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HeadsUp – the Hansard Society’s online forum which connects 11-18 year olds with politicians and decision makers to debate political issues – has been awarded the runner-up prize at the Nominet Internet Awards, shortlisted in the category of ‘Empowering Young People and Citizens’.
The annual Nominet Internet Awards ceremony is held to recognise and reward the very best of UK internet achievement, innovation and best practice.
Beccy Allen, Project Manager for HeadsUp says:
‘It’s a great honour to be recognised by an organisation so central to the development of the internet. HeadsUp is a unique and innovative tool that has been helping connect young people with politicians and policy-makers for seven years now. This project has gone from strength to strength in recent years, which shows how closely connected the digital and political worlds have become and what opportunities there are for closer links between citizens and those that represent them.’
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The Liberal Democrats win twice the amount of seats as the Conservatives and over three times as many as Labour with a massive 50.7% of the seats across the country.
The results of the 2010 Y
Vote Mock Election and Google School Elections involving over 250,000 young
people are now in and they show that young people support the Liberal Democrats
as the party that they believe should be in Government. Students gave the Liberal Democrats a narrow
majority over the other parties - 50.7% of the seats in constituencies where
Mock Elections were held. The
Conservative Party achieved 24.9% of the vote and Labour came in third, being
elected in only 15.9% of seats. This of
course differs wildly from the real general election result, in which Labour
achieved 39% of the vote.
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The most recent HeadsUp general election forum report highlights why young people feel disillusionment and exclusion from our political system. To read the full report click here.
Young people that took part in the HeadsUp debate, held between 26 April and 14 May, had different political priorities than most adults. It was clear they felt that these differences meant that their interests were not represented as well as those of adults. They also felt that because they were not able to vote this put them off getting involved in politics as they were unable to effect change:
children arent usually interested in something they cant take part in or do.I mean talking about it on this site [HeadsUp] is real cool and having mock elections in school is cool too but... That is all we can do untill we get to the age of 18 and by then... we might loose interest all together and not bother to vote!
I think political parties don't really care about under because they cant vote and if they cant vote the politics dont really care about what they say.
Debates about what is the correct age to start voting are likley to continue for some time but the message that should go out to MPs is that to avoid disengaging their younger constituents from politics altogether they must talk to them, listen to them and find new ways to connect with this politically passionate, but sometimes, cynical generation.
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With the general election closing in, now is the time to get your students motivated to think about politics and debate the options in the election. Most of them may not be able to vote but HeadsUp allows 11-18 year olds to discuss their opinions with candidates standing for election and ex-MPs that have lots of experience of parliament and elections. The debate is running now until 14 May.
Register with HeadsUp now if you are between 11-18, or a teacher/youthworker.
Visit www.headsup.org.uk to see what you can do to get your students involved in the general election.....
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The HeadsUp
online forum for 11-18 year-olds took place from 1-19 March. The young people taking part in
the Sex education - do you get enough? forum, felt
that they did not want to be taught sex
education by people they know, for example their teachers, but felt an
outside
specialist or expert in sex education would be preferable and less
embarrassing:
Who
should teach us is definitely not teachers as it is embarrassing and
awkward it
should be somebody from outside the school so maybe somebody from Brooke
or
other sexual health organisations that exist out there.
I would most certainly
not want to learn from teachers and school, it would be embarrassing.
They also thought that although teenage pregnancy may not be the most desirable option, society was very prescriptive in when it thought having children was acceptable. Many of the posters thought that there should be more support for young girls that fall pregnant
the problem is not the young mothers themselves but the support system... I think work needs to be done on the governments part to support teenage mothers in getting into paid work and into a position to support their child. Work also needs to be done to improve the image of these young mothers so that society is more supportive.
Read the full report below.
Sex Education report March 2010.pdf
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The next HeadsUp forum is on Sex Education and will take place from 1-19 March. HeadsUp is for 11-18 year olds that want to discuss the political issues that matter to them, with the people that make the decisions that affect them.
Decision-makers involved so far include:
- Annette Brooke MP
- Mike Hancock MP
- Jenny Anderson AM
- Janet Ryder AM
- Bethan Jenkins AM
- Anna Martinez - Sex Education Forum
There is lots of information about sexual issues and sex education on the forum so that the young people involved can have a well informed debate.
Visit the student BackUp infomation here. There are also comprehensive Teachers' Notes to introduce your class to the topics and some activities to get you started online and offline. Visit the Teachers' notes here.
If you or someone you know want to take part go to www.headsup.org.uk to register.
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From 28 September - 16 October HeadsUp ran its first forum of the
academic year, with support from the Department of
Energy and Climate Change (DECC), looking at the issue of climate change in the run up to the
UN Summit in Copenhagen on December 7.
The forum was the most successful one
to date with over 1,000 posts and involvement from a number of key
decision-makers, including Joan Ruddock MP (Minister of State, DECC)
and Caroline Lucas MEP (Leader of the Green Party). Download the HeadsUp Climate Change Report here.
Climate Change Question Time with Gordon Brown, Ed Milliband and Baroness Kinnock
A group of young people from schools who partcipated in the HeadsUp forum on climate change attended an exclusive Question Time debate
in advance of the critical United Nations Copenhagen climate change
summit due to start on 7 December. For more information about what was
said by Gordon Brown, Ed Milliband and Baroness Kinnock visit the Channel 4 News website for some clips of the event.
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With the general election less than six months away a group of young people from around London have been interviewing politicians in Parliament to quiz them about issues that affect them. The group are aged 13 to 19, meaning some of them will be voting for the first time in the forthcoming election. The collaborative project has been organised by the Hansard Society's citizenship education programme and Headliners - a journalism programme for young people aged 8 to 19.
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HeadsUp will be hosting an online forum on the Economy between Monday 23 November and Friday 11 December. The collapse of the banking system and the subsequent recession affects young people even more than other groups as they are often the worst affected and will have to live with the implications of decisions taken. Consequently it is important that young people engage with the key issues and are able to have their views fed into policy decisions.
Mark Todd MP and Sally Keeble MP, who are members of the Treasury Select Committee which holds the government to account over its handling of the economy, will be listening and participating in the debate. Their involvement in the forum ensures that the views of young people will be fed into policy debate and decisions. To see all the decision-makers getting involved click here.
The forum will be split into four threads that will look at different aspects of the economic downturn:
Youth Unemployment – what do you think the government should do to tackle rising youth unemployment?
Spending Cuts – what public services do you think should be cut or saved?
The End of Capitalism – what would a world without money look like, would it be better or worse than now?
Economic Literacy – do you think it is important to be taught how to manage your money?
The forum can be viewed by anyone without registration and includes lots of useful information about the economy and the issues being discussed. The economy forum is the perfect tool for Citizenship, PSHE, Economics and Business Studies teachers to bring this topic to life. Click here to register as a teacher, youth worker or student.
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On Friday 30th of October over 300 hundred members of the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) made history as they held their annual debate in the House of Commons. It was the first time that anyone other than a sitting MP had been allowed to sit on the green benches of the debating chamber. The UKYP have 600 elected members aged between 11-18. More than 50% of members of the Youth Parliament are female, 22% from ethnic minorities and 3% with disabilities. In the last two years over one million young people have participated in elections.