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   Speaker launches new schools award
Mr Speaker hosted a launch event in his state apartments last night for the new Speaker's School Council Awards. Speaker Bercow welcomed children from Brecknock primary school in Camden and Little Heath secondary school in Reading to the event. Both schools helped the Parliament Education Service plan the awards and devise the criteria. Mr Speaker said the presence of the school pupils brought a "buzz in the atmosphere" to the launch. MPs Anne Begg, Mark Francois, Jo Swinson and Gisela Stuart were also there to support the new scheme. Speaker Bercow said the new awards were a "milestone" and paid tribute to the work of the education service in making Parliament relevant and accessible to all. "For all the damage done to Parliament in the last 12 months, there are lots of good things happening," he said. The number of pupils visiting has increased from 11,000 to 37,000 in three years and a new education centre, expected to open in 2013, with cater for 100,000 a year. Mr Speaker said every head teacher in the country would receive a letter about the new scheme. School councils will be asked to nominate "their most effective, engaging and ambitious projects". Schools that are shortlisted by the judging panel will be invited to a "big awards ceremony" in Parliament later this year. The winning schools will receive prizes, including money for new projects or equipment. Speaker Bercow said communicating with young people is both "rewarding and essential" as they are the future of our democracy and country. School councils are "their first real experience of democratic values and practice," he added. Mr Speaker has visited 25 schools across the UK since he took office last year. "I think the Speaker ought to get out and about," he said. Tom O'Leary, head of the Parliament Education Service, said the scheme was an exciting example of empowering people through knowledge. He praised the "exciting and dynamic work" children on school councils undertake. Children love to come into parliament and the education service aims to reach every child in the country, he added. Source: ePolitix.com Copyright Dod's Parliamentary Communications Ltd
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