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I've had a fantastic visit to Manshead School - which has a catchment area covering Caddington, Luton and Dunstable - where I met the inspirational Head Teacher, Mr Parker, the Director of Student Welfare, Thom Darby, and had a Q&A session with the 'A' level Government & Politics class (pictured).

You know you are getting on a bit when you start meeting not just teachers, but Head Teachers, who are probably younger than yourself, but one of the great benefits of having young, energetic, enthusiastic people in positions of responsibility is that they also demonstrate great empathy and connectivity with their students.  This was obviously the case during the tour I had with Mr Parker as we walked around classrooms and Mr Parker interacted with both teachers and pupils (all of whom he seemed to know by name) freely and easily - this is clearly something he does all the time.  He is not locking himself away in an office somewhere, but an in your face, in your classroom, hands-on type leader and educator - deeply concerned and committed to the educational advancement of every individual student.  This is a school that is doing the right things, going in the right direction, and it was a delight to see this level of engagement in a local school.

And then came the grilling from the 'A' level students.  It always amazes me how seriously young people, and particularly those aged between 16 and 18, take what is going on around them, and how much they care about the direction their country is going in.  This was immediately obvious from the large number of straight and insightful questions I got from the students:  Should we withdraw from Europe? What about the Euro?  What would you do differently in government?  Why are you interested in politics?  How can we get a more representative democracy? What about referendums? How should we handle immigration? Isn't there an argument for PR?  And my favourite of the day - who is Esther Rantzen?  But what was really great was when I asked what their opinion was on these and other matters: on MP's pay, expenses and so on, they also all had answers - well thought out, well articulated answers that would embarrass or scare most full time politicians. 

I'm not sure whether I gave the answers they were expecting, or wanted to hear, but the sincerity of the questions meant I felt obliged to give straight answers - as it should be.  If only hustings and political debate with the 18 plus crowd was so frank!