By, Simon Rocker
1 min read
BySimon Rocker, Simon Rocker
They may be too young to vote in next month's Brexit referendum but a group from Noam Primary School in London were closely following the arguments for and against Britain staying in the European Union last week.
They were among more than 100 children aged from eight to 13 from across the country who took part in a debate staged by First News, the newspaper for youth, at Speaker's House in Westminster.
Noam pupil Rafi Weston, 11 (second from left, below) who was part of the pro-leave team, held that "we should leave the EU because although there will be fewer jobs, there will be less of an issue with migrants. Also, because lots of our taxes are given to the EU - think what we could do if we had the money."
He found the debate, which was chaired by the Speaker of the Commons John Bercow, an "interesting and enjoyable way of finding out other people's views on the EU and hopefully changing them".
In the event, the audience voted to stay in - but First News is conducting a wider poll of its readers over the next few weeks.
Noam's year six teacher Alison Ezekiel said that it was "important children are involved in the EU referendum and the First News debate demonstrates how much children have to say.
"At Noam, we learn a lot about British values both in class and in assemblies."
Although they will not be able to take part in the actual vote, she said, "it's children that will grow up and need to live with the consequences of the outcome of the referendum vote".