David to speak for Sinai

A Jewish primary school pupil has been elected into a local government youth parliament after his school campaigned to change the meetings from Shabbat.

Michael Sobell Sinai School pupil, David Gill, 10, was one of 72 children under the age of 19 to be elected to the Brent youth parliament.

Deputy headteacher Joanna Walker nominated David after she persuaded the council to change the monthly parliament meetings from Saturday to mid-week so that her pupils could apply.

"The way it was set up was excluding anyone from a Jewish school from taking part," she said. "So I contacted them to say, under the banner of equal opportunities, that Brent was effectively excluding thousands of Jewish young people from taking part.

"They discussed it in the next youth parliament meeting and voted to have every other meeting changed to during the week or in the evening.

"We're very pleased that we have made the youth parliament more representative and inclusive. It's important to have a Jewish voice in the parliament.

"We are very proud of David. He will represent us admirably and he will be an excellent ambassador for the children."

David said: "I'm very proud to be elected. It's a great achievement to represent the school. I'm going to enjoy this role.

"I have a few ideas to take to the parliament. One is that schoolchildren could vote on which of their subjects they find the most difficult and then the teachers will know which ones they need to work harder on."