Stage One student Amori Moses, 4, was assisted by Teacher Carolyn Matthews to make his X correctly for the candidate of his choice during Pelican Gate election held on November 24, 2011.

Members of Pelican Gate's first student Government of the SVP Party and supporters. The student Government comprise of, left to right (back row): Asahni-Williams Dyer, Requan Garraway and Arianna Davis.

The children, assisted by parents, created very interesting campaign posters which were plastered around the school.

Pelican Gate, a private elementary institution located in Towers, West End, saw the older students of Class 2 taking part in the election race with two main parties formed.

The parties were School Vibes Party (SVP) comprising of Arianna Davis, Requan Garraway and Asahni-Williams Dyer and School Rhythm Party (SRP) of Kyre Edwards, Chad Willock and Nikisha Davis.

With the assistance of parents, the parties were officially launched where the members delivered engaging speeches and also provided refreshments to listeners including the young Stage One students. Manifestos were launched and distributed to every student of the school, campaigns were held, and posters were plastered around the school.

Election Day was held on Thursday November 24, 2011 where a polling station was set up and students were guided on how to make their “Xs” properly. While it was a very tight and aggressive campaign, in the end, School Vibes Party took control of Pelican Gate’s student government with Reaquan Garraway securing the most votes.

In their manifesto, the SVP plans to lobby for more Smart Boards in the classrooms, organise more community activities to help the community, spend more time with the elders at the Adina Donovan Home, have days away from school to help clean-up up the beaches and the parks.

Particularly for their school, the party said it will look into having more options on their school’s lunch menu, more field trips to outer islands, raise money to buy more toys to keep at their school and recycle plastic bottles.

According to Director of the institution and Principal Lois Freeman-Augustine, the entire activity initially started out as a lesson to teach the students about the new government ministers and to understand how a government is actually chosen.

“They had a good idea already as many of them were following the general elections of the territory closely. Then they wanted to form a school government. I agreed and that's when it really got exciting.”

Principal Freeman-Augustine said she was very happy with the outcome of the entire exercise especially the interest shown by the youngest students of the school.

“I was especially pleased with how well even the Stage One students understood the process of campaigning and listening to the speeches to hear what they liked or did not like about what being offered by the candidates.”

She said the exercise gave the students a voice, where they were able to share their vision for their school and are now willing to work to see their ideas become a reality.

“I feel proud to know that I have future leaders at Pelican Gate School. They are now going to take up different responsibilities at the school or as they put it, "help rule the school".”