Stormont, Assembly Educational Service (Day 7)

During my final placement day at Stormont on Friday it was absolutely pouring rain and after navigating the bus system, my housemate and I had to climb the mile long drive leading up to Stormont's front doors.

Although the view from the beginning of the drive is nothing short of spectacular, the cold weather, wind and rain made the walk seem extra long!

After we arrived, we met one of the staff from the Assembly Education Service who brought us on a tour with a group of primary school children. The children were representatives from the student council at their school, and the students were given the opportunity to host a student council meeting in the senate chambers. The issues they were discussing were so funny and cute - some of the hot issues were, "How can we make our school more colorful?," "How can we make sure the toilets are clean?," and "What advice can we give next year's student council?"

Following the student council meeting, the staff brought us upstairs to see the Assembly Education Service's office. We were given lots of materials that are used by the staff members to teach school children - they even have two different comic books to explain how the Northern Ireland Assembly works to kids! The staff also showed us their website, which includes some of the most phenomenal government-related resources for children that I have ever seen. On the website there are tons of kid-friendly games, videos and graphics. You can check it out here:
http://education.niassembly.gov.uk/

Finally, we made our way back home to 12 Lake Road in Ballydugan. The bus ride was long and once we made our way back a giant puddle stood in our way on our walk home. The puddle was so huge that I had to take off my shoes to wade through it and the water came up past my ankles! Once home we lit a fire and spent the rest of the night drying our shoes and clothing and sipping tea by the fire.