NORTH Shropshire MP Owen Paterson paid a visit to a Gobowen school last week to respond to letters sent to him by pupils.

Children at Gobowen Primary School welcomed Mr Paterson with some hard-hitting questions during his visit.

The Year 5 group reached out to Mr Paterson to practice their persuasive writing by raising issues in their area and attempting to persuade their MP to take action for them.

Mr Paterson said he was pleased to see the good examples of work on show, and tipped one pupil to be an MP in the future.

He said: “The children wrote to me initially as part of their work to practice persuasive writing.

“I then wrote back and suggested they try using their persuasive writing skills to persuade their headteacher to bring them to London to parliament.

“We’ve had a steady stream of schools visiting over the past 20 years and it’s a really good opportunity for them.

“It was pleasing to hear they have been successful in doing so and they will be coming to London.

“I think it was really good and there were lots of good questions.

“Poppie Chapman-Price looked as though she could potentially be an MP in the future.”

Poppie led the assembly which was called for Mr Paterson's visit, and responded to his comment about her.

She said: “I don’t know what to say, it’s very exciting to hear something like that.

“I was very excited, and I thought it was a big opportunity for a MP to come to our school."

Year 5 teacher Sian Kerr said: “It was really exciting to have Owen visit and it was really exciting for the children to receive a letter with the House of Commons logo on it.

“To be invited down to London previously was a great opportunity but unfortunately, we couldn’t make it, so to have him come to us was just as exciting.

“All of the children were really enthusiastic.”

She added how she believes it is important to open children's eyes to politics from a young age.

“It’s very important," she said.

“They are the next generation so if we can encourage them to be more interested in politics then hopefully, they can make the world a better place for themselves in the future.

“We’ve been trying to shed a light on Brexit with our class, so we’ve been conducting exercises like what would happen if our class was removed from the school.”