General election fever has hit students as much as the rest of the electorate. Pupils at Royal Russell School in Croydon have been feeling campaign pressure as the election has dawned.

Working one week early the school decided to bring the excitement of the real election to those not yet old enough to participate in the official process, by running their very own mock election.

In the weeks running up to the election a large number of students have got involved – nominating 5 candidates to represent the main parties, filming party political broadcasts, designing posters, staging their only version of the leadership debates and organising the polling station and count. In other words, they approached the whole process exactly as if it were real.

But as with any election there can only be one winner decided by the voters no matter how much blood and tears are spilt along the way. Within the walls of Royal Russell School the winning vote went to the Green candidate Neil Patel who ran a model campaign correctly representing the views of his party and making sure he got his supporters out to vote on the day.

With over 70% of the students voting on the day you can be sure political debate is live and kicking in the school.