On Wednesday 28th November 2018, the School Council will be having a meeting to elaborate on the foci of the year which we have received from you and your peers. We will also been discussing on some more severe problems such as water fountain vandalism and the misuse of toilet facilities. We will be looking at ways on how we can improve the school environment but we won’t bring up old topics such as canteen food which is largely often brought up, we want to look up at other things which have the same importance.

In the morning, you all could have a conversation with your year’s School Councillors if you have any ideas that need to be stated in the meeting as it will take place during period 1. I would just like to ensure that if you ever have any problems about the school, just notify the School Councillors verbally or via sending an email so that we can always make the voice of the students heard.

Please make sure you are keeping up to date with school news as they will be upcoming activities you may be interested in.

On the 2nd of November 2018, the School Council were visited by Councillor Julianne Marriott and Peter Gibb. They came to St Bonaventure’s to discuss what their jobs as part of the Newham Council were and asked some very interesting and educational questions about education in Newham.

Councillor Marriott started off the meeting by raising the question to the School Council about ‘What is a bad school?’. We were all placed into groups and discussed ideas on ‘What is a bad school ?’ among our groups in which we all fed back to each other as an whole.

The School Council came up with many sensible and appropriate answers such as bad leadership, lack of ethos, environmental safety and many more ideas.

Then, Councillor Marriott raised another question opposing the first question she raised, which was ‘What is a good school?’. We then got put into different groups and discussed ideas on ‘What is a good school’ which were all fed back to each other as a whole.

The School Council came up with great and tantalizing answers such as good results signifying good pastoral systems, good leadership, care within the wider community and many more.

The final question, Councillor Marriott brought up was ‘What do you need to do to prepare yourself for life after school?’. This question made the School Council put quite a lot of thought into the answers, we presented the ideas that we gathered in our groups and said them one by one, they were very influential and intriguing. Here are some of the answers we came up with: good grades, personal life skills, communication, leadership, career advice and much more.

During this academic year, the School Council team main focus is to make improvements for our school. However, we have to think about our local community, especially as it getting cold and we are almost in winter. During the meeting, we discussed ways we could help to achieve this such as doing a Film Friday or a Cake sale. We have heard many complaints about the School meals and Toilets. We are planning to make a change soon.
If you have any suggestions to help make the school a better place please speak to the Head boy – Chibuike Agu or any of the School Council representatives.

If you were wondering who was Chibuike Agu this is him.

Thanks for your time!

Our new student council participated in an exciting trip on November 7 to Gilwell Park in Chingford where they took part in a variety of activities and challenges.

After a short journey in the minibus, the group arrived at the stunning scenery of the park where they were kindly greeted and whisked off to a conference room to begin.

The newly elected representatives were briefed by former NUS President Liam Burns, who helped them to understand what it truly meant to be a student council member.

One thing that soon became clear was the initial silence as everyone sat down which was probably due to the age gap between students. After listening to Liam, they began to learn it’s important to understand how deeply and how widely an issue is taken and that focusing on multiple problems at the same time will lead to nothing being done and gathering knowledge from one another. As well as that, names were learnt using an adjective. For example: if your name begins with L, you had to find an adjective with L, (Lively Liam). This was a fun getting-to-know-you exercise and an ice breaker.

One of the first activities was to remove a fake bomb from a circle marked by a small fence. No-one was allowed to enter the circle and all they were given were two ropes and each other. At this point they still didn’t know each other very well but the bonding soon started. At first, the older students took the lead and were thinking of ideas before the nervous younger ones eventually became involved. They worked together to achieve their goal as multiple people needed to hold each side of the rope. In an amazingly quick time it was removed and then the student council members began talking to those out of their year group.

The last activity took place indoors, where the council members had to climb a ladder and no ordinary ladder, but a massive one, where every step you climbed, the spaces inbetween got bigger. As three of the members climbed, the others helped by pulling a rope connected to the climber, helping the advance in this challenge. Luckily, everyone managed to reach the top, with the help of the whole crew.

The trip was an amazing experience and helped to develop confidence and trust between the student council which led them to truly learn what it means to represent St Bon’s.