Children from a school which was recently taken out of Ofsted’s special measures have taken on the Government to show just how much they have improved.

More than 250 children from Thomas Willingale School, Debden, took part in a competition to write a letter to David Cameron about issues which they believe affect them the most.

Although the PM did not get back to them, letters were also passed to the district council and Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing, who agreed to meet with them.

Mrs Laing was challenged on both central government and local issues by children as young as eight, earlier today.

Alfie Haswell, year three, asked Mrs Laing why side streets are not gritted in the winter, making them dangerous for residents of Epping Forest.

Mrs Laing replied: “I received a stack of letters asking me the same question, this year.

“I told you earlier about the parish council and the district council, well there is another council, the county council which is responsible for gritting the roads.

“We can’t have all of them done or there would be no money left for the hospitals and the police or the other things that we need.”

Ethan Fowler, year six, showed a keen interest in the financial aspect of the government, asking Mrs Laing if she feels that it would be a good idea to raise taxes for the people earning more than £500,000 per year so that people who earn less, could pay less.

Although Mrs Laing, who was very impressed with the knowledgeable questions from such young people, said that this is something which would not be possible.

Miss Pollard, literacy coordinator, who set the writing task, said that she was proud of all the children who took part.

She said: “One of the comments from Ofsted was around the children’s writing so we hold competitions each month, so many of them wanted to be involved.

“I was so impressed. They came up with a lot of the issues themselves.”

Children from years’ three, five and six raised issues including fly tipping, hospital closure, burglary, parking and gun and knife crime. Issues which Mrs Laing promised to look into.

Thomas Willingale was moved to a ‘good’ rating following the last inspection in January this year.