The Canterbury Youth Parliament 2016 is building on the success of previous local parliaments involving several Canterbury schools. Though it stands as an important event in its own right, the intention is to develop the influence of its debate and resolutions further through an International Youth Parliament in February 2017. The first half of the day on 5/10/2016 will be an open debate and forum for students to offer their views on the general topic of Young People in 2016 – Education and Beyond. Each school will bring some speakers to make prepared speeches individually or in groups, which they would deliver to the floor. Students could be from any years in the age range as the key objective is to get students involved! Some gifted year seven students may be a good match for some year tens; and sixth formers are welcome to participate too. The speeches should tie in with the broad topic and be suitably interesting and relevant. They could be about how the education system is flawed, the challenges facing young people in modern society, voting for 16 year olds, or improving travel in Canterbury for young people etc. Each school will have a maximum fifteen minute slot within which a minimum of five minutes should be questions. A chair will stop any presentations to ensure questions. Schools can have 5 students on 5 topics for 2 minutes each or one student on one topic for 5 minutes then taking 10 mins of questions.There will be judges to select those teams and individuals who are particularly original, enthusiastic and appear to be authentically addressing the issues of our time. The timings offer some flexibility depending on how many schools attend. The second half of the day will be a more traditional debating format, but with schools working in mixed teams to argue specific motions that would have been allocated at the start of the day (or potentially earlier.) The mixed team should ideally be 2 students from one school debating alongside 2 from another school, but this could be flexible depending on age. The motions and the paired schools will be confirmed on the day. Some ideas for draft motions for the debating section are as follows; 16 year olds should have the vote. GCSEs should be completely based on coursework. 16 year olds should complete some kind of military service. All students should complete a period of work experience. PE/fitness should be a requirement of sixth form studies. All schools should teach the same courses. Politics should become a central taught subject in schools from year 7. Single sex schools should be abandoned. Failing students should be kept back each year. Students should be able to leave school after year 9.The long term benefit to individuals of engaging in such debates, would be the development of speaking and listening skills, political engagement and raising aspirations. The benefit for adults and organisations involved in policy formation and decision making, is that they would experience the fervently expressed views of young people. The legacy of the one day national event would be a link to the European event planned for February 2017 and the establishment of an annually repeatable local forum for young people.The evaluation and dissemination of information will continue for the seven month life of the project subsequent to the event. Some of the young people involved will also participate in the preparation and management of the international youth parliament.