It was an exciting morning for Ridgeway Secondary students on Friday 7th June. Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Redditch, Chris Bloore, visited the school to meet with Headteacher, Mr Ball and a student panel.  

Ted and Poppy (Year 9) and Scarlett, Lachy and Rhys (Year 11) were excellent ambassadors for the school, asking Chris tough questions and exploring many important local and national issues, including: 

  • Labour’s position on climate change 
  • The importance of NHS funding 
  • Education funding and how to recruit and train the very best teachers and support staff for school 
  • Gender equality in the workplace 
  • Tackling child poverty 
  • Local issues such as the town centre, support for young people locally and the Alexandra Hospital challenges. 

Chris left our Year 11s with the sentiment of this – making real change calls us to be brave – an important message for our young people to hear. 

Chris also shared his experiences of the local community and the importance of Redditch to him personally through the morning. 

His visit concluded with a school tour and he was able to see our amazing community even further, commenting on the ‘calmness’ he felt while walking around and meeting our students and staff. He also stated how polite and respectful our students were and he was impressed by the significant improvements the school has made and the bold ambition to make this school the very best for all of our students. 

Headteacher, Mr Ball said that ‘He was delighted that Mr Bloore could spend so much of his time visiting Ridgeway and talking to our students about the issues that will impact their lives now and in the future.’ He added that, ‘We look forward to Rachel McClean’s visit later this month and the preparation for our own ‘in-school’ election across the week of the 1st July.’  

Watch this space!