Year 5 and 6 pupils had compiled a list of searching questions to ask me when I visited their class on Tuesday. They have invited a series of elected members to join them to find out more about how the country’s government works at all levels.

We looked at  why people go into politics: often because they are angry about an issue and want to change it, or they see an injustice and want to solve it. I explained that like many of the children, I had been a School Councillor too.

The class thought about how they felt when they disagreed with a friend in their class. How do they solve it? We applied that to the world of the County Council too. Council meetings often end in a vote: democracy means you just have to accept the outcome of that vote, however hard that may be.

Kingfisher class were too polite to ask my exact age, but I told them that I had been a County Councillor since 2005, (and I was nearly 50 then!) Mrs Guy has been a councillor too, and we both agreed that it’s very very difficult to be a councillor and a teacher : both jobs are just too busy!

We looked at how the Council tax was used. Over half of the money that the County uses is for education of children. The graphs showed us that apart from schools, adult social services take up more money than anything else, and about 25p in every pound comes from the Government directly.

We looked at what a £1000 can pay for: for example £1000 of Council tax pays for 41square metres of road to be mended.

The children’s excellent questions gave a good framework for the discussion, and I hope they enjoyed the morning.: I certainly did.

Thank you Kingfisher class!