Westminster Politics Trip 2024
On Tuesday 19th March, six pupils studying A Level Politics headed to Westminster for a debate and lunch.
The pupils were guests of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Biomedical Engineering and their lunch was followed by a tour of the Supreme Court and a meeting with Danny Kruger MP (whose sister is a Headingtonian).
The trip was organised by Head of Politics Mr Matt Gow, who has taken small groups to these events for some years.
Lunch was held in the prestigious Cholmondeley Room, with its accompanying terrace which is the principal function room of the House of Lords.
The six girls on the trip were seated next to distinguished guests from the Lords or from industry and during lunch listened to four guest speakers (Prof Eleanor Stride, Oxford University; Prof Michael Sutcliffe, Cambridge University; Dr Julia Fan Li and Joseph Bentley, ACT Medical) who shared fascinating insights and experiences from their careers and encouraged pupils to explore biomedical engineering as a career.
This was followed by a question and answer session which extended the discussion onto the wider applications of biomedical engineering from using hi tech balloon technology in medicine to integrating AI into further research.
After lunch, the group walked up Whitehall to peak through the heavily guarded gates of 10 Downing Street before returning to Parliament Square to tour the Supreme Court and sit in on a case in the main courtroom.
Following that, the girls met Mr Kruger outside the Court. He answered questions from the pupils and provided some interesting insights into life as an MP – but would not be drawn into answering if there would be an imminent leadership challenge in the Conservative Party or when the election would be called!
Mr Gow said: “Overall it was a thoroughly interesting day and one in which the pupils learnt a lot and most importantly enjoyed!”
