Dulwich Despatch
Page 8
College Life: House of Lords Trip
On Monday 3 rd November I went, along with Lolly Whitney-Low, Alex Kinch, Ben Potter, Henry Walder, Cameron Morais-Jones and Sam Williams, on a tour of the House of Lords. This trip was a reward for winning the Floella Benjamin Junior School Drama prize, so I must congratulate the other boys again. I absolutely loved the trip and every aspect of it – this summary will be too brief to convey all the wonderful parts of the day. Upon arrival, we started our tour by watching the Lords have a debate about the problems caused by air pollution – together with something way above my
head! We also spotted Lord Alan Sugar and were very excited at seeing him on the other side of the room; when we talked to him and shook his hand we were all so enthused that we ran around – almost as if he were Ronaldo—with ‘I’m never going to wash this hand again!’ hollers. Once we had listened to about half an hour of
speeches, arguments and grunts, we came out of the spectating area to meet Baroness Floella Benjamin. She was a very nice lady, who somehow knew
everybody in the building and did enjoy a good chat! She showed us round the beautiful, golden building that the House of Lords is. We looked at the Royal Chamber and where the Queen would enter and put on her crown, her massive throne, the giant halls, the voting desks and even the neighbouring House of Commons. In the House of Commons we listened to an inspirational speech about child abuse. Baroness Benjamin was delighted to tell us that the speech that was given would go down in history, and that meant we were now part of that history. Once the tour had finished Baroness Benjamin treated us to the most delicious afternoon tea. I stuck to hot chocolate but Lolly and the teachers had some apparently ‘very nice’ Earl Grey tea. We had scones with all sorts of jams, sandwiches with at least five different fillings and my personal favourite: the cakes—chocolate cake, sponge cake, raspberry covered ones and tiramisu—all served on an elaborate tray. We concluded the amazing day out by listening to a lovely speech addressed especially to us from Baroness Benjamin. Enthralled, we followed her lead and put our hands on our hearts and repeated each line after her: calls to remember where we came from, and to do our best to make a difference in the world. It was inspiring and touching—but even more so, with her final line… “Because I’m a Dulwich Boy!” I would like to thank Mr Starkey, Mr Quadros and Baroness Floella Benjamin for making this amazing day possible. Max Hamilton, 7C
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