“Small actions can make a big change” - Primary Parliament in Spring 2025

This term, Primary Parliament consisted of 137 children from 32 Nottingham schools who worked with us over 2.5 days at the Nottingham City Council House and online, exploring who and what makes Safe, Positive Neighbourhoods.  

In their sessions, Primary Parliamentarians looked closely at their local area through mapping exercises, discussing what the word ‘safe’ means to them, and sharing their perspectives on the places where they live and how they could improve them for everyone.  Children also took part in creative workshops with poet Jay Sandhu and drama practitioner Claire Finn who encouraged them to share their hopes and positivity for Nottingham through poetry and role-playing, considering community cohesion and acts of kindness.  

The Primary Parliament brief this term was simple: Create an Action Plan for Safe, Positive Neighbourhoods.  Led by guidance from Matilda Crane from the East Midlands Climate Ambassadors on what an action plan requires, the Primary Parliamentarians decided what action they would take, how they would make change, who they might need to help them, and when they would they would start to see positive results.  The children then creatively and collaboratively developed their action plans which they presented back to their peers through drama, speeches, poetry, posters, symbols, objects and movement.  

All of the Actions Plans were extremely powerful and included important messages from the Primary Parliamentarians such as: 

“Safer parks make happier children”

“Our area is more grey than green”

“Take action, make the world a better place”

“We need safe, accessible spaces to play”

“Help us to help you”

During their presentations, the children shared concerns around issues like dark alleyways, overgrown and dangerous paths, lack of school crossing patrols, anti-social behaviour on buses and in parks, and inappropriate parking.  With invited guests from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Violence Reduction Partnership, as well as Nottingham City Council Councillors and the Neighbourhood Safety team, the experiences and insights of the Primary Parliamentarians were recognised and heard by professionals within the relevant departments.  

The children were realistic and positive in their action plans and have suggested incentivising recycling to reduce littering, recruiting a volunteer school crossing patrol, surveying inappropriate parking by adults, staging a night-time protest to highlight a lack of street-lights, submitting a petition to the council for more speed cameras and road protection for children, and establishing a ‘Friends of Brooklyn Park’ group to improve their local green space.  

By the end our spring term Primary Parliament, 90% of children felt that they could make positive change at school or in their local area. We wholeheartedly believe that you can too!

Thank you to all the children from the following schools who took part in all the workshops and for creating such powerful action plans: Blue Bell Hill, Bluecoat, Bulwell St Mary's, Carrington, Crabtree Farm, Denewood, Djanogly Northgate, Djanogly Sherwood, Dovecote, Edna G Olds, Firbeck, Glade Hill, Haydn, Heathfield, Henry Whipple, Jubilee LEAD, Mellers, Oak Field, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Radford, Rise Park, Robin Hood,  Rosslyn Park, Rufford, Snape Wood, Sneinton CoE, Southglade, Southwold, St Patrick's, Warren, Whitemoor and Woodlands. We can’t wait to see you take action to create safer and more positive spaces in your community. 

Our final Primary Parliament of this academic year will take place on 17th, 18th and 19th June 2025 and you can register your school to get involved here.

Our Primary Parliament programme for 2024/25 is delivered in partnership with Nottingham City Council, Child Friendly Nottingham, ChalleNGe and Browne Jacobson.