Greenfield “Drop Down Day”
By Holly Hardy, Year 10
After weeks of intense preparation, Greenfield’s ‘Rights Drop Down Day’ finally arrived on Friday 15th November. Throughout the day, the pupils of Greenfield participated in various “experiences” orientated around the understanding of their rights and the way the government functions, particularly the House of Lords. The main focus of the event was a vote to see whether or not pupils supported the reduction of the speed limit outside of our school and Byerley Park Primary school
The speed limit on the main road outside of Greenfield is currently 40mph. This is more than enough to kill a child if they are hit by a car, in fact anything over 30mph would be likely to result in a fatality. That is why five pupils from year 10, myself included, campaigned for the duration of the event to alert our peers to the dangers of the inflated speed limit and how essential it was to communicate the need for the ‘Drop Down’ to 20mph; a speed which largely has the power to inflict more minor injuries.
What did we do? Well, we campaigned, we designed and we hand-made t-shirts, placards, sandwich boards and over 700 badges to be sold around school in aid of ‘Plan International’ (a non-profit organisation dedicated to making sure children everywhere have their rights respected) and to spread the word of the all-important drop down.
We were joined by an array of different guests including: Baroness Armstrong from the House of Lords; Local MP, Phil Wilson; Newton Aycliffe Mayor, Barbara Clare; Councillor John Clare; Dr. Doug Bourn from the Institute of Education, and many representatives from business, the armed forces and the public sector.
As the many and various activities of the day came to a close, everyone returned to their tutor for the all-important ‘vote for change’. The ballots were counted and the result was overwhelmingly positive with 81.3% of pupils voting to reduce the speed limit to 20mph. Next week a petition will be signed and put forward to Parliament – hopefully this example of democracy in action will result in the roads next to our schools finally being safer for all of us!. After all, twenty’s plenty!
