Y VOTE MOCK ELECTIONS

Lesson 1

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PREPARATION

Decide what kind of mock election you want to run. Y Vote coordinate mock elections and collate results to coincide with real elections and this is often a great way for schools to give a mock election greater relevance and value. Information on all types of elections is provided in the Voting Section of the website under Election Information.


LESSON 1

Resources: Print outs of party information or access to IT facilities; two different coloured highlighter pens, a large piece of paper and a marker for each group, manifesto templates.

Download MANIFESTO.pdf


Act as the election officer. Announce that an election is going to take place, putting it into context according to which type of election you are running.

Split the class into mixed ability groups of around 5-6. Explain that each group is going to form a political party. [5 min]

Give each group 2 minutes to decide on who their candidate is – offering some sort of reward or prize can serve as an incentive for pupils to come forward as candidates. [2 min]


Extension activity: Ask groups to discuss what makes a good candidate or get them to take our 'What Makes a Good Politician' poll online.


Allow pupils to read about real political parties in the UK. Information can be found in the Running a Campaign section of the website and may be printed out if access to computers is not possible. If using print outs get them to highlight policies that they agree with in one colour and ones that they don't agree with in another colour. Take feedback. [20 mins]

Give each group a large piece of paper and a marker. Ask them to brainstorm issues that they care about. You may ask them to focus on local, national or international issues depending on the type of election that you are running. [5 min]

Take feedback from each group creating a brainstorm on the board. Ask them to explain why they care about certain issues. [5 min]

Ask each party to decide on their own policies based on the issues that they have written down and name of their party. They can stand as an existing party which they have read about or create their own. [15 min]

Using the manifesto template ask each group to write a manifesto based on their policies. [10 min]