The purpose of the Torbay Children's Parliament is to:

• Provide an exciting opportunity for children to present their views to adults of influence and to see that they really can make a difference in a political way;
• Engage young people in the democratic process;
• Gain insight into the views of young people on key issues for the Council;
• Encourage intra-school and inter-school debate;
• Develop young people’s communication skills.

How it works

• A relevant topic is agreed that young people’s input is relevant to and sought, led by the Council.
• The topic is shared with all schools, along with an overview of the format; 
• Schools invite their Year 5 pupils to enter an in-school competition in teams of 4 where they present their views on the chosen topic, including highlighting any research that they have done on the issue raised;
• Presentations are 5 minutes long and must be spoken presentations. Visual aids may be used, but PowerPoint and other presentation software / equipment is not allowed. This is to focus young people on the use of persuasive language and oral presentation skills;
• Presentations take place in front of the school community and an official school election is held to identify the best presentation. Schools may wish to invite their ward councillors to the presentations and engage school council members as ‘ballot officials’;
• The in-school ‘winners’ become the school’s elected representatives at the Children’s Parliament event.

The event

• All schools are invited to send their elected representatives to present to the Children’s Parliament, in The Banking Hall at the Town Hall;
• Each primary school has five minutes to present to the panel of judges, which includes council leaders, LA Education leaders and (hopefully) our local MP Steve Darling;
• All schools are given voting slips which are collated and form a single ‘schools’ vote’;
• Judges meet to decide on the most effective presentation;
• The winning team is awarded a prize of a visit to the Houses of Parliament, and a trophy for their school, as well as individual medals. 

above: Children's Parliament 2025

See below for the most recent competition and click on the tiles for competitions in previous years.

Your voice, your future: inspiring young voters! Thinking about the importance of having a say in decisions that affect them and how young people can be empowered to participate in democracy, how can we encourage young people to register and vote? 

Judging Panel (Torbay Council)

• Matthew Fairclough-Kay, Director of Corporate Services, Torbay Council
• Catherine Hayden, Electoral Services Team Leader
• Councillor Hannah Stevens
• Councillor John Fellows

For Riviera Education Trust

• Stewart Biddles, CEO
• Wendy Vreony, Communications Lead

Participating schools

• Homelands Primary School
• Kings Ash Academy
• Oldway Primary School
• Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Primary School
• Preston Primary School
• Roselands Primary School
• Sacred Heart RC Primary School
• Shiphay Learning Academy  

RESULTS

1st place: Homelands Primary School

2nd place: Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Primary School

3rd place: Shiphay Learning Academy

What the judges said:

Homelands:

Loved the opening section. Powerful use of previous changes to voting rights.  Overall, a very strong argument.

Our Lady of the Angels:

Clear demonstration and persuasive use of research.  Really good, confident delivery, which added to the strong persuasion.  Lots of examples of positive change.

Shiphay: 

Good use of role play and visuals.  Presented a good argument and we liked the focus on young people’s creativity.