Our Year 6 Ministers led the first Parliament for Term Two today in the school hall. We were very fortunate to have a special guest at our Parliament today – Ms Steph Cooke (MP)

Ms Cooke was extremely impressed with the way in which the students conducted themselves during Parliament and was super impressed with the Year 6 Minister speeches as they were “varied and inclusive of all the school community.”

At the conclusion of the minister speeches, Ms Cooke addressed the students and some of their prepared questions related to Leadership, which they had sent through to Ms Cooke prior to today.

Some of the questions the children had posed were:

• What do you believe are three main qualities you need to be a successful leader? (Talia McKay)
• What decision-making did you go through to become involved in Government? (Sammy Daken)
• How do you deal with conflicts in your role? (Tom Bass)
• What motivates you to be involved in politics? (Jemima)
• If any of us were interested in becoming involved in a Leadership role in the future, what would you suggest we could do to help us prepare for this? (Archie)
• What do you feel has been your most successful or rewarding event/experience in leadership? (Riley)

There were 14 questions in total, where Ms Cooke impressed the audience with the quality of her answers. 

The children gained so much from their time with Ms Cooke today and came away from Parliament with a greater understanding of the need of good leadership in every community. Our leaders are well on the way to achieving their goals in this area. The children are now focussing on designing a poster with the three qualities Ms Cooke described as her most important:

• LISTEN - Be a good listener and be prepared to listen.
• WORK HARD – Everything in life requires a work ethic – nothing ‘just happens’, you need to put your hand up and have a go and ‘make things happen’.
• BE KIND – absolutely the most important value is kindness to all. Treat people fairly and with respect in order to earn respect.

Ms Cooke concluded with the statement that one of most rewarding aspects of her role is visiting schools and speaking with students like she had the opportunity to do today at Trinity.

Our school community thank Ms Cooke for giving up her time to be part of our school Parliament.

Upon returning to class, Miss Wade asked her students what the main message from Ms Cooke was:

Every question matters – there’s no such thing as a dumb question (Tom Bass)

Listening is a skill and we should use it – (Bea Lucas)

If you are kind, you are already a leader (Sammy Daken)

If you get given an opportunity in life – take it! (Talia McKay)

Doing something small could change somebody’s life (Jaslyn Killick)

Always ask questions (Aidan Summerfield)

Always take an opportunity to talk in front of somebody – whether it is one person or a hundred (Riley)

Even the smallest thing you do can make a big difference to the next person (Ryan)

Even the smallest person can change the cause of the future (Michael)

If you are going to say something – say it with kindness (Charlie)

Everyone is a leader in their own way (Claudia)

To succeed in life – have a go! Don’t let opportunities come to you – seek them out and have a go. (Year 6 Leaders)