Elections at Holmbush Primary, Shoreham

From left, Ella Folan with Lucia Bonaldi and Paul Pattenden with Joe Lewis

Voting for the head boy and head girl proved a perfect opportunity for the children at Holmbush Primary Academy, who have been studying British values.

Head teacher Rebecca Jackson said the winning candidates are usually chosen by the year five children.

“This year we decided to elect the head boy and head girl as part of our work on British Values - Democracy,” she added.

“We asked for candidates to step forward, they had to have two nominations to back their bid. There were four boys and four girls in the campaign and they designed campaign posters which went up around the school.”

All the children and staff had to register to vote and two weeks ago, a Question Time style session was held with the whole school, where all the candidates could be asked questions.

Candidates then visited classes to meet voters and answer questions and on Monday, all those who had registered could go to the polling station to vote.

Mrs Jackson added: “Paul and Ella counted up the votes in secret this afternoon, with Miss Stickley, the deputy head teacher. The results were announced in assembly in the afternoon.”

Current head girl Ella Folan congratulated newly-elected head girl Lucia Bonaldi and current head boy Paul Pattenden congratulated newly-elected head boy Joe Lewis.

The other candidates were Ellie Robertson, Tilly Hall and Isabel Rowland for head girl, Sam Bryne, Odin Taylor and Anthony Prendergast for head boy.

Mrs Jackson said: “We were very excited to get a tweet from Tim Loughton on Monday afternoon, which read ‘sounds exciting - well done to all the candidates’.”

The tweet also used a hashtag referencing young democracy in action.

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