An extraordinary adventure to 10 Downing Street

Children from one of our partner schools in East London represented Save the Children at 10 Downing Street’s Christmas party. Prabhdeep, Zahi, Iraj and Bobby all sit on the student council at their school, one of the 123 schools that took part in our Families and Schools Together (FAST) programme in 2016.

Our man in Westminster, Prabhdeep, 10, gives us the lowdown on an extraordinary evening.

An exciting opportunity

It all began after a hard day’s work at school. The year 6 school councillors who were fortunate enough to go on this trip were over the moon.

Those school councillors were Bobby, Zahi, Iraj and yours truly: Prabhdeep.

Even though we were seriously tired from school, we managed to gather up all our remaining energy to go.

The journey to 10 Downing Street

We were driven to 10 Downing Street with a taxi. On our journey we saw many London landmarks for example the Shard, the Gherkin, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

Eventually, after a long journey, we arrived at Downing Street. There were many security guards and we had to wait to be checked in on an attendance register.

Finally, the gates opened and our hearts started beating faster as we slowly walked to the shiny black door of… 10 DOWNING STREET.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photographs on the inside, but we managed a group photo outside the doors.

Famous faces from the past

Once we entered the building, we were led up one of the most famous staircases in the world.

The sides were lined with pictures and drawings of previous Prime Ministers.

We could see images of the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill and Earl Grey to name but a few.

We were amazed by the size and amount of rooms, all decorated beautifully.

The most extraordinary thing

There were lots of activities to choose from including arts and crafts, games, dancing and, of course, eating.

The most extraordinary thing was that we were allowed to play in the same rooms where the Queen sometimes has tea with the Prime Minister!

We decorated t-shirts and caps and even had a snowball fight in one of the rooms.

We visited Santa’s Grotto where we were given a goody bag and took a photograph with Santa himself.

Meeting the Prime Minister

As we came out we froze in amazement as we saw… the Prime Minister, Mrs. Theresa May! All four of us sprinted to her side and were able to get our caps and t-shirts autographed.

Shortly after that, we went downstairs again to get our coats as we were about to leave. We were in a small room and suddenly a door close to the corner opened…

We could not believe our eyes as Mrs May and her aide walked in! We used the opportunity to thank her for the party and then made our way back to school.

Thank yous

A big thank you to Jamilla Hinds-Brough and Becca Lawson for accompanying us on the visit and also to Barton Creeth, who invited us to represent Save the Children.