Join Abby to find our more about elections and voting...
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00:00Hello, I'm Abbey and welcome to News Nuggets. This week we'll be looking into something
00:25that can change what you learn at school, the ways we can stay healthy or how we fight
00:30climate change across the UK and that is the general election. Voting means that we get
00:36a say in how the country decides things so let's run through how it all works. Your local
00:42council is in charge of really important public services like social care, education, housing
00:48and collecting your bins but the central government gives them the money to pay for these things.
00:53They also make really important decisions about how everyone in the UK learns in school,
00:58about immigration, the NHS, the economy, crime, the environment, there's a lot to think about.
01:04For example if the central government votes to make wearing pink socks a law then we need
01:09to do it but if we think this is unfair it's our right to peacefully protest to get them
01:15to undo what they've done. There are groups called parties, not the kind you're invited
01:20to but like the Conservatives, Labour, Green, Liberal Democrats and many more. They all have
01:25different ideas of what's important and ahead of an election in their groups they will publish
01:30a long list of things they want to do if they were elected to be the main party in our government.
01:36For example let's review the policies for schools during the 2024 general election.
01:41The Conservatives wanted to make spaces for people with special educational needs and disabilities, SEND.
01:48Labour wanted to recruit more teachers. The Liberal Democrats wanted to have a mental health professional
01:54in every school. Then the Green Party wanted to offer free breakfast clubs. Democracy means that every
02:00five years we look at what parties want to do and if we agree we get a say by voting on election day at
02:06our local ballot station. Now that we know more let's meet this episode's News Nuggets who made a special
02:12visit here at the KMTV studio to see how a local TV station covers the general election.
02:24Hi! My name is Annie. My name is Freya and we're at the KMTV studio to interview Abby and to talk about
02:32journalism and journalism and the general election. Let's go!
02:41Three, two, one, six, but that's it for us. Bye-bye.
02:45I'm Daniel, please.
02:56Hello, how are you? Ready?
02:59New, two, three, four, five, and then we'll do this.
03:08So what have you been up to?
03:09I've been presenting for about 12 hours live. We went live at 10 p.m.
03:14That's when the polls close. Were you putting your votes?
03:17So Abby, how does our one vote make a difference?
03:20Well, it's very important that you do vote because if everybody said their vote didn't make a difference,
03:25there would be no voting. There'd be no results. Every vote counts and it's very important.
03:30So when you're 18 and you vote, you choose a member of parliament or MP that represents your
03:35local area and central government. They all meet in London to debate the issues that are affecting
03:40you the most. So when each part of the country works out who got the most votes, the main government
03:46is then decided. For example, if you vote for Labour and they win as MP in your local area,
03:51then lots of other people across the country vote for Labour too and they win. They get seats.
03:56If they have the most seats, they're in charge. And that's what's happened in this general election.
04:02Here in Kent, they won a lot of seats. So before this, we had two Labour MPs. Now we have 11.
04:09I hope that they do good to Kent, if you know what I mean. They don't just do it for the power.
04:16What do you think are some of the promises you would want to hear from your local MP?
04:20Starting first around our school, some people just smoke around them. There's one main hospital
04:27in our area. It takes so long to wait and there's some people that need that healthcare,
04:34but they can't. I know the NHS are trying hard, but we need more hospitals.
04:40Those were some really important issues to highlight. And because you aren't quite old
04:49enough to vote just yet, we thought we'd hold our very own election at Eni and Freya's school
04:55to decide what topic we'll cover in the last part of this episode.
04:59Hi! We're going to join some groups and debate and crush Eni's team.
05:08Yeah, right. My team's going to win.
05:11All right, girls. All right, girls. Calm down. Well, the winning topic
05:13that you'll be debating will decide what we look at later in the episode.
05:20Gonna crush Freya's team.
05:23I'm going to go over to all the groups now and see what ideas they've got,
05:26see what arguments they've got developing. So you've got to try and convince all of your
05:31classmates that your topic's the best. For certain people with like medical issues,
05:38they can use their phones to track like sugar levels. You walk home on your own,
05:42you have like phones to like text your parents when you get to your house or when you're leaving school.
05:48We think that a 16-year-old's perspective would be very different. So I think having a 16-year-old's
05:58one would make England a very better place. But how do you know that 16-year-olds are educated
06:04enough to know a lot about politics? I think that England will come together and teach 16-year-olds
06:12how to vote. School uniform can prevent us from bullying. Two, increase safety. And number three,
06:21get the school of promotion. You might be able to tell that school uniform's cheap and expensive.
06:27We were thinking of setting up a programme where children, once they've finished school,
06:32they can take their old clothes and donate it to charities.
06:39It creates a cycle on climate change and stuff like that and it really impacts on climate change.
06:44What about the people with allergies or intolerances? You can maybe use the plant-based meat
06:50that tastes like the exact same and have the same vitamins and everything.
06:54Now it's time for you to decide. And to make it fair, you can't vote for your own topic and your own team.
07:02I've got Swingate Primaries ballot box. Do you want to put them all in?
07:05That's what democracy is about. This is what all your parents would have just done.
07:09Gone to the polling station.
07:14The votes are in.
07:15OK, we're going to find out who won, who got the most votes. In second place,
07:26should 16 year olds get the votes? So that means 10 votes to should we have mobile phones in schools.
07:34So there you have it. The students have spoken. And we started by talking to Kemp Police.
07:51The reason why we're here today is to talk about phones, mobile phone safety, if they should be banned at school.
07:57What do you think, Laura?
07:58You can contact your adults on your phone and you can contact the emergency services.
08:02But I don't think we need phones in classrooms.
08:04Have you ever been in a situation where a child is walking home and they've got their phones stolen?
08:09So yeah, it does happen occasionally. People do get things stolen from them.
08:12I would always say to keep your phone away unless you actually need it when you're walking to and from school.
08:17Government figures suggest there were 78,000 thefts in a year, including things like wallets, phones and bags.
08:25The figure for the previous year was 31,000. So it's more than doubled.
08:30So how are the police trying to stop phone thefts?
08:33Street wardens. So they're like extra people in our community that come and do that job for the holidays.
08:38We always get a big increase in antisocial behaviour over any of the school holidays, really.
08:43What is antisocial behaviour? Well, it's a crime that includes things like going to a place without
08:48permission or trespassing, anything that disturbs our community, not picking up dog poo,
08:54littering and being really loud. So what are some of the crimes that can affect children?
09:00So one of our biggest ones at the moment is online bullying. Cyberbullying is a criminal offence,
09:05so it's something that you can be arrested for. So once you reach the age of 10 in our country,
09:08you're criminally responsible for your actions. So that means that the police can come and deal with
09:12you if you are going to break the law. We then met Aravinda from the Centre of Child Protection to talk
09:18about keeping safe while walking home and the dangers of phones. In your job, what are some of
09:24the dangers you've seen? Let me start with people. They, you know, start with like being friends,
09:30saying nice things about us. With their view to kind of harm somebody, particularly harm a child,
09:37is called grooming. The NSPCC said almost 34,000 online grooming crimes against children were recorded
09:45by UK police in six years. For five years, one in four were against primary school children.
09:51So how can we stay safe? I mean, things that we need to be careful particularly about is like,
09:56if somebody asks you, well, let's go private. You should never go on those chat rooms.
10:01So some children might start messaging these people back because they feel lonely. What would you say to
10:07them? Use platforms that are safe. Follow the guidelines and rules. Ask, you know, ask your
10:15parents to put those parental controls. Be like kind of thinking about who are the people I can talk to
10:21if I come to harm, you know, somebody in the family. Childline could be a good place, you know,
10:26who can guide you in the right direction. Yeah.
10:29Childline was set up to give you free advice. Call their number 0800 1111 or go to their website if
10:42you ever need help. Now let's look at some of the other news stories in Kent.
10:50The new Cosington Park Leisure Centre that opened in Gillingham has been called too expensive by the
10:56community. It was built because the old building wasn't safe. When it first opened, when they first
11:01redeveloped it, we thought it was going to be for the community. I don't know many people who have been
11:05there. Nearly 27,000 people are waiting to be diagnosed with ADHD and autism in Kent and Medway.
11:1213,000, so almost half, are children and it could take seven years. But there are plans to support
11:20students in primary schools to give them the tools they need and help growing up. And finally,
11:25there's some good news for hedgehogs as there's a new plan to protect them. Their numbers have more
11:30than halved in rural areas, so everyone is looking forward to keeping them safe.
11:36Now let's start our quiz to test what you've learned today. Pause to read the questions about
11:41the election and politics. Now pause to read the questions about phones and safety.
11:49Well, that's it for this week. See you next time for another Bite-sized Bulletin.
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