STUDENTS at Tavistock College last week welcomed West Devon Conservative MP Geoffrey Cox to start their next extension project on politics.

Following the successful astronomy project, the selected able and interested Year 7 students heard about how democracy in Britain works.

Mr Cox explained how to be selected as an MP, what kind of work an MP does and how Parliament functions. The session finished with some penetrating questions from the students, who said afterwards that they had really enjoyed it.

Katelin Goodbourn said it had been a 'rare and exciting opportunity' to question their MP.

Another student, Molly Bolding, described the session as 'a brilliant insight to the world of politics'.

Next term students are looking forward to learning more about local democracy in action and in due course to go to Parliament themselves, in the footsteps of sixth form students Mr Cox met.

The year 12 and 13 students, many studying A-level law, heard anecdotes about his work as a barrister working on high profile cases involving the Privy Council and highly political court cases from his time as a QC, as well as descriptions of his work as an MP.

College principal Helen Salmon said: 'This work with Geoffrey Cox forms part of our gifted and talented programme for Year 7.

'This project has involved high profile work with Exeter University, public speaking and very challenging opportunities in history and in science.'