Guides and Brownies get to grips with local government

Brownies and Girl Guides were taught how local government and elections work during a recent visit to Wokingham Borough Council.

A mixture of 20 Brownies and 19 Guides from 3rd Wokingham attended the event, which was held in the council chamber at Shute End in Wokingham.

The children were welcomed by Borough Mayor Cllr Adrian Mather and Deputy Mayor Cllr Carol Jewell and got to take part in a mock ballot.

Cllr Mather said: “This has genuinely been one of the highlights so far as my time as Borough Mayor. The children were really enthusiastic and asked brilliant questions. I hope this will have been a memorable experience for them and may even encourage some of them to become councillors, or even mayor, one day.

“It is so important for us to do work like this with community groups. Explaining to young people how local government works is crucial in helping them to understand how they can get involved in years to come and building a borough of informed and engaged residents.”

The Mayor spoke about his responsibilities and was followed by Maya Guelbert, the Youth MP for Wokingham, who talked about the Youth Council and why she was interested in getting involved in politics.

The functions of the borough council were then explained and the children were encouraged to contribute ideas about what they thought the council was responsible for overseeing.

Members of the council’s electoral services team then gave a presentation about how voting works, the differences between the different types of elections and the history of voting in the UK, referencing the hard work and sacrifices of the Suffragette movement to earn equal voting rights for women.

After an explanation about how to fill out their ballot paper, the children were presented with four made-up candidates and had to vote for one of them based on the promises in their manifestos, using the booths and ballot boxes that would be used at elections. After the votes were tallied and winner announced, the event ended with a question and answer session. 

Brownie and Guide leader Bethany Reece-Smith said: “The Brownies and Guides had a really great time learning lots about elections and the borough council – even leaders learned something new. 

"The girls loved being able to take part in a vote with realistic ballot papers and the real booths and boxes, which many of them had never seen before and it made elections seem much more real to them.”

Abigail, ten, one of the Guides that attended, said: “I really enjoyed meeting the Mayor and being able to take part in a vote with real voting booths and ballot boxes was a lot of fun.”

Charlotte, nine, one of the Brownies, added: “I liked seeing the big council chamber with the pictures on the walls and large Wokingham Borough Council crest and using the microphones.”