By Alex Peace

HOLY Trinity Church of England Primary School and Community Nursery opened their doors to Mayor of Weymouth and Portland.

Councillor Kate Wheller visited the school to meet with the school’s council to answer questions from them before going on a tour and meeting other children at the school.

The school council has members from every school year.

Children asked questions including why Cllr Wheller wanted to be Mayor, how big her place of work was, as well as finding out about her duties, likes and dislikes, hobbies and interests.

She told them that she wanted to be mayor because she had been brought up in Weymouth and thought it would be a nice thing to do for the town.

She said although her office was tiny with a great view, her place of work was really the whole of the borough.

Children also got the chance to try on the chains of office, which they discovered to be ‘really, really heavy.’

The council then took over and gave Cllr Wheller a guided tour of the school, meaning every child got the chance to meet her during the visit.

Cllr Wheller said: “It was fantastic, the pupils were terrific, they had some very challenging questions.

“They were very interested in the whole process and it was a very useful and enjoyable afternoon.

The mayor was especially impressed with the standard of the questions.

She said: “They really gave the questions a lot of thought. They wanted to know how much power I had - I had to disappoint them and tell them not very much.

"They wanted to know what I could do to improve the cleanliness of the streets and I told them that it was something we would have to work on together.”

Questions also included what could be done to improve the standard of sporting facilities for them and the pupils were also interested in how she became a councillor and consequently mayor.

Cllr Wheller believes trips like these are very important.

She said: “I think it’s vitally important to engage really. Every single one of them, even the year ones and twos, had something to ask.”

Headteacher, Fiona Daykin thinks that the pupils took a lot away from the visit.

She said: “This was a lovely experience for our children. Cllr Wheller was very open and informative about her life and her ambitions for Weymouth and Portland.”

The visit also worked alongside what the children are currently learning about.

Mrs Daykin said: “Her visit compliments our work on British values, and the children were fascinated to discover the parallels between how the county council operates and our own school council.”

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e: alex.peace@dorsetecho.co.uk

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