STUDENT COUNCIL - THE CLOSING OF A CHAPTER

T. SHARKEY - STUDENT VOICE PREFECT

At the conclusion of my tenure as prefect, I would like to take the time to thank all the councillors who attended meetings, over the course of the year, whose contributions and dedication to the body were always valuable, and I believe made a genuine difference to school life. The attendance across the year was exemplary, and clearly any work that the council did over this year would not have occurred without this initial dedication, so I hope everyone who was involved recognises the contributions they have made. Probably the most significant result of the Student Council, has been the introduction of our wonderful Subject Prefects, who guide their departments in their quests to develop and improve.

Furthermore, I would like to thank all the prefects who

attended, to both relate their perspective on their areas of responsibility, as well as take feedback from the Council. As I now know quite well, being a prefect is a busy job, and so I genuinely appreciated them taking the time to gain a greater awareness of the many areas of student life at the school, and I am pleased that the council were themselves able to reciprocate with suggestions, the most successful of which being suggestions for the way in which counselling referrals take place. Of equal note would be the times in which those outside of the student body came to deliver their thoughts to the council; though it would be fair to say that the visit of Mr Zakrzewski of Harrison's Catering was memorable in all aspects, I left feeling as if I finally understood what was going on with the system of catering, something that had eluded me for the previous six years of my education. That, I feel, is where the Student Council should focus - trying to uncover as many perspectives from around the school as possible, so as to ensure any decision is a considered one. I must also express my gratitude for the work that Mr McGall put in, ensuring the Student Council was represented at the highest level, as well as for giving out information regarding the inner workings of the school to us mere mortals. It was much appreciated, and went quite a distance in achieving my own goal of cutting out unnecessary or unfortunately infeasible proposals from the Council. I hope his attendance and dedication will be replicated in the reign of my successor, as it was an incredible help. I would, however, like to float the idea, as I have heard it replicated at other schools, of allowing student council representation in certain senior leadership meetings.

However, I must also look back and say that there were many things that I failed to implement, chief among them being the method for registering clubs and societies, which was an excellent idea by Mr Evans. I'm afraid here I can only protest that the year I had was rather busy, so it wasn't always possible to implement them. I hope a solution to this

problem is found by my successor. I also would like to publicly call for a dress code for transgender students, who currently lack a means by which to square their desire to dress professionally, with dressing in accordance with their gender identity (which the great majority of us very much can do). I would also like to say that the school must do more in educating its student body on issues of racial and gender inequality, which is not to imply that the majority of the student body themselves hold objectionable views (truth be told, I don't know), but rather that the school should take a lead in promoting an outlook of which its senior leadership would be proud.

To sum it all up, my own contribution to student life last year was rather minimal compared with that of the Student Council. I hope that, besides generating some change which may or may not be lasting, it helped students feel like they had a stake in the school's decision-making process, which is what I wished to impart at the start of the year. I wish my successor all the best, and I hope that everyone on the council next year continues its growth as an institution of student life. Considering my first student council session, when taking over, was attended by just three people (of whom the previous prefect was not one), I take a small measure of credit for boosting the council's profile. It's up to you now.

M. El-Beik promoting recycling in school, on behalf of the Council.