Join Abby and our News Nuggets as they discover what's important in their local area and learn about all things politics and democracy!
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LearningTranscript
00:00Hello, I'm Abi and welcome to News Nuggets. This week we'll be learning about your local
00:26government, voting and democracy. So let's meet this week's News Nuggets.
00:34This week's News Nuggets reporters are Eni and Freya.
00:38Hi News Nuggets, this is our year group. Hi!
00:45The two Year 5 students are proud members of Swingate Primary School. They started the
00:50day by showing us around their school. In here is our school park. Let's take a
00:57look, shall we? So what are the topics that are most important
01:02to you? If we didn't have any litter pickers, then
01:07most people, like if animals come, they might get stuck in the rubbish.
01:13The French of French is quite important because I've seen a lot of people in our neighbourhood
01:18just sitting there alone on the French of French.
01:20The Forest School is like a really big part of Swingate.
01:23We had that really big storm last year. It didn't destroy the Forest School but we definitely
01:30had a bit of damage in it and I definitely want to focus on getting it back up and running.
01:35They were super excited to tell us about their school's values.
01:40Last year we also got introduced to our school values to show what Swingate is really made
01:45out of sort of thing and what we should show every day no matter if we're at school or
01:50anything. So one of those values is bravery?
01:52Yeah. This is responsibility because as you can
01:56see it has like a little litter picker which shows that we have to be responsible with
02:02our litter. This one is resilience. So it's in our programme
02:07and it says never give up because at Swingate it's really important to try your hardest
02:12even like when you don't get it, get a back up and try again.
02:16And this value is empathy and that's why it has a little heart on its belly.
02:25Do you know what your local council is in charge of?
02:29Your local council is in charge of really important services like social care, schools,
02:34housing, planning the building of different things and collecting your bins.
02:39They also support businesses and even do pest control.
02:43They're funded by tax but what is tax? You have to pay it when you live in the UK.
02:50It gives the central government money to pay for the things we call public services.
02:56It's us paying money to fund services for us.
02:59The central government then give money to local governments like Medway Council.
03:04When these services aren't working we can hold them responsible.
03:09Policy means that we get a say on who leads our country.
03:13Every five years people in the UK go to their local ballot station and vote for a member
03:18of parliament who is different from a local councillor because they get to vote on things
03:23that affect the whole country. When each part of the country works out who
03:27got the most votes the main government is decided.
03:31We also get to vote for local government.
03:35But what is a political party? It's a group that share the same point of
03:40view and want to be in charge of the government or local council.
03:45There are lots of parties in the UK. At the moment the government is run by the
03:50Conservative Party with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who is the leader.
03:56The next biggest is the Labour Party. Lots of people also vote for the Liberal Democrats.
04:04There's another group called the Green Party that focuses on environmental issues.
04:09Have you heard of any of these? But what about in Medway and the local council?
04:15Well the Labour Party won an election last year and are now in charge.
04:20The next biggest party in Medway are the Conservatives.
04:25Let's go back to Swingate Primary School to quiz councillors from Medway Council on how
04:30they're helping our community.
04:35We're here today to learn more about politics. So how much do you know about
04:40politics? Do you know a lot? Well we're here with three councillors from Medway
04:46Council to find out more. What do you do all together? Lots of people think that
04:52politics is about arguing and of course you know we don't always have the same
04:56views but there is a lot of cross-party working and that is where we work closely together.
05:01Do you like being councillors? Yes I do like being a councillor. I was first elected in May so I'm
05:07still a new councillor but no I'm in opposition which means I can't get anything done in the
05:12biggest scheme of things. What does politics mean? So politics to me in a sentence means as a local
05:17councillor I know helping the community I represent, helping the wider Medway community in our basis
05:24and how we actually work both in parties and together to deliver services that people need
05:31and want from their local politicians. So when you're old enough to vote it's really important
05:37that you take that chance because it means that what you want to happen has got a real say in
05:42what's going to happen. Who thinks they know more about politics now? Wow loads of people.
05:49Now it's time for you both to ask our councillors some questions. It's almost been a year since
05:55you've been elected, how's it been? Well I think it's been a really exciting year but really
06:00challenging as well. It's not my money or Theresa's money or Andrew's money, it's taxpayers money of
06:06Medway. That's the first time there's been a Labour council in Medway for a long time so I'm really
06:12pleased that people share our views and values and the way we want to do things. Going on from that,
06:17do you think you're doing a good job at what you're doing? Well that's a great question.
06:23Democracy means people will have an ability you know at the ballot box to tell us whether they
06:29think we've done well or not by re-electing us or not. But you know it's very early days,
06:34you should ask that question in a year's time. And something that's really important for different
06:39parties is something called a campaign. What advice would you give to our News Nuggets in
06:45creating their own campaign? Yeah I think you need to agree on an issue. Politics is about
06:52getting people to agree to your point of view so when you're sitting around debating about the
06:56length of the school day or how many lessons, you're trying to convince people to your point
07:01of view. It's really important that we debate but we're not horrible, we're not nasty, we don't use
07:06bad words to describe people we don't agree with. There's been some good work for example around
07:12things like violence against women and girls so trying to tackle that issue. We went out onto the
07:17streets and as part of that we were asking women and girls how do they feel about things, what
07:21would make them feel safe and lots of people told us they'd like better lighting in the streets.
07:26Going out and actually talking to people if you're having a campaign is really important.
07:30Some girls went over and said that boys were making rude remarks of them which me and Annie
07:35can definitely relate to. Luckily we have very good comebacks but I can definitely relate to
07:42that and I'm really happy that you're kind of focusing on that.
07:50Now it's time for me and our News Nuggets to spend a day with council leader Vince.
07:59So Vince where are we going now? One of the projects we're going to look at today is the
08:04paddock which is right in the heart of Chatham Town Centre.
08:09So we're going to see nice places for people to stop and to relax because actually life is quite
08:14busy. We should be building chocolate factories, movie theatres for us. Three, two, one.
08:26So what exactly is going on here? So we're going to have lots of new trees and plants here because
08:31lots of people have said they want more green space in the middle of our towns. We're going
08:36to also have better access for people so they can move around if they've got limited mobility
08:41they'll be able to move around the space easier and it's part of a bigger thing we're doing here
08:45in Chatham. So we can see over there we've got lots of new homes being built. So how much is
08:50all this building going to cost? So this is costing several hundreds of thousands of pounds.
08:56It's a lot of money. So what is regeneration? For some people it's about the buildings,
09:00making sure you've got lovely places to work and to live and to enjoy but also regeneration can be
09:07about improving how much money people are earning, how much good education like the
09:12schools people go to. So helping people you know improve the quality of life.
09:18Look they even have a bench there just like the friendship benches that you have at school.
09:22Yeah. Do you think it's important to have that in the local area as well as your school? Why is that
09:26so key? Yeah definitely because this is supposed to be like a family attraction
09:33as Vince said where you can just hang out with friends and stuff. You know
09:37Fran, I think there should be a bench right here. Yeah there should with our names on it.
09:46Vince are your days usually this busy? Oh they really are. Lots of meetings, lots of conversations,
09:51lots of visits to places. So it's a real privilege to do the job I do as a politician
09:56but it's quite hard work. Yeah can we go back now? Sounds like a good idea. Let's go. Let's go News Nugget.
10:09That tour was really interesting. So we now know that adults pay tax and we get public services
10:16like that building project but it's always important to contact your council if you're
10:20not happy with what they're doing. So I think we've learned a lot about politics and government
10:25in Medway but what else has been happening? First there were nearly 5,000 incidents of fly-tipping
10:32in Medway last year making it the worst in Kent. Residents say they're fed up of seeing rubbish
10:38dumped on their roads. Four hockey players from Medway are going all the way to the Olympics.
10:45The team they'll be part of, Team GB, haven't won an Olympics in nearly 40 years and finally
10:52a Rochester toy shop says it's going plastic free by next year. Our little cherub has been
10:59on the high street for more than 30 years. They say too many shops are using too much plastic
11:05and it's not good for our environment. There's been a lot going on in Medway this week hasn't
11:11there? Let's round up what we've learned today. We pay tax which goes to our local council.
11:17They then decide what to do with the money like making our roads less bumpy. We know that there
11:23are lots of political parties which have people with different views and you get to vote who's
11:28in charge when you're 18. Well that's it for now. Thank you to our news nuggets. See you next time
11:35for another bite-sized bulletin.