This document provides descriptions for various classroom activities related to the 2015 UK general election. They include: recreating a TV debate between students researching different party policies; investigating voting patterns in London constituencies; simulating Prime Minister's Questions with students taking on roles from Parliament; predicting media coverage of the election; and comparing modern Britain to 2010 through examining different government departments. Other proposed activities examine why the voting age is 18, arguments for and against voting, the impact of electoral systems, conducting a mock school election between student political parties, and organizing a community question time event.

1. TV Debate 1
• Contrast 2010 with the 2015 proposals
• Why are they different?

2. TV Debate 2
• Recreate your own TV debate in your class
• Students research different parties, their policies,
manifestos & election pledges in advance
• Could use as a hustings as part of a mock election

3. London Leaning
• Students investigate…
• Why do voting patterns look like this in London?

4. Prime Minister’s Questions
• Like a hot seat
• Class creates questions for the ‘PM’ – about policies and track record of
the coalition etc
• Rotate the PM
• Set up the class like the House of Commons
• Have specific roles which mirror Parliament – e.g. leader of the
opposition, deputy PM, shadow cabinet etc

5. Predict the Papers
• Examine the media’s role in the
election
• Can the Sun say ‘it won it’ ever
again?
• Examine evidence which shows
the power of the media, e.g.
– Readership
– Usage patterns
– Influence of ‘new’ media, youtube
etc
– Political leanings

6. Back to the Future
• Students go back in time to contrast Britain now with
Britain in 2010
• Students could be given different areas to examine
which mirror government departments: education,
health, economy, home office, culture/media/sport,
defence, foreign affairs

7. Race to the Seat
• As individuals, in pairs or in groups, students pick/are allocated a
prospective parliamentary candidate for their constituency
• They plan a campaign to get them elected, including:
– Media messages to give out (positive, reactive or negative?)
– How much they will spend on flyers, posters, door-knocking, a website and
online presence
– How they will use volunteers
– Which hustings invitations they will attend (etc)
• Students have an imaginary budget to run the campaign. This presents
them with various ‘opportunity cost’ choices they must make.
• Students could send their campaign ideas to the actual PPCs!

8. WHY OH WHY?
• Students investigate why the election happens in the way it does. E.g.
– Why first past the post, not proportional representation?
– Why do we vote for an MP, not a prime minister or president?
– Why do we have an election on one day?
– Why do we have to vote in person or by post, not online?
– Why do we have self-funded & not state-funded parties?
– Why do we have a general election every 5 years, not more often?

9. Can’t Vote 2015
• Students investigate why 16 or 17 year olds are
not allowed to vote in the general election in
May

10. Won’t Vote 2015
• Students investigate whether people should
bother voting in the May general election.
• Students research for and against arguments
• Finish with a question-time style panel with
panellists arguing for and against voting

11. Every vote counts?
• Students examine whether every vote will count in the
May 2015 general election.
• The investigation will touch on… electoral systems (FPP
vs PR vs AV etc), ‘safe’ seats, target seats, party funding…

12. Mock election
• Conduct a mock election with students standing as if
they each represented given political parties
• Conduct radio phone-ins to test their Q&A abilities
(other students can text in questions or call in)
• Hold a hustings
• Hold a real vote, with the rest of the class/year/school
involved
• How could you build active Citizenship into it?

13. Political Party Project
• Students create their own parties focused on improving the school
• First students learn how actual political parties work and campaign
• In their parties students divide up responsibilities as a party would
– e.g. for education (quality of lessons, behaviour etc), health
(school meals, related policies), defence (school security),
immigration (admissions)
• Students create manifestos & campaigns
• Can be run as a whole year group event – each party is presented
to each class, winning parties from each class go forward to a year
group assembly and election
• Could have a different year group voting
• Winning party could get to present policies to SLT / School Council

14. Community Question Time
• Students work with you to organise a community
question time during the election campaign
• All the PPCs for the school’s constituency are invited
• Parents/carers, teachers and students are invited
• Students research candidates and party
policies/manifestos and prepare questions to ask on
the night