A day in the life of Leah Wright, youth mayor, Mansfield

Youth mayor Leah Wright with
deputy youth mayor Andrew
Holloway

Earlier this month, I was proud to host the first Mansfield Learning Partnership (MLP) conference led by young people, for young people.

After discussions with Andrew Holloway, deputy youth mayor, and Berni Dickinson, managing director of MLP – which represents secondary schools, local authorities, and other education partners in the town – we came up with the idea of basing the conference on post-16 education.

Since the recent development of 14 to16 education with diplomas and BTECs, along with different methods of teaching, we felt post-16 had been neglected.

Student voice

We wanted to give students a voice in shaping the future of post-16 education, asking them about their experiences and how they felt it could be better. The conference provided us with a win-win situation, fulfilling some of our manifesto pledges around communicating better and improving work experience opportunities.

We decided to invite year 12 students (aged 16-17), training providers, colleges and those who worked, to give a good range of views and opinions. We opted to have five topics for discussion which we felt were the most important to address:

• options available at post-16;
• choice of enrichment activities available;
• work experience and future job opportunities;
• information, advice and guidance services; and
• overall experience of teaching and learning.

A video booth was provided which delegates could use to air topics or raise issues.

I welcomed 100 delegates to the event and introduced our motivational speaker, Katrina Atherton, a local entrepreneur and a former pupil of Mansfield’s Manor school, who shared her experiences of setting up her own media business.

We then divided into workshop zones, facilitated by young people who were given a free hand to be innovative in delivering their subjects with activities or discussions. We even had one with a courtroom drama!

After lunch I chaired a question time panel, made up of notable local VIPs. The audience was given the opportunity to quiz them about the environment, work experience, jobs, local development and help for young people in the future. We gave our closing remarks with thanks to everyone who had helped us to make the day meaningful and successful.

Young people had their day to speak their mind and help to improve post-16 education in Mansfield. There was good feedback from everyone and we got some excellent material to pass on to local decision makers.

We hope this is the first of many conferences like this for Mansfield. We shouldn’t completely rely on the powers that be to decide the fate of services for our generation. It’s young people that feel the effects of those decisions, and it is vital our voice is heard.

• Leah Wright, 18, is Mansfield’s youth mayor. She was elected in October 2009 for a 12-month term. More than 5,000 young people voted in the election

Youth mayor Leah Wright with deputy youth mayor Andrew Holloway