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The initiative had the Mayor, Councillor Rachel Ferguson and Alderman Ryan McCready ‘Go Back to School’ when they met pupils in St Columba’s PS while St Anne’s Primary school met the Mayor to discuss what his role entails.

Usually, every school in the district would be invited to the Guildhall, but because of Covid restrictions, the Mayor will visit schools physically and virtually instead. It is hoped that these events educate young people of the importance of local democracy and inform them on how they can take part in local decision-making.

Mayor Warke said it was a great to meet local young people, to hear their views on what matters to them, and to share more about why their role in democracy is so important.

Alderman Graham Warke, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council who was joined by fellow Waterside Councillors Rachael Ferguson and Alderman Ryan McCready during Local Democracy Week at St. Columba's Primary School in Newbuildings. The councillors were questioned by members of the School's Council before touring the classrooms and engaging with the rest of the pupils. Included is Mrs Callan, Principal. Picture Martin McKeown.

“I really enjoyed my visit to St Columba’s PS and to St Anne’s PS this week and I’m looking forward to meeting more young people as part of the Promoting Local Democracy initiative.

“They are our future and their views on what matters to them and what they think we need to be doing differently are extremely important.

“For my fellow councillors and I, we want to make decisions that make the future better and brighter for these young people and it is only right that they have a say in what that future looks like.

“They had a lot of interesting and inquisitive questions about what it means to be the mayor of this district, and I hope I may even have met a few future mayors in the making.”

Derry Mayor quizzed by local schoolchildren