With the election results in, the Youth Council and Member of Youth Parliament for Kingston upon Thames wasted no time in scheduling a first meeting, setting out their aims for their two year terms and beginning to communicate with local schools.

Marcus Dyke, elected Member of Youth Parliament for Kingston, was quick in reaching out to local schools in an effort to launch the 'Curriculum for Life' campaign. The campaign will see an overhaul of the current PSHE courses taught in local schools, replacing often irrelevant, outdated teaching with a new program focusing on preparing students for the real world. Possible lessons include financial skills, sex and relationship education, and political education.

During his two year term, Marcus hopes to reach out to increasing numbers of young people:

“I will ensure that all young people feel that their voices have been heard. I want the community to feel involved in every part of the decision making, both with the nationwide 'Curriculum for Life' campaign and in the issues that are specific to our borough.”

Marcus also hopes to raise awareness of youth politics, with an aspiration of a high voter turnout in the next election and the inclusion of schools and non-compulsory educational programmes in the campaign.

As the Youth Parliament kick off their two year program, the Youth Council met earlier in April to brainstorm their strategy for tackling the issues facing young people in Kingston and Richmond.

As a part of the online voting system, young people were asked to choose an issue which they thought needed the most attention in order to improve their lives. The top four issues would go on to be tackled by the Youth Council, and for this time around the issues most relevant to young people were voted to be Education, Young People as Victims of Crime, Mental Health and Gender and Sexuality.

The assembled Youth Council will split into groups to manage the issues separately and efficiently, and over the next two years will be canvassing businesses and charities for support and creating new initiatives that will aim to resolve the main concerns of the youth population of Kingston and Richmond.

The newly elected bodies are enthusiastic and versatile, and the impact of their ideas and aims will be felt both in the near and far future.