Young campaigners from 5 UK schools travelled to Westminster today to ask the UK government to do everything it can to make sure that every child worldwide, regardless of their disability, gets a chance to go to school.

Accompanied by the TV Presenter and Paralympian, Ade Adepitan, they delivered hundreds of colourful messages to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street.

This group feel very passionately about the need for all children to receive an education and have been doing lots of campaigning in their schools.

They are just a few of the thousands of young people across the UK who have been taking part in this year’s Send ALL My Friends to School. Almost 4,000 schools are taking part, with pupils learning about the barriers to education in class and then adding their colourful messages to ‘buddies’ to speak out for the right of every child to a quality eduction, regardless of their disability.

Pupils involved came from Guildford County School (Surrey), The Village School (Wembley), Southern Road Primary School, (Plaistow, East London), Sir Jonathon North Community College (Leicester), and The St Phillip Howard Catholic High School, (Sussex).

There are still 57 million children missing out on school globally and over a third of them have a disability.

Young campaigners met with David Blunkett MP, a great advocate on education for all and member of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global Education for All. David told them about the difference education has made to his life and how he, and other MPs, can take their messages into parliament and help to ensure that action is taken.

David Blunkett MP told the young people: “I’ve done all sorts of things in my career that I’m proud of in terms of changing policy…but one of the biggest things I’ve done is just to prove to people, to youngsters who have a disability, to parents, to employers who are thinking I’m not going to interview this person, just by doing the job and being in the public eye to tell people that it can be done and that you must treat people as an individual, that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve been able to do. But education is key to that.”

They also had a private meeting with education advisers at the Department of International Development (DfID) in Whitehall where they challenged them on what steps the UK government is taking to ensure universal primary education up to and beyond 2015, and in particular for children with disabilities.

Finally together with Ade Adepitan they entered Downing Street and delivered hundreds of colourful buddy figures to the Prime Minister asking world leaders to live up to the promise made in 2000 for universal primary education and to ensure that no child is left behind.

Ade Adepitan is supporting the campaign and says: “If world leaders are serious about getting EVERY child into education, they must prioritise the needs of children with disabilities now.”

Ade was born in Nigeria where he contracted polio at 15 months old. Ade moved to London before he started primary school but knows that if he had stayed in Nigeria his life would have been very different. Nigeria is the country with the largest number of out of school children currently at over 10 million.

Rebecca Unwin and Maisie Le Masurier – the campaign’s Young Ambassadors for 2014 – at Westminster.

Maisie Le Masurier, 15, one of the campaign’s 2014 Young Ambassadors and she said: “The highlight for me was meeting David Blunkett MP and hearing how with the help of his education he has been able to overcome his disability and have a successful and important career. This demonstrates how vital education is and inspires me even more to campaign for the 24 million children with disabilities that are still missing out on school.”

Rebecca Unwin, 15, also a Young Ambassador for the campaign and a pupil at Guildford County School said: “Going into Downing Street with Ade Adepitan was the best part for me. As Ade had polio when he was a child he can really relate to the problem of the millions of children in the developing world that can’t get to school. He is a fantastic Ambassador for Send My Friend and it was great to have him campaigning with us.”

Almost half a million pupils in 4,000 UK schools are speaking out for every child’s right to go to school.

Photo: © Georgie Scott / GCE UK