Over 160 students and teachers from ten schools across Northern Ireland joined together on Friday 28 February for a PSA Teacher and Student conference which focused on key aspects of the A2 paper on Comparative Politics of the UK and USA (CCEA Exam Board, Northern Ireland). Introduced by the PSA Conference Chair, Dr. Cathy Gormley-Heenan (Ulster), the morning began with three keynote addresses before the floor was opened to a series of questions and answers from the floor to our panellists.

Dr. Matthew Aston (Nottingham) began the morning by considering whether the US constitution was fit for purpose’. Professor Andrew Massey (Exeter) followed this with a session on ‘Congress or Parliament – Which is the More Effective?’ The morning session was finished off by Dr. Richard Heffernan (Open University) who looked at ‘British Prime Ministerial Authority and its Absence’.

Prizes were awarded to the best students essays submitted for the event – the winners were Frazer Wallace (Methodist College Belfast) and Jamie Woods (Sullivan Upper) for their essays on the US Constitution; Andrew Abilie (Sullivan Upper) for his essay on the US legislature and Caitlin Sim (Methodist College Belfast) for her essay on the Prime Minister versus the President. Students were presented their certificates of achievement and prizes by our guest speakers and invited to make opening remarks and introduce the guest speakers at the start of each session.

The event rounded off with staff and students networking among each other and with colleagues from the PSA and the University of Ulster. Thanks to Methodist College Belfast and their Head of Politics, John Foster, for hosting the PSA and all of the attending schools. The event has been video recorded and should be available shortly on the teacher resources section of the PSA website for use within their own schools.

Prize winners