STUDENTS from Weymouth dug deep into politics and cast their vote in a general election – with a surprising outcome.

Year 5 students from St Andrews Primary School in Preston took part in a mock general election on Wednesday, an idea inspired by the lead up to this year’s real general election on June 8.

Children were split into five groups and campaigned on behalf of the five main parties - Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrats, Green Party and UKIP. The groups were almost equally split except for UKIP, who the children weren't so keen to represent.

Students elected party leaders through a group vote, and conducted Party Political Broadcasts in each class.

The children even campaigned during their break times, encouraging other students to vote.

The final outcome was a landslide victory for the Green Party.

Freda Ellis, head of Year 5 at the school said: “We've done this for the last two general elections. The children take it very seriously.

"What's really important is that the children understand how elections work with the real election coming up.

"When they are old enough to actually vote, they won't be intimidated and will understand how it works.

"It's an important part of teaching them about British values, and it's a powerful way of learning how democracy works."

One of the classrooms was turned into a 'polling station' for the day, which was open from 9am until 2:30pm on Wednesday. Each class was given a slot to go and vote.

Every student in the school had a chance to go along and cast a vote for their chosen party, where they dropped their vote into a ballot box, similar to the real thing. The result was announced to the students on Thursday.

In 2010, the school ‘predicted’ the outcome of the general election with a Conservative mock election win.

Polling stations for the 2017 general election will be open from 7am until 10pm on Thursday, June 8. The deadline to register to vote is Monday, May 22.