The Political Studies Association has just launched this year's Student Short Video Competition and I would like to encourage A-Level and Higher Education students to take part.

The theme of this year's competition is "Europe - in or out?" and groups of students are invited to submit short videos on this subject. Shortlisted groups will be invited to Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster to discuss their work with a panel of politicians, journalists and academics. Previous judges have included Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty.

The winners will receive their award at the PSA's Annual Awards Ceremony in Westminster on 25th November.

Full details of the competition and how to enter can be found on the PSA's website: www.psa.ac.uk

On Thursday 16th May I joined fellow MPs in meeting with the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) and a group of deaf children aboard the Listening Bus in Parliament.  The society is calling for a parliamentary debate to protect specialist services, such as Teachers for the Deaf.

The NDCS Listening Bus travels around the country to provide support to deaf children.  I was able to find out more about service provision for deaf children in the local area, as well as speak to the children themselves about their hopes for the future and the support they need at school.

Everyone agrees that we must protect funding for vulnerable learners, so it's deeply worrying to learn of reductions to these vital services.  I am therefore joining other MPs in calling for a parliamentary debate to highlight this key issue.

As part of its campaign, NDCS has been running a petition to support calls for the debate.  Nearly 50,000 signatures have been collected, calling on the Department for Education to intervene at a national level and ensure local authorities protect funding for deaf children.

Although the petition has now closed, supporters can still get involved in other ways - see www.ndcs.org.uk/petition for further details. 

Today I welcomed the opportunity to be part of the One Billion Rising Campaign and make a stand to end violence against women and girls.

As thousands of campaigners across Britain come together at 150 different events, MPs debated a motion calling on the Government to make relationship education a requirement in schools.  Activists in the UK will be joining a worldwide movement in almost 200 other countries to call for renewed efforts to end violence against women.

I have campaigned to end violence against women all my political life.  I cannot believe that the death toll remains so high.  Last year 109 women died as a result of domestic violence.  With one in three girls aged 13-17 in relationships saying they have experienced physical or sexual violence, the future looks grim.

That is why I am backing the One Billion Rising campaign by supporting the call to make a zero tolerance approach to violence in relationships part of the school curriculum.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) want to see Emergency Life Support (ELS) skills taught in secondary school classrooms across England. They are calling on the Government to include life-saving skills as a mandatory part of the school curriculum to ensure all students are taught the skills which would help save a life.

In September, the BHF and RCUK delivered a petition to Downing Street with more than 100,000 signatures of support. Now MPs have recognised the public call to teach children these essential skills and on November 22nd I took part in a Commons debate on the subject.

By teaching life-saving skills in schools, we could put hundreds of thousands of new life-savers on the streets each year. 

Every second counts in an emergency, so I’m supporting the campaign to make life-saving skills part of our children’s education - it could be the difference between life and death.

You can find more information about the campaign at bhf.org.uk/lifesaving.

This week I lent my support to Abbeyfield Week 2012 by signing the Abbeyfield Week Pledge in Parliament. The pledge committed me to supporting and promoting generational skills swapping in Lewisham Deptford and to actively encouraging older and younger people to forge strong intergenerational relationships.

I was pleased to be able to sign the pledge and support this innovative scheme to help raise awareness of the importance of skills swaps.  Too often we overlook the need for different generations to get together and learn new skills such as IT, cooking and reading.  It also provides an excellent opportunity for generations to discuss the difference in their lifestyles and encourage better understanding.