Mrs Cruse (History Teacher)

As part of our Sixth Form Politics Programme we had the first of our guest speakers for the Autumn Term to give the students an insight into life as a Politics student and how to get involved in this field. 

Jack Emsley, a newly elected Councillor in Chiswick Homefields London delivered an engaging online talk to the students about his time at King’s College London where he studied Politics and International Relations. He explained the excitement of doing this degree at a time during the political turmoil which followed the Brexit Referendum and how one of the best ways to get involved in Politics at university is to join the Societies and get involved with the local community. 

Jack also suggested to grasp every opportunity of engaging with the local community while in the Sixth Form to get involved in local political issues and enable the councillors to really hear the young people’s voice. He also recommended writing to your local MP to gain invaluable work experience.  Jack explained how the pandemic gave him a further interest in local politics and how he started to look at the needs of his local community when the country was in the first National Lockdown and how so many people had no one to help them. This led to him putting forward his interest in standing as a local councillor and how the competition for each individual seat is very high. Jack was successful in winning the election in May 2022 after 11 months of campaigning in his local community and getting to know what the important issues are for them. He spoke about his role as a councillor and trying to work with councillors from opposing parties. 

As part of the Politics Programme later this term, we have MP’s Richard Fuller and Mohammad Yasin also coming in to speak to help them gain insight about Politics at a National Level to contrast to the talk today which was about Politics on a local level.