Democracy at first hand.

The pint-sized representatives of two primary schools in Knowsley have had a taste of the nation’s democracy.

Members of the school councils at St Mary and St Paul’s school in Prescot and Greengates school in Halewood visited the Palace of Westminster.

It was part of a project on rights and responsibilities and they were treated to a tour of both the House of Lords and House of Commons.

Marianne Mowatt, associate head of the two schools, said: “This helped them make the link between the democratic process that saw them elected to the school council and the democracy that works in the Houses of Parliament.

“The twelve children we took were aged between seven and ten and our tour guide loved them – they were the youngest in the House that day but asked so many questions.

“Most of them had heard about Gordon Brown and David Cameron and they stood where the leaders stand in the Commons and fired questions at each other.”

The children had been invited down to London by Eddie O’Hara, the retiring MP for Knowsley South.

The trip included a ride on the London Eye wheel where they got a bird's eye view of the Palace of Westminster.

The children will share what they learned on the trip with the other pupils at the schools and there will be more work on what democracy means.

Marianne added: “At the moment, the two schools are working together under one executive head while some restructuring takes place and some of the pupils had never met each other before.

“But they behaved impeccably and got on so well – it was a long day for them but a really memorable one as well.”

Greengates school council representatives Saskia Campbell and Jennifer Bentley enjoy a birds eye view of the Palace of Westminster.