Last Friday, Rooms 8 and 9 were very lucky to be involved in a parliamentary debate.

It was a fantastic opportunity to take part in a mock debate as part of the Speaker's Outreach Programme. We welcomed the Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Trevor Mallard and Christchurch-based members of Parliament, Sarah Pallett MP (Labour), Hon Eugenie Sage (Green) and Toni Severin MP (ACT) to Te Kāpehu Riccarton School.

The learners had chosen the topic of 'Pets in Schools' and had spent time researching the pros and cons of this and gathering evidence.

We met in the school hall where a back screen of parliament had been set up and chairs were arranged to represent a real parliamentary debate.

We began with a welcome from Tiano and Mr Irving and then our learners performed a waiata. Mr Mallard then responded and the MPs performed a waiata back to us. Then it was into the debate! We were so proud of our seniors' oral language skills.

The morning ended with an opportunity to ask the MPs lots of questions. What an amazing day!

Ka Rawe!