From Thursday 7th September to Sunday 10th, a delegation of eight VIS pupils - Lisa, Sabrina, Isla, Rachel, Naomi, Lucy, Iona and Sara - travelled down to Liverpool to compete in the National session of the European Youth parliament. We had won a place at this event, featuring 14 different schools, during a selection round back in March. Upon arrival, we joined our separate committees and so spent the first day of the conference participating in team-building activities. These tested our mettle but by the end of the day we felt much more comfortable with our new- found team mates.
Despite being very tired after our journey, we had fun going around “Euro Village”, which was to provide our supper. At Euro Village every school represented a different country and had brought with them the correlating cuisine. Our school was Italy and so we brought with us pizza, olives and tiramisu and other goodies. We soon realised that we did not bring enough pizza for all our visitors, but everyone enjoyed the spread we put on. Our favourite stalls at Euro Village were the Scottish and the French stalls, and by the end of the night we were all very full, and blissfully unaware that we would not be eating any more meat for the rest of the weekend.
Our first full day of committee work began at eight thirty. Throughout the course of the day we debated the topics we had been given and tried to come up with ways we could solve them. Working in a totally constructive manner was challenging at times for those of us who were debaters (and naturally combative!). However, we soon adapted and made some progress. After several coffees, a vegetarian lunch and some biscuits, each committee had managed to write a resolution that would be debated the next day.
On Friday night after a vegetarian dinner, our evening activities involved a quiz, a dance off, some “slam” poetry and limerick writing. Lucy Ruddiman stood up for the eight word poetry slam and said “Europe” seven times with varied expression followed by “Brexit” for the last word. These finished at 11 at night. However, with some of us having to write speeches for the next morning, we were up far later than that, so were regretfully very tired for the remainder of the trip.
Saturday and Sunday involved consuming yet more vegetarian food, lots more coffee and even more biscuits, as well as spending the entirety of the two days debating as a committee in general assembly. It was challenging having to debate the other committees’ topics which included a cashless society, e-participation, climate change, speading good governance, gender equality and women in entrepreneurship and many others. It was fair to say that we were all exhausted by this stage and so watching the “Euro Concert” (talent show) on the Saturday night was a welcome respite.
After all the debates were finished, the closing ceremony took place, in which we had to stand for the EU anthem - Ode to Joy. Having said goodbye to all our new-found friends we got in the taxis and headed for the train home.
We certainly enjoyed our time in Liverpool, and gained a lot from participating in the European Youth Parliament.
Isla VIS
To view some pictures from the weekend or to get involved visit: