James Duddridge, Member of Parliament for Rochford and Southend East, went back to school today as he visited three schools in Southend.
Firstly, James visited Cecil Jones where he met Head teacher Pauline Harris, Deputy Head teacher Julie Rogers and College Governor Peter Hawkins.
James was taken on a tour of the college and visited students in their lessons. James engaged in discussions ranging from rates of chemical reactions in science to analysing phobias in English. He also met with the sixth form politics class and they quizzed him on why he wanted to become an MP; his views on AV and the coalition government.
This was an ideal opportunity to discuss the improvements that the college has made including those in student achievement. The college was extremely pleased with the performance of its year 11 students who took their maths GCSE in November, almost 50% of the year group already have an A*-C grade and the college is on target to reach its best ever examination results in the summer.
The next visit was to St Bernard’s and James was met by Head Teacher Pat Baron and Deputy Head teacher Carmel Alan. During the meeting Pat, Carmel and James discussed the curriculum of the school, the range of subjects offered to the students and also the examination results which showed the Year 11 pupils achieved 76% of 5 GCSE’s A*-C
Again, James went on a tour of the school and observed a science lesson and a 3D art lesson where there was an array of very impressive art pieces on display and also being created.
Finally James went to Westcliff High School for Girls where he met Tony Cains and gave a presentation and a Question and Answer to year 13 students, during their Politics Awareness Day. James spoke about the AV Referendum, his life as an MP and also his role as a Government Whip. James ended the visit with lunch at the school.
James said
“I have had a fantastic day visiting three local schools, all of which are very different but all have a common goal – to offer the best education to their pupils whilst enabling them to have aspirations and fulfil those aspirations.
“It is a long time since I last had a school meal, and I must say the food was very different to the meals when I was at school! I thoroughly enjoyed it!”
ENDS