Delivering the engage strand | Primary school

Key topics

• Roles and responsibilities of elected representatives and decision makers.
• How representation works and who represents you.
• Petitions, consultations and democratic participation.
• Contacting decision makers and holding representatives to account.

Why the Engage strand matters in primary schools

This strand allows learners to connect directly with local and national decision-makers. Meeting representatives face-to-face or virtually demystifies politicians, builds trust, and demonstrates  that young voices command attention and leaders are accountable.   Engaging with decision makers helps learners to understand who represents them, what their role is, and how they can share their views with them. Another major benefit is oracy. Speaking to people in power moves learners from peer debates to articulating views to unfamiliar adults, building real communication confidence.

These opportunities should be available to everyone, and not just a select few engaged learners.  While it may feel daunting for both adults and learners, interacting with politicians and decision makers in real ways can be powerful.

To navigate any logistical challenges, start small. Not every visitor needs to be an MP - headteachers, governors, and community leaders are fantastic alternatives. Formal emails and video calls increase accessibility, while class letter-writing or sending postcards guarantees engagement if visits aren't feasible.

To help make visits positive, constructive and aligned with your schools' responsibilities around impartiality, set clear expectations with both learners and decision makers. Sessions should focus on the role of elected representatives and local issues learners want to explore. Visits should be part of a wider learning journey, where learners have opportunities to explore different perspectives and reflect on what they have learned.

My approach

My main goal is for learners to feel their engagement with decision-makers has a real purpose. Visits shouldn’t just be ‘nice-to-have’ additions; they must be embedded into carefully sequenced learning. While they can act as a hook or a conclusion, I find visits work best in the middle of a topic as a powerful vehicle for high-quality oracy.

Here is how I approach it:

• Start local and broaden the definition. Ensure learners know decision-makers aren't just MPs. Start locally. Ask the headteacher, catering manager, or librarian how they make choices. It’s easier to organise, lowers the stakes for learners, and proves influence happens everywhere.
• Prepare through role-play. Engaging with their peers and familiar adults (yes, teachers can role play too!) is a low-stakes way to build confidence and rehearse questioning and listening skills. Give them time to develop questions and, most importantly, practice the mechanics of asking them so that the time doesn’t become wasted.
• Work collectively and purposefully. Democracy naturally lends itself to togetherness, so use the opportunities to write letters, emails and questions as a class. Politics is also about action so write to engage, to request, to demand.
• Use games and play. Learning can be done playfully to explore issues and ideas in a more informal and accessible way. This can be done in class or with decision makers.

If you can only do one thing…

Have the class collectively draft and send a single email to a local councillor or MP about a genuine school issue. It takes fifteen minutes to do together, but it proves to learners that their voices can directly reach the people in charge.

Where this fits into the curriculum

• English: engage decision-makers with letters and e-mails as real-world applications for formal writing. Drafting collectively is great teaching, too, providing real purpose and audience. Learn how to ask questions and respond.
• PSHE: Living in the Wider World covers local community, democracy and government, where learners learn about local services and the role of MPs and the Prime Minister.
• EYFS (Understanding the World): This covers local community, democracy and government, where learners learn about local services and the role of MPs and the Prime Minister. Linking these learning strands to visitors aligns with the British Values of democracy and mutual respect.
• Geography: Learn who is responsible for fixing geographic issues (for example, traffic and parking around school gates, litter in the park or a new housing development). Link to English by reaching out to these people.
• Assemblies/ School Council: Maximise visitor impact, perhaps as a tag-on to a class visit. Ensure that these are framed as dialogue and not lectures.
• Digital Literacy: Send e-mails, make videos and host video calls with representatives.

Key resources

If you have 30 minutes or less…

• Find your MP, UK Parliament - Use the UK Parliament website to identify and learn about your local MP.
• WriteToThem, MySociety - Visit mySociety to explore the different types of politicians that represent learners and talk though what each one is responsible for. This website also includes information on how to contact representatives.

1 hour… 

• Contact your MP, UK Parliament - Ask your learners about the issues they want to raise with their MP or local councillors. Is there something they want to change or improve in their local area? Or something they are worried about and want to know what their MP or local councillors are doing about it? You can then help learners to either individually or collectively write a letter to their MP or councillor to share their views.
• The Big Democracy Lesson KS2, Young Citizens - You can also deliver this lesson to explore the role of MPs and how decisions are made.

1-3 hours… 

• Preparing to speak with a politician KS2, The Politics Project - You can invite a politician to meet with your learners and answer their prepared questions over a 45 minute Q&A. In advance, use this resource in a lesson to help learners research the politician and prepare meaningful questions to ask.

4-6 hours…

• Learn live: How to make a petition, UK Parliament - Use this video from UK Parliament to teach learners how to start a petition, giving them the chance to see how democracy works through petition-making.
• How to create a government petition, #iwill - Another useful guide to support you in creating a petition. You could build in discussion and debate first, to help learners explore what they’d like to start a petition about.

6 hours plus… 

• Education visits, UK Parliament - Arrange a visit to the UK Parliament to learn about its history and get to speak to your local MP. Learners can use the Preparing to speak with a politician KS2, The Politics Project to prepare questions they want to ask.
• Learn with the Lords, UK Parliament - You can also arrange an online call or an in person visit to the House of Lords with this programme.

Considerations for learners with additional needs

• Scaffold the process: Allow learners to pre-record questions on a tablet or a communication board to support those learners with Speech, Language and Communication needs. Reduce anxiety around speaking with unfamiliar individuals further by having learners write their questions clearly before the session starts. This level of predictability helps manage  worries about being put on the spot.
• Ask a politician to send a video instead of a letter. This allows learners to access the information in a less intimidating way. You can stop the video at planned times to ask questions or ask learners to make inferences. You can also have learners have multiple viewings.
• Brief the visitor: Ensure the visitor knows which learners might struggle with the session and, more importantly, remind them to use everyday language so that a Q&A doesn’t get lost in political jargon. This helps avoid learners’ attempts to engage being met with a confusing response.