the class and the result was met with a great deal of protest of unfairness and rebellion.