A "supportive" SEND school in Ipswich has had a student invited to Westminster by MP Tom Hunt.
During a visit to Stone Lodge Academy, Mr Hunt was shown around the school by 15-year-old student Ashton.
Last week, Ashton got the opportunity to visit Westminster, for a one-on-one mentoring session from the MP.
Mr Hunt said: “I’m pleased to see that Stone Lodge Academy has provided a supportive environment for Ashton and his peers to thrive and achieve great things.
"It’s always wonderful to see young people succeed – I look forward to seeing what Ashton gets up to in the future. He’s a very capable, interesting, and motivated student. I think he’s going to do really well.”
It was part of an initiative called the ‘One young person, one parliamentarian, one hour campaign’ to mentor a young person, from the Diana Award, which is the secretariat for the All Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Mentoring.
Mr Hunt said: "It’s brilliant to meet young people who are so interested in politics and how our government works.
"Giving our younger generation an idea of how decisions are made is incredibly important. It was a pleasure to bring Ashton to Westminster this week.
"I really hope he found the insight into parliament interesting and memorable.”
Ashton told Mr Hunt about his strengths at school, including maths and ICT, as well as his ambitions for the future: to be a videogame programmer.
Mr Hunt said: “It’s great to see the students at Stone Lodge doing really well. I can see it’s a school which is really supportive of its students.”
He is a strong advocate for SEND provision, and recently visited Stone Lodge Academy, which is a special school in Ipswich for students with complex Moderate Learning Difficulties.
The Ipswich MP added: “I think special schools are absolutely necessary, as part of the provision for SEND, alongside mainstream provision.
"Different things work for different children. We need to ensure every child has access to the environment that works for them.”
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