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.