Five students from CedarBridge Academy attended a youth summit in mid-March, themed “A Peace Building Commonwealth”, at XL-Catlin Ltd on Commonwealth Day.

The purpose of this event was to help the students in the most positive and productive way, by expanding their knowledge on the Commonwealth as well as to provide an opportunity to interact with their peers at Youth Parliament. Another outcome for this event was to encourage students to join Youth Parliament and step out of their comfort zones. Two of the guest speakers were, former premier Dame Jennifer Smith DBE, JP, and Mrs Patrina “Power girl” Paynter shared their knowledge and gave feedback to students. Both presenters advice focused on how one should believe and stand up for themselves in everything they do.

Instructional leader for social studies, Ms Judith Gill, also attended the summit. She said, “Any opportunity for students to practice skills learnt in the school environment is a good one. Our debaters benefited from working with the Youth Parliament and learnt important information about the Commonwealth.”

Ms Gill added that participating in this event will give the students a feel for what it is like to express their opinions and speak out on what needs to be done in the community.

The students also had an opportunity to practise their skills on an actual debate team. Two of the students, Viaire Robinson and Tonya Ottley-Peetes, took part in some of the impromptu debates, both were on winning teams.

All the students said they had a tremendous time and learnt so much. Jhon Besalo, a S3 student noted that, Commonwealth Day was a blast for him! He mentioned that he learnt many things about the Commonwealth, as well as some information about Youth Parliament. Besalo’s main highlights were the impromptu debates and meeting Dame Jennifer Smith, which he thought was priceless.