New Youth Parliament elected for Slough!
Young voters aged 11-18 took part in the UK’s largest youth consultation to cast their vote on one of 10 issues impacting young lives and their communities.
The results mirror the last ballot in 2022, where health and wellbeing also came top of the list and after national consultations and research this developed into a campaign called ‘food for learning’ calling for free school meals to be available for all school students.
The 2024 Make Your Mark ballot attracted nearly 100,000 more votes nationally than in 2022, showing participation in democratic processes is growing among young people. Make Your Mark began in 2011 and since then health and wellbeing topics have been highlighted eight times, showing the ongoing concern by young voters and improvements in services still needed.
In Slough we held our Slough Youth Parliament elections alongside the make your mark process and attracted 161 candidates to apply for the roles. Voting took place online, across schools, colleges and youth groups and the successful candidates were announced in a results evening at Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy on 22 March.
We thank all the organisations for supporting this process and all the candidates for taking part.
Our 31 new youth parliament members are:
Rijuta Acharya – Slough Young Inspectors
Aloysius Fernandes – Beat Routes
Aisha Hashmi & Diama Fall – Baylis Court School
Jalon Mensah & Lucia Doana - Beechwood School
Laxmi Sandal & Paula Wiecek – Churchmead School
Aditya Chhatre & Toby Dunford-McLeod – Ditton Park Academy
Anam Aslam & Armish Sardar – Eden Girls School
Katrina Masih & Shammah Mirza – Grove Academy Reps
Hadie Saleeban – Haybrook College
David Essien & Gunveen Kaur – Herschel Grammar
Lakson Bakeerathan & Yihang Chai – Langley Grammar
Emaan Asif – Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy
Dakshayani Rajamarthandan & Elsa Francis – Slough & Eton C of E Business & Enterprise College
Joshua Arul & Tinotenda Magaya – St Bernard’s Catholic Grammar School
Mateusz Skowera – St Joseph’s Catholic School
Felicity-Mai Ford – Westgate School
Junior Jonski & Abbi Mohanaraja – Wexham School
Cameron Jack & Rhiannon Fountain-Meek – Langley College
Rachita Dhoke – SEND Reps.
Sadly, the British Youth Council made a shock announcement on 21 March that they would be closing after 75 years dedicated to championing and strengthening youth voice and involvement in decision making. Due to this any further analysis of the ballot is unlikely to be released. The continuation of the national youth voice programme, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and UK Parliament, is unknown at this time.
Nadine Barrett, Youth Work Team Leader (Youth Voice), Slough Borough Council, said: “My team and I are committed to providing meaningful mechanisms for our young representatives to have their voice heard and acted upon. The youth voice team will continue our important work to empower young people in Slough to influence social and political change.”
Young voters aged 11-18 took part in the UK’s largest youth consultation to cast their vote on one of 10 issues impacting young lives and their communities.
The results mirror the last ballot in 2022, where health and wellbeing also came top of the list and after national consultations and research this developed into a campaign called ‘food for learning’ calling for free school meals to be available for all school students.
The 2024 Make Your Mark ballot attracted nearly 100,000 more votes nationally than in 2022, showing participation in democratic processes is growing among young people. Make Your Mark began in 2011 and since then health and wellbeing topics have been highlighted eight times, showing the ongoing concern by young voters and improvements in services still needed.
In Slough we held our Slough Youth Parliament elections alongside the make your mark process and attracted 161 candidates to apply for the roles. Voting took place online, across schools, colleges and youth groups and the successful candidates were announced in a results evening at Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy on 22 March.
We thank all the organisations for supporting this process and all the candidates for taking part.
Our 31 new youth parliament members are:
Rijuta Acharya – Slough Young Inspectors
Aloysius Fernandes – Beat Routes
Aisha Hashmi & Diama Fall – Baylis Court School
Jalon Mensah & Lucia Doana - Beechwood School
Laxmi Sandal & Paula Wiecek – Churchmead School
Aditya Chhatre & Toby Dunford-McLeod – Ditton Park Academy
Anam Aslam & Armish Sardar – Eden Girls School
Katrina Masih & Shammah Mirza – Grove Academy Reps
Hadie Saleeban – Haybrook College
David Essien & Gunveen Kaur – Herschel Grammar
Lakson Bakeerathan & Yihang Chai – Langley Grammar
Emaan Asif – Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy
Dakshayani Rajamarthandan & Elsa Francis – Slough & Eton C of E Business & Enterprise College
Joshua Arul & Tinotenda Magaya – St Bernard’s Catholic Grammar School
Mateusz Skowera – St Joseph’s Catholic School
Felicity-Mai Ford – Westgate School
Junior Jonski & Abbi Mohanaraja – Wexham School
Cameron Jack & Rhiannon Fountain-Meek – Langley College
Rachita Dhoke – SEND Reps.
Sadly, the British Youth Council made a shock announcement on 21 March that they would be closing after 75 years dedicated to championing and strengthening youth voice and involvement in decision making. Due to this any further analysis of the ballot is unlikely to be released. The continuation of the national youth voice programme, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and UK Parliament, is unknown at this time.
Nadine Barrett, Youth Work Team Leader (Youth Voice), Slough Borough Council, said: “My team and I are committed to providing meaningful mechanisms for our young representatives to have their voice heard and acted upon. The youth voice team will continue our important work to empower young people in Slough to influence social and political change.”
