On the night of International Women’s Day (8th March), STAGS Oxfam Youth Ambassadors took to the air waves on local radio Verulam 92.6FM to fight for a voice in Youth Parliament. Three articulate Year 10 students Alice Drury, Holly Spencer and Saasha Anawar were invited to the ‘Parent Show’ to inform listeners about the role of being an Oxfam Youth Ambassador which aims to encourage young people to campaign for change. After focusing on the impressive bravery of the Suffragette movement, which surprisingly included men, the trio proceeded to give details of their new campaign for change. Holly carefully explained to the listening audience that the current overarching theme in their school as an Ambassador is having a ‘voice’. She took the opportunity to shine a light on the fact that St Albans is one of the very few counties in the UK that denies its young people an opportunity to have a voice in the UK Youth Parliament. The UK Youth Parliament provides opportunities for 11-18 year olds to use their elected voice to bring about social change through meaningful representation and campaigning. Due to council cost cutting measures, this means the invaluable programme which encouraged young people to engage with social and political issues has now been abandoned.
During recent years, STAGS students are proud to have heavily contributed to the scheme and have succeeded in winning the main MYP election with two young ladies representing the St Albans district at the UK Youth Parliament. Curriculum Leader of Politics, Mrs Tolley, said ‘Running the MYP election at STAGS was a great vehicle for encouraging students at every level of the school to engage in politics. It is simply unacceptable that our students and all the young people in Hertfordshire are not given a chance to get their voices heard in the same way as other young people across the country, especially given big national issues such as Brexit will have such huge implications on their future’.
Radio Verulam Presenter Lydia El-Khouri thanked the girls for raising awareness of this issue and expressed the need for this situation to be addressed. As the girls slot on the show came to a close STAGS Oxfam Youth Ambassadors vowed to keep up the fight by asking the council to seriously reconsider its decision to restrain the voice of St Albans Youth and to reinstate the programme.
The first 10 minutes of the parent show with the Oxfam ambassadors can be heard on the pod cast link below:
http://www.radioverulam.com/rvplayer/?timestamp=1520539200&postid=6214&offset=230
For more details on Youth Parliament visit:   http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/about-us/