Rye College student leadership team met with the recently elected MP for Hastings and Rye, Helena Dollimore on Thursday, November 7. Bel, a year 11 student leader, and member of the Rye News Press Club at the school, sent us this report.
During the meeting, our student representatives queried Ms Dollimore on local and national issues such as the sewage leaks (and our dissatisfaction with Southern Water), changes in funding for state schools and the effects of climate change. We also discussed how inflation has affected us as a community through the changing cost of canteen food prices, train and bus fares.
Ms Dollimore was impressed by the work our team has already put in to make changes since our own election; our year 7 disco was a huge success, and we’ve raised over £400 for local charities such as Warming up the Homeless through our bake sales and non-uniform days. We shared our future plans with Ms Dollimore; our interest in improving recycling at Rye College and support for our LGBTQ+ students.
Everyone in the meeting found the conversation with Ms Dollimore very interesting. She gave us very helpful advice on how to improve our team and offered a fascinating insight into how parliament works through describing how acts are put through. She shared how, although the system is old fashioned, she still thinks it works well, as it gives politicians the opportunity to talk through decisions in greater depth while they wait to walk through to cast their votes. Ms Dollimore, however, did say that parliament wasn’t all she had expected as its much louder than it's presented on TV, and acts take a long time to put through.
