Politics – far too important to be left to the grown-ups!

Thank you to the pupils of Richard Alibon Primary School, which I left in rather better mood than I arrived this morning.

In no particular order ... Trump ... The war in Ukraine ... Israel/Gaza ... the climate crisis ... the seeming indifference to the rising tide of corruption in the UK ... the muddle Labour seems to have landed itself in over the "will they/won't they?" £28bn green prosperity plan ... all these and more crowded in on my thinking at various points on the half hour train journey between home and Dagenham. Even the good news from the weekend - the return of the Northern Ireland political institutions - failed to dispel the overall Monday morning gloom.

What did lift me, though, was seeing schoolchildren engage in a very simple democratic process.

Richard Alibon is one of the 500 schools signed up to the Smart Schools Council, a charity which supports the introduction and running of school councils all over the country.

So the day started with every class taking part in the same debate, seeking to agree upon a change that could be made, to make lunchtime a happier experience. With teachers taking a back seat, a pupil in each class set out four options that had been prepared by the Council - a chill-out area with beanbags; a quiet space for reading; a music space; or the updating of outdoor equipment in the playground. Within each classroom, they were then split into small groups, given five minutes to decide their favoured option, which they then had to report back to the class.

I sat with the first class of older children, and every group opted for better playground equipment. Landslide. A teacher explained to me that the playground is split into three areas, and the older children definitely have the short straw when it comes to equipment. She thought the younger children might come to a different view. They did. We moved on to another class where there was a lot more love for the idea of a reading space, and then a third, where outdoor equipment and reading jockeyed for supremacy. Once the whole school results are analysed, a decision will be made, announced by the School Council, and then implemented.

They were also asked for possible ideas for future discussion for future votes, and suggestions as varied as a gardening club and a slime club were made - I knew what the first was, had to ask re the second! - and duly noted.

I then had a long session with the Council. Fourteen children, a fair few with English as second language, with Bengali, Gujarati, Arabic, Portuguese and Romanian among the languages spoken at home. They had such a passion for the work they did on the Council. One by one, they went through the different roles they played ... deciding the questions for the weekly class meetings; liaison with teachers; writing the newsletter; secretarial support for the Council.

As with lots of young children, they said they didn't know much about politics, and when I asked if any of them thought they might become politicians, I was met with a lot of shaking heads. But after an hour and more chat, during which they peppered me with dozens of questions, with more still to ask when they had to leave for their science lesson, I asked the same question, might they think about being politicians, and got quite a few saying "Maybe."

Part of the skill of a politician is to make people feel more optimistic and more confident about the future. So to Salwa and Ava, Ayra and Frankie, Diego and Millie, Ibrahim and all the other members of the Council, I say ... I hope your work on the Council isn't the last contribution you make to the democratic process.

Politics is for everyone ... and far too important to be left to the grown-ups!