On Monday, May 24th 1999 pupils from six Lewisham schools - Brindishe Primary, Good Shepherd RC Primary, Marvels Lane Primary, Deptford Green Secondary and Malory Secondary - attended the Lewisham Young Citizens Internet Conference held at Lewisham Town Hall. Pupils assembled in the Council Chamber where they were welcomed by Assistant Director, Lela Kogbara. Then the children joined a variety of workshops including Community Safety, Decision Making, Becoming a Street Leader and Traffic Safety. At the end of the sessions the children reassembled in the Council Chamber to take part in an Option Finder session. This entailed using a computerised system to debate and vote on various issues.

Before I went on the visit to Lewisham Town Hall I thought it would be full of councillors, people and other schools. I even thought it might be posh. I was thinking about what questions I was going to ask them, as well. I was a bit excited and looking forward to it.... When we went into a chamber it was like I had walked into a court room, there were lots of chairs and there was a microphone. We even got biscuits and drinks as well. There was yellow chairs and a picture of Queen Elizabeth on the wall.
Leon, Marvels Lane Primary

We had a vote on who in our class should be mayor. The lady picked three people who wanted to be mayor and on our keypads we voted out of Faye, Michael and Leon. Michael won. Melek, Marvels Lane Primary

We had a workshop on crime. The man discussed with us how crime is made and how to try and prevent it from happening. He also asked what we think the council should provide to stop the number of crimes increasing. We came up with many ideas like more youth clubs or more police on patrol at nights.
Rebecca, Good Shepherd RC Primary

Gradually we made our way into Room 1 and they gave us a similar thing to a quiz which we did with partners. Then they asked us after what we put and if we got it right he would throw us one or two furry stickers each.
Good Shepherd RC Primary

The most enjoyable thing for me was when we got to vote for the things we liked best by having a remote control which you had to point to a little black box then that will add up how many people voted for each one and the answers will then show up as a graph on the screen. Then we would see who won.
Leanne, Marvels Lane Primary

I learnt that being a Councillor is a hard job, trying to make the right decision when you have got so many choices and you only have to pick one of them. So now I know I do not want to be a Councillor when I am older.
Melek, Marvels Lane Primary

I also learnt that councillors were very important in Lewisham's community. They decide what the budget should be spent on like access for the elderly or park equipment and also improving on the environment and to reduce environmental pollution. Different councillors do different things and work on different topics for things that the budget should be spent on.
Tamara, Marvels Lane Primary

The best bit I liked was the option key pad. The bit I liked most about this was speaking through the microphones - that was excellent. Also telling the lady our opinions about the school dinners was interesting. I voted that the school dinners were awful.
Christina, Merlin Primary

My favourite parts of the conference were when we had to stick stickers on paper and when we were voting. It felt like we were on "Blind Date" because we had to press buttons. The best part of voting was when we talked through the microphone because it echoed all around the room.
Katie, Merlin Primary

Dave Sullivan, Leader of Lewisham Council, joined the last part of the morning session. He talked to the children about his job as Leader and then answered lots of questions ranging from "Why did you want to become Leader of the Council?" to "What's the best part of your job?"