The Scottish Parliament Outreach Programme

On Wednesday 4th May the third form were visited by Ms Jill Smith from the Scottish Parliament outreach programme. It surprised me how little I previously knew about the parliamentary system in Scotland and as the following day saw an election, it was highly topical.

We learnt the meaning of devolution and which areas of how Scotland is run can be altered by the parliament at Holyrood and which have to be decided in Westminster. For instance, education issues such as school hours can be decided by the Scottish parliament, whereas the classification of drugs can only be changed by the British Government.
We were informed about the workings of the minority government; it was no surprise to learn the next day that the SNP's (Scottish National Party) have come away from this election with an increased majority of seats.

At the end of the session, to test our knowledge we played 'Who wants to be an MSP', constructed like a similar TV quiz show. We were asked a series of questions about the Scottish parliament. By answering all these correctly we were able to become an MSP.

This session was very informative and relevant: thank you to everyone who was involved with the organisation of it.

Isobel Murray John (Lothian III)