Students from across Barnet have elected four new members of the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) after heading to the polls.
More than 8,000 young people took part by casting their vote for one of 24 candidates standing in this year’s elections.
James Saker, 14, from the Jewish Community Secondary School; Rai Hussein, 12, from Whitefield School; Odysseus Matziounis, 17, from Ashmole Academy; and Sam Gold, 11, from the Jewish Community Secondary School, were all elected as members of the UKYP.
James campaigned to create a child friendly app aimed at giving advice to young refugees coming to the UK, while Rai based his campaign around improving safety for young people using public transport.
Odysseus’ campaign focused on tackling child poverty, and Sam campaigned to raise awareness of disabled children’s rights.
This year St James’ Catholic High School in Colindale won the ‘Barnet Schools Award for Democracy’ for helping more than 1,300 young people vote in the election.
The UKYP was established in 1999 and is run by young people for young people, giving them the opportunity to share their opinions on issues ranging from the cost of university education to job opportunities and mental health.
Its views and recommendations are listened to by local and national government and providers of services and other organisations which have an interest in the views and needs of young people.
Chris Munday, Barnet Council’s Director for Children and Young People, said: “Congratulations go to each of our new members of the UKYP, and well done to all of the other candidates, and to the young people who took the time to vote.
“It is fantastic to see so many young people wanting to get involved in the democratic process and how passionate they have all been about representing the views of their peers.