Once we arrived we were escorted to one of the lecture rooms of Birmingham City University and we were allocated to our seats. Once we were settled down we were greeted and the senior members of staff at the YPP introduced themselves to us. To kick off the meeting we did a quiz on what we already knew about the houses of parliament and the house of lords. Basically we were questioned about our overall knowledge of politics. We had a green card, a yellow card and a red card and each card represented an answer to the question asked. (E.g. how many people do you think can fit in the houses of parliament, green=300, red=600, yellow=500).

After the quiz we learned about the original traditions of the houses of parliament and how they are still used today and we learned about the role of Black Rod who seems to be treated badly by other members of parliament! We were thinking that if we had our own parliamentary ceremony how we would do it, for example I contributed by putting my hand up and saying that maybe the Black Rod should be treated with respect rather than being treated like he is an outcast.

After that we had a memorial for a man called Dennis Edwards, who was the original founder of the YPP Handsworth. Sadly he passed away last year so the manager of the YPP came to talk about Mr Edwards who was a very humble man who changed a lot of people s lives by encouraging them to be more interested in politics. They talked about how much of a great person he was and how he inspired many people to make something of their lives. They then told us that the original YPP meetings were held in the Millennium Point but sadly they had to leave because Millennium Point turned into shops. But fortunately BCU let them use the university as a meeting point with no charge! Then it was lunch.

When we came back to the room we were greeted by the dean of the university Fiona Church, she told us to become something great for ourselves and she asked us what we want to be. I said I wanted to be a MP for Birmingham. After the dean talked to us we started the ceremony where we were given the writing YPP book to take to council meetings at our schools and they gave us the parliament scrapbook, then they presented us with our badges and then we went back to school on the green bus. It was a great day.

Catherine Munyarari, our Head Girl has been selected to be one of a small select group of local young people to switch on the Soho road Christmas lights. Catherine is very involved in the “Hands on Handsworth” campaign and has recently been presenting assemblies to other local schools about the UK Youth Parliament. Her selection to switch on the Christmas lights is recognition of her fine community work, both in the local Handsworth area and in Birmingham.

As part of Black History Month, the Year 13 History students went to a talk at the University of Birmingham given by Dr. Julius Garvey. Dr. Garvey is an eminent surgeon and the son of Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican  African-American-Civil rights leader during the 1920’s who students have studied as part of their A2 History course.

Dr. Garvey’ talk took place in the Guild Chamber in the Guild of Students at the university but was open to all. A series of welcome speeches were made, most notably by a university student who read directly from Marcus Garvey’s work and by an ex-Young Mayor of Lewisham who spoke very knowledgably about the legacy of campaigners like Garvey and the African diaspora today.

Dr. Garvey unexpectedly only spoke for a short while before engaging with the audience about issues affecting the African diaspora today. At times, heated and opinionated discussion ensued raising issues such as the importance of education, a theme which runs through the A2 History course as well. This gave students an opportunity to experience a little of what it would have been like to have been in a civil rights meeting in the 1920’s and to evaluate as an historian a variety of strong opinions.

It was a very interesting talk and students got an insight not only into the work of Marcus Garvey but also into the continuing issues in the African-American community.