Hamilton students adopt a Councillor to learn about local government

Students from Hamilton’s Whitiora School will take part in a mock Council meeting in the Hamilton City Council Chamber next Wednesday, 23 November as part of an ‘Adopt a Councillor’ initiative.

A concept of Hamilton City Councillor Angela O’Leary, Adopt a Councillor aims to build relationships between Hamilton primary school-aged students and Council by inviting schools to ‘adopt’ a City Councillor for a year. Throughout the year the Councillor will visit the students to speak about their role within Council and the community, and attend events and functions at the school.

Whitiora School’s Year 7 and 8 class is the first to come on board with the initiative by adopting Cr O’Leary, who visited the school earlier this month to brief students on the format of Council meetings in preparation for next week’s visit.

“Adopt a Councillor enables students to gain a greater understanding on the workings of Council from a young age and allows them to get to know their local Councillors. I hope the initiative will encourage and inspire more of our future leaders to get involved in local government,” said Cr O’Leary.

The mock Council meeting will be held from 11am-12pm and be chaired by Hamilton Mayor Julie Hardaker. It will include a fictional report on whether Hamilton Zoo should purchase two giant pandas from China, with students able to utilise the chamber’s electronic voting system to cast votes on the proposal. Other students from Whitiora School will be able to watch proceedings via web camera.

Cr O’Leary said she hopes more local schools will come on board with Adopt a Councillor in the near future, and would eventually like to see the initiative rolled out in schools and councils across the country.

Note for editors:
 

• Media are invited to attend the mock Council meeting