From the 26th January to the 28th January, the annual Regional and European Round Square conference was held at Felsted School, Essex.
The theme this year was Democracy and, initially in small groups of around 20 people, we discussed key themes such as: whether the voting age should be lowered, types of democracy, what democracy means to us and who should have the right to participate in a democracy.
Throughout our time there, we listened to four keynote speakers who addressed such topics as `The democratic process in India; the largest democracy in the world`; ‘Alternative für Deutschland: the rise of far-right politics in Germany’, all of which gave us student delegates plenty to think about and discuss in our workshops.
There were multiple countries and nationalities represented among the student body which made for a variety of perspectives enriching our discussions. It was certainly interesting to hear how opinions differed from country to country.
The entertainment over the weekend was very good and presented democracy in a more light-hearted and relaxing way after the series of discussions and debates we had had over the weekend. The day of workshops concluded with the opportunity to all come together, share, discuss and debate with the adult delegates our views and what we had been discussing over the weekend.
The weekend finished with a party on Saturday night before returning to Rossall on Sunday morning. I would certainly recommend participating in a future Round Square Conference if you have the opportunity. Watch out for more details on Round Square coming soon!
– Harriet Clough (Year 10)
This weekend, we went to Felsted School in Essex for the Round Square European and the Mediterranean Annual Regional Conference.
The weekend was really interesting; we got to hear a number of keynote speakers, including Matthew Spacie, founder of the Magic Bus, a charity that helps children living in poverty in India, Susan Popoola, a published author of two books exploring the world in which we live, Thomas Sparrow, who spoke on, “Do far right political parties provide democracy with positive challenges or worrying risks?” and Meha Lodha, who gave a talk on Democracy in India.
I learnt a great deal of useful facts and figures whilst doing activities and workshops and also interacted with other students from different schools around Europe. We also feasted on the delicious school meals!
– Alexander Fielden (Year 10)
