It was wonderful to have Gillian Keegan MP as our inspirational speaker this term. In fact, we had ’two for the price of one’ as she brought her friend Theo Clarke along who was shadowing her for the day as she wants to become an MP as well.
Theo is Chief Executive and Founder of the Coalition for Global Prosperity, but is starting an exciting role with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation quite soon. She is also looking to pursue a career in politics. Theo truly was an inspiration to the children, relating some of her life experiences and telling the children that they can be who they want to be if they are prepared to work hard towards their goals. She told a story where she had just started working for a very large bank in New York on the day that the 2008 financial crash happened, and suddenly a huge number of people were about to lose their jobs. She didn’t know a great deal about banking, but managed to make herself indispensable by working out what the bank needed and working hard.
Gillian Keegan told us of her journey into politics, which was quite unconventional. She is from Liverpool originally, in an area where there was, and still is, very little provision for children to be able to study A levels at school. She therefore started an apprenticeship with a large car manufacturer and worked her way up through the company, and went on to enjoy a 27 year business career. Five years ago she decided that she would really like to help people, and that a career in politics would be the best way to achieve that. Her message was very much around finding a passion for something, and then working hard to achieve it. She did not know a great deal about politics when starting out, but works very hard to do the best she can for her constituents in Chichester, but also in Government more generally.
All the children came away with a strong message from these two excellent speakers - follow your dreams and work hard!
