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In the spotlight is... The Mayor!
In the spotlight is... The Mayor!
We were very lucky to have the Mayor of Southampton come and visit our school! Our Year 6 House Captains lead a tour through the school before the Mayor was interviewed by our resident interviewer, James, and one of our editors, Robyn!
James: What does your job entail?
Mayor: Ah, that' s a good question. So the job of the mayor is to be the face of Southampton - they call you the first citizen. You have to welcome people to Southampton, you have to promote the good things in the city and you have to thank people for everything they do! I get to cut lots of ribbons and I get to meet with groups and people across the city and really celebrate the amazing work that they're doing.
James: At what age did you want to be mayor?
Mayor: Haha well that is a good question because it's quite hard to answer it without sounding ridiculous! By chance, when I was about 17, Southampton brought in something called a Youth Mayor so I suppose that gave me a bit of an insight into what the role may be like to do the traditional adult mayor. I had some interest then but I didn't ever think I would be the proper mayor. It just sort of happened by chance really! You may be interested to know that Southampton is bring back, for this year, a young mayor again! There might be an opportunity for one of you two!
James: What is the best part of being mayor?
Mayor: I just love meeting people and finding out about the work that different people do in Southampton. It's a really great place to be mayor because there's always something happening in the city and the people are just amazing. I love the fact that people work so hard to make Southampton better and its so inspiring to meet those people. That's what I love about it.
James : Have you learnt anything new since becoming Mayor?
Mayor: Everything! So I thought having lived in Southampton for my entire life that I knew Southampton but I actually didn't know anything about Southampton - everything's a surprise! I can't believe how much there is in this city and how many people just do things every day and don't tell anyone about it, they just get on, do amazing things and they hide it all of their life as well, they don't like the limelight so that's what I've learnt - to go "you are actually amazing." So I don't know if there's anything specific I've learnt other than everything!
People like gossiping to the mayor so when you meet people you get to learn things that they think other people may not know and say "by the way did you know...?" so you do find out a lot of gossipy things as well and I have to try and remember whether I'm allowed to tell other people them or not because you don't want to get in trouble!
James: Is the mayor necklace very heavy?
Mayor: There's only one way to answer that isn't there!
The Mayor puts his chain on James - how exciting!
Mayor: What do you think? Feel free to lift it!
James: It's a bit heavy!
Mayor: It's not too bad though is it?
James: No it's not too bad!
Mayor: Do you want to try it on Robyn?
Robyn: Yeh!
James: It's kind of heavy but not in a bad way.
Mayor: Yeh, I think when you look at the way it sits, because there's almost as much of it on the back as there is on the front it's quite well weighted. But the whole outfit, I don't notice it too much. I'll find if I spend a whole day in this, I'll go home and I'll sit on the sofa and I'll be like "why am I so weak?" and it's because I've been wearing this extra weight - almost like when you've got a dog that's got far too long hair and you suddenly get it all trimmed and the dog is like "ah, freedom!"
James: What is your favourite place in Southampton and why?
Mayor: Ohh.. that's a dangerous one that! I had an email from someone this week and they were writing a piece for their school (I think they're in Year 10) and they said "Which place in Southampton do you prefer: Portswood, Swaythling or Bitterne?" and I thought "Well I can't say anything, can I?!" because I'm not allowed to prefer anything, I love all of Southampton! But if there's a specific place, I should be able to think of something. I do really really like Tudor House Museum. Have you been there?
James and Robyn: Yes!
Mayor: I just love Southampton's history and because they've got all different bits of history there, it sort of spans time. I love going there and I remember going when I was in primary school and I loved it and it's still nice to go back! And they've got a great cafe!
James: What was your favourite subject at school? Why?
Mayor: My favourite was definitely history.
James: That's mine too.
Robyn: And mine.
Mayor: Is it? Great! It's just so relatable isn't it. You hear something and think "that just makes sense" because of something else you heard. It kind of puts everything in perspective, doesn't it? Even what we are seeing today with the terrible events in Ukraine reminds you of things that have happened in history and that's why it matters so much for us to learn about history. I wasn't necesarily the best at History, I was the best at Geography - probably because I'm nosy and I want to know where everything is!
James: What do you like to do with your time off?
Mayor: You don't actually get any time off as mayor haha! Well you do get some time off but often I have things at the weekend! I love seeing my friends! Um... what else do I do? When you get to my age, you don't actually remember what you do in your spare time. You just spend your time cleaning your house and things like that! What spare time?
Miss Roberts laughs and nods... must be a grown up thing!
James: Did you grow up in Southampton?
Mayor: Yes I did, in Bitterne.
James: Who inspires you?
Mayor: That's so hard! These are getting more difficult aren't they! Who inspires me? There's so many people actually but funnily enough - and this is going to sound cheesy - I'm inspired the most by young people in Southampton because when I ever the work that young people do and the care that they show for the future of their community and their country and the world, I just think "actually the future is in safe hands because they're so passionate about protecting things and improving things, and helping their families learn about how things are changing. I think that really matters, that we have young people leading like that.
James: What advice would you give your ten year old self?
Mayor: Oh! Are you both ten?
James: I am.
Robyn: I'm 11.
Mayor: So, what advice would I give James? I think that one of the things that I've always tried to do it life - and it's really helped me - is, when I hear something, I try to think about and think "can I verify what they've said in any way", so can I see if someone else says something different and can I make sure I don't jump to conclusions. I don't think it's very fair on people to not give them a chance to be heard. So if I hear something in the news, I always try and look it up but I didn't always do that and that's why I probably always try to be better at being a bit more investigative when I'm hearing things and make sure that I'm thinking "is that really the total story?"
James: If you could do any other job in the world, what would it be?
Mayor: Astronaut! No, haha. Hmm...
Miss Roberts: Why don't you say what you would do to give some ideas?
James: Um... author.
Mayor: That's a great job!
Robyn: I really like musical theatre so I want to preform in musicals.
Mayor: Fantastic, what an lovely job! One of the things I would like to do, that I haven't had an opportunity to do but may yet have the opportunity to do one day, is be a teacher actually! I do really like learning from people and helping them to understand and learn things. I'd like to do that! In the most perfect world, where I was given any opportunity, then that might actually be lounging on a sun lounger on a Caribbean island or something!
James: What message would you like to give SJS children?
Mayor: That this is a fantastic school, in a fantastic part of Southampton and that you should work really hard because actually you have so many opportunities in the city and unfortunately one of the sad things I see when I do go round as mayor is that people don't know necessarily just how many opportunities there are here. Try your best - whether parents of pupils here have links - try your best to get visits to places like Southampton Docks, the airport... we've got all sorts of amazing things on our doorstep and you learn so much more from seeing other people in their jobs. I think that when you are this age it's such a great opportunity because none of us particularly know what we want to do when we're older so seeing people at work and finding out just how many amazing jobs there are out there, it teaches you so much! And obviously I hope that a Shirley Junior School pupil becomes, well maybe not the next mayor because you're perhaps not quite old enough yet, but I want to see one of the students I've met today as Mayor of Southampton.
James: It goes to the easy ones now!
Mayor: Haha oh thank you! Favourite biscuit, favourite sandwich!
James: If you could play an instrument what would it be and why?
Mayor: Organ! Like in a cathedral or church.
James: If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be and why?
Mayor: These are good questions! Anywhere in the world? Where's your favourite place you've been in the world?
James: Italy.
Mayor: Italy, lovely!
Robyn: Ibiza.
Mayor: Ibiza? Wow! I've never been to Ibiza, that's really cool. What about me? Um.... What about you?
Miss Roberts: I'd like to go to Japan! Canada would be nice too. But going to Tokyo would be amazing, I could visit the Pokémon Centre!
Mayor: Yeh actually thank you! You've really helped... China because the history of civilisation in China is amazing and there are so many things that we are familiar with today that were founded in China thousands of years ago. That would be a really interesting country.
James: If you could travel back in time where would you go and why?
Mayor: I always loved hearing the stories of my grandparents about them growing up so I would just love to go back to when my grandparents were young... which probably wouldn't be a very good time because it was around the time of wars and things but I just think it's quite similar to our lives today in that we can walk down the streets and they look fairly similar, particularly lots of the houses around here were built by the 1900s. It would just be interesting to see how they saw the world. What about you?
James: Maybe I would say... Roman times.
Mayor: Oh yeh, that would be good!
Miss Roberts: Where do you think you'd be in the hierarchy? Would you be really high up?
James: Haha no...
Robyn: I think I'd really like to go to the early 1900s because of the Suffragettes.
Mayor: That would be really good! Did you know that the first female mayor of Southampton, Lucia Foster Welch, lived on Oxford Street and she was a really famous suffragist in the city and she become the first female mayor!
James: And that was the last question! Thank you!
Mayor: Thank you both! And thank you for grilling me!
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