The Leader of the conservative party, William Hague, dropped in for a visit to St. Mary’s EPS. He kindly donated an hour of his time to walk around the school and talk to us.

First he visited the nursery and talked to the children there. He had cameramen all around him and you could see from all the attention he got he was a very important person.

Then he went up stairs to watch children on the computers drawing things and looking at the school website. You could tell from the way he looked and what he was doing that he was enjoying himself.

Then he went down to the Primary 1 and 2 Class. He helped them with their Handwriting. Cameramen were still taking loads of photos and there were reporters taking down notes. He talked to the little ones and was very nice to them.

Then it was on to Primary 3 and 4. At the time they were doing work about Dunblane. He talked to some of the pupils and also helped them. Then he sat down on one of the desks and had a photo taken with one of the children.

Then he went up to Primary 5,6 and 7, who were doing Maths. He talked to this class a bit more because they were older. He asked the children what their favourite subject was and some people said it was Maths and other people said other things.

Then he left and went down to the G.P room and was asked some questions by pupils from the school council and other children.

The first question was: “What plans do you have if you become Prime Minister?” He answered: “ If I become Prime Minister then I will help the country and visit more schools and make better hospitals so that people will get taken care of and also make sure that when people grow they will get a job.

The next question was: “ Why did you become a politician?” Mr. Hague answered: “I became a politician because it is nice to help people and it is about the whole world.”

The second last question was: “ What do you think of our school?” He answered: “I think the school is great and I would like it to stay self- governing.”

The next question was: “What do you think about being surrounded by the press?” His answer was: “It is fine and I don’t mind because you get used to it.”

He had very good answers and was very kind towards us.

Then after that he asked us about things we do in school and somebody said that every 2 weeks we have an assembly in which we sing a song and do a play about something.

After that he asked us what the best assembly was and someone said the Primary 6 Boys. Then someone said that on the day of the assembly’s we get Merit Certificates if we have been good or kind or done a good piece of work and that if we get 5 Merit Certificates then we get a school mug.

Then he went up to the staff room and some reporters asked him some questions. Some of his answers were: “ I think the school is running itself very well. I also think that it would be better to have more schools follow the example of this one. I think that some of the best schools are schools that run themselves. I do not think that it is right for people to pick on this school and make it go back into Council Control. I have heard about this schools and I also like to visit other schools and Colleges to see what they are like.”

Then when the children went out to play he talked to the adults and some parents.

The children enjoyed having him here and we think he liked it too.

Reported by Paul Reich and Christine Reid.