MP takes pupils behind scenes at Parliament

Year 6 pupils from Knavesmire Primary School met city MP Hugh Bayley when they visited the House of Commons recently.

The Labour MP spoke to the students about how Parliament works and what an MP does - both in parliament and in their constituencies Carol Weston, head teacher at Knavesmire, said: "We wanted to come to Parliament because the children have been writing and presenting arguments and points of view for their literacy work.

"As part of this project, they watched House of Commons debates on the internet and reconstructed a Parliamentary debate on graffiti in the school hall. It has been great to see the real thing today and to meet with Mr Bayley."

Mr Bayley said: "The children had learned a lot about Parliament before they came, and had lots of interesting questions.

"London is a long way from York, but more and more schoolchildren make the journey. I always try to meet people from York who come to Parliament - especially children. Who knows, there may be a future Prime Minister or MP among the Knavesmire children who visited this week."

In its most recent Ofsted report published last year, inspectors gave Knavesmire school the top grade of "outstanding".

They found it had improved significantly since the last inspection, in November 2003, when it was graded as "good".

The inspector's report praised the expert leadership and the commitment of all the staff, who know each pupil very well and set their sights high in order to achieve the school's everyday aims: "to be positive, know more, succeed together and care for each other".

The report said this enabled all pupils to progress as well as they could, using their individual gifts and talents whatever their starting point.

As a result, according to Ofsted, pupils' achievement was outstanding, as was their personal development and well-being. The inspection said the quality of teaching was excellent and the standard was consistently high throughout the school.