Student Council 28.11.11.

ATTENDANCE.

PK - Maisie

Morgannwg - Sara

Powys – Shreya, Gerry, Shanna

Gwynedd – Juan, Karl

Whitaker – Tim, Albert

Tice – Emma, Miriam, Tom

Sunley – Eliza, Theo, Rebecca

AGENDA.

* House inspections

* Graduation Reps

* Paul Motte leaving

* New rules

* Alcohol

* Pastoral review

* Drunk bitches

* Health Centre staff absence from Health Centre

DISCUSSION.

House inspections. Frances will ask Houseparents to clarify at House Meeting the policy of House Inspections that happen each Monday and to put up a summary of the policy on the noticeboards.

Graduation reps. Clara, Tom, India, Rebecca, Marlene, Carys B, Manin, Ilya, Laurens are this year’s Graduation Reps and will be emailed to remind them to meet with the Development Office to begin working on their tasks.

Paul Motte leaving. We’re planning things… Ice Ice Baby…

New rules. Another long discussion. Next Staff-Student Council we will discuss why often now the system of ‘warnings’ goes straight to stricter punishments, whether and why there may be more house inspections, the point that the infliction of suspensions is too wide and is not reserved for extreme cases anymore, possible alternative punishments, concern of the frequency of Night Staff visits to dorms.

Alcohol. Rune will email Nick Lush to confirm a date for a discussion/review, possible after Christmas.

Pastoral review. Last year the review of the pastoral care system was a survey in house meeting. This year it was suggested that something more structured would be useful and if there was a survey again, students should be reminded to fill it out sensibly and maturely as there were problems concerning this last year and the surveys weren’t taken seriously. Bill will email Nick Lush to find out the details of this.

Drunken dorm-mates/ friends. We discussed the issue of whether dorm-mates/ friends should tell the Houseparents or Night Staff if someone is too drunk. We decided to bring this up in the alcohol discussion once this is scheduled.

Health Centre staff absence from Health Centre. Sometimes the staff are not there and there is no warning beforehand that they won’t be. Emma will email the nurses to ask them to notify us more clearly of times they will be absent.

 

Staff-Student Council 27.11.11.

ATTENDANCE.

PK – Andy,

Morg – Sara, Paul

Powys – Shreya, Gerry

Gwyn - Karl

Whit - Tim

Tice – Miriam, Emma

Sun – Eliza, Theo

AGENDA.

- Alcohol review

- Duty House

- Lost and Found

- Night Reports

- Late night visits Night Staff

- New rules

DISCUSSION.

Alcohol review. The Senior Staff said they would look into organising a whole college event before Christmas where we could continue discussion on solutions to the drinking culture.

Duty House. The Senior Staff felt that making a rota for Duty House in which houses were assigned to events instead of every weekend would be unnecessary stress and would not always work because of unforeseen events etc.

Lost and found. The Senior Staff said that it would be a good idea to have all lost and found items sent to Julie and that the cleaning staff etc should be warned of this. They suggested a trial next term. There could also be a list to check items in and out so that people can check for their items easily.

Night Reports. We asked for clarification of what it meant that night reports being sent to teachers would be suspended ‘for now’. The Senior Staff said that it would continue not to be sent unless something happened which meant they felt it was necessary to start sending them again. If it would come back, they said the reasons would be properly explained.

Late night visits Night Staff. The Senior Staff said they would clarify the Night Staff policies by email. A male Night Staff can enter a female dorm but there are always at least one female Night Staffs on duty so it would normally be a female. They enter only if they are concerned there is a problem in the dorm and usually only if invited in (unless the situation is urgent). The Senior Staff said the Night Staff are very sensitive towards doing this but if there is a problem with any of the Staff at Atlantic College, Senior Staff need to be made aware of it.

New rules. The Senior Staff said that the issue of having to ask house parents for permission vs. being asked for permission wasn’t a big one and that being asked might encourage students to take the opportunity as the norm.

The Senior Staff agreed that more structured, positive solutions should be put in place as punishments for breaking the new night-studying rules though, such as meetings with teachers, tutors and house parents and help to make strategic plans to break such habits. They still stuck by gating as a positive measure in certain cases.

Finally, they said that when the new rules were started, they weren’t seen as new rules since before this ‘lights out’ was technically 11:30 – they saw it merely as an adjustment to how current rules are implemented but apologised for the way students weren’t warned about this and said that a positive alternative to the way it was done would be to have a meeting with all first year students and staff near the end of the year if there is a need to discuss changes in the Code of Conduct.

 

Student Council Minutes 21.11.11.

ATTENDANCE.

Pentti Kouri – Andy, Maisie

Morgannwg – Maria, Sara

Powys – Shreya, Gerry

Gwynedd – Juan, Karl

Whitaker – Albert, Tim

Tice – Miriam, Emma, Tom

Sunley – Eliza, Theo

AGENDA.

* Vincent

* Light outside the Bradenstoke entrance

* Meat free Mondays

* Staff-Student Council Agenda

DISCUSSION.

Vincent and Hannah. Want to get AC involved in the Workers’ Rights Consortium which looks at all the school’s suppliers for bedsheets, uniforms etc and then sends information on other suppliers in a similar category of cost but with better working conditions. This will be explained to everyone in house meeting and if students agree with the cause, Vincent and Hannah will work the Senior Staff about this.

Light outside the Bradenstoke entrance. Rune spoke to Maintenance about the light outside the Bradenstoke entrance to Top Lawn. They are fixing it at the moment.

Meat-free Mondays. The result of the house votes were 186 for and 91 against. There will be a meeting at some point to openly debate the issue. The feeling is that meat-free Monday has evolved from its original aim and is no longer a symbol of the unity of our school. Most agreed that the best way to tackle this would be to take it away and re-educate people before finding a new solution.

Inspector visit. One of the inspectors sat in our meeting and asked us questions on how well the school prepared us before arrival to come to AC, what support we get during our first few weeks and then throughout the rest of our time here and to prepare us for leaving.

 

14.11.11

Graduation/ Year reps. One graduation rep from each house is required for feeding information from the Development office to the houses. One of these should then become the Year Rep – the point of contact for our year group after AC since the Development Office can’t give out information on us after we have left. We need to sort the year gift before February. We also need ideas for a class gift.

Biofence update. There will probably be a near biodiversity area down near the seafront in a location which may give it the ability to expand later.

Thematic update. Think Globally Act Locally next Tuesday/ Wednesday.

August Period will happen soon, as will Induction.

Code of Conduct postponed until language reps finish document.

Emergency phones. Decided to address ILB about the fact the emergency phone in the RNLI building doesn’t work.

Microwave in Canteen. Wanted to know if we can use it freely again – will be taken to Food Reps.

Water fountain. Discussed possibility of another water fountain in the Castle. Decided that the one near the disabled bathroom is enough. Don’t drink other water in the castle – it has lead in it.

Lost and Found shop. The shop has a ‘lost and found’ store . Suggested need for a new system for lost items – in Julie’s office, in the Castle or in a cabinet with fish.

Electrical devices being taken. Oli is the Domestic Bursar who comes around houses every Monday to check for extra furniture and electrical devices which shouldn’t be there. She comes on a Monday, and ONLY on a Monday, if you understand… If you don’t, go to her and try and get your stuff back, unless it’s a grill.

Student ID Cards. Shreya will email Nick Lush asking about progress on ID cards.

Night report. Implementing the new rules in most houses has been moderate. Everyone seemed to think that those implementing them strictly would act like that anyway.

Student Council 07.11.11.

ATTENDANCE.

Pentti Kouri – Andy, Maisie

Morgannwg – Maria, Sara

Powys – Gerry, Shreya

Gwynedd – Carl, Juan

Whitaker – Tim, Albert

Tice – Miriam, Emma, Tom

Sunley – Theo, Eliza

AGENDA.

- Lipdub

- Duty house

- New Rules

DISCUSSION.

Lipdub. Various groups are working on this (Maria Osman, Hannah Platzer, Link Group, Mubarak Sanni, Rune Mortensen, Bill Drexel). Rune and Bill will set up a meeting with the Development Office.

Duty house. Discussed the proposal of a rota for duty house for just when there are events such as SATs and weddings (as opposed to being on rota when there are no events) to share the workload more fairly. This will go to Staff-Student Council.

New rules. i.e. needing permission to work 11:30-12:30 and not being able to work after this. Student Council are co-ordinating a system to deal with this problem. One thing we will take to Staff-Student Council is that the bigger problem here is that staff are implementing rules without the students having any knowledge beforehand.

Staff-Student Council Minutes. 02.11.11.

ATTENDANCE.

Pentti Kouri – Andy, Rina

Morgannwg - Paul

Powys - Shreya

Gwynedd – Laura, Juan

Whitaker - /

Tice – Solveig, Miriam, Tom

Sunley – Diego, Eliza

Adrian

Nick

Paul

Ingvild – Social Life Committee Prefect

AGENDA.

- Class rubric

- Security

- August period review

- Project week

- Night reports

- Alcohol

DISCUSSION.

Class rubric. Nick Lush will approach the subject heads and ask them to look again at giving out a summary of the course topics, study resources, where to go for help, skills needed for the course etc as not every teacher did this. Students should be aware to ask teachers for help – they are available at times explained on the timetable and it is a student’s responsibility to ask for one. Some felt it was not necessary and such information would become clear during the course. However, it was discussed that finding out during the course would be little use if it was a factor that would have altered a student’s decision about taking the course earlier. There is an assessment policy which every faculty must have with details of how monthly grades are assessed, predicted grades are formed etc but this is not always clear to the class.

Security. Student Council suggested phones in academic blocks, gym, and coffee lounge etc. and locks on doors i.e. computer lab. The Staff said they would speak to the Committee responsible for security at the school about Student Council’s suggestions. Currently there are phones in the science blocks and in the library with the emergency numbers posted. It isn’t possible for the school’s system to support more phones on the server currently. Students need to stop leaving doors and windows open at night – efforts of security need to come from everyone.

August period review. The Staff’s main point was that they felt the Diploma Period breaks every few weeks could be considered a good replacement for the previously longer August period as they provide breaks for socialising, work and recuperation.  Hopefully there will be a thematic discussion on this in the coming weeks.

Project Week. Student Council asked if Project Week information could be put in the joining papers with an indication of the price range, if the sign-up process could be more like Service sign-up and only the amount of available spots advertised (i.e. if certain classes have priority) and if students would be able to lead projects. The Staff said they would authorise work experience, volunteering etc. if it could be proven and that students could approach Nick Lush with ideas for student-led group projects. They will try and review the system for next year.

Night reports. The night reports are now being sent to all teachers because the teachers want to know who is working all night regularly. The teachers will not receive all of the information on the night report – just who is up working or socialising.

Alcohol. At Staff-Student Council, we discussed that this issue goes around in circles and nothing ever changes. It is recognised that there are a lot of students behaving irresponsibly with regard to alcohol – buying it for under 18s, consuming it on the cliffs, in fields and leaving rubbish etc. It was also recognised that there are extremes in this situation – there is a feeling that there are many drinkers in the school but those who drink in moderation receive the same as those who are irresponsible with alcohol. At the same time, there is a feeling that those who do not drink at all receive prejudice for this.

The Staff said that drinking had always been a problem but as alcohol has become cheaper and stronger, people tend to get drunker more often. Because of the reputation the school is getting in the local community and internationally, National Committees have begun to consider not sending students here anymore which is a disaster.

There used to be a Staff-led bar on Campus but UK Law changed 4-5 years ago which meant this could no longer happen. There was discussion as well that sometimes the bar operated illegally. These same things happened at independent schools across the UK. After this, all teachers agreed that there would be no alcohol on campus at all and at a recent UWC Heads meeting it was found that only our college and one other even have alcohol at their leavers dinner (the other had it because they held their dinner in the local town).

The main decision was that we needed as a college to understand the boundaries in the Code of Conduct and the informal boundaries we set for ourselves. This is so that we don’t waste time discussing what cannot be changed because of law. The problem needs to be addressed to irresponsible drinkers predominantly and there needs to be encouragement given to those who do not normally give their opinion as often to do so.

As of yet, the method for addressing this problem is undecided. Staff-Student Council discussed the possibility of having break-out groups in assembly to discuss this but many factors need to be taken into account to work out the most effective way of doing this. The Social Life Committee are also working on creating an online calendar with listings of more events at weekends.

31.10.11

AGENDA.

- House Reps.

- Year Rep/ Graduation Reps.

- Religious Survey.

- Security.

- Thematic Update.

- Staff-Student Agenda.

DISCUSSION.

- House Reps. This Sunday first year House Reps will be elected.

- Year Rep/ Graduation Reps. This Sunday Graduation Reps will be elected and probably from those a Year Rep will be elected. Graduation Reps will have a lot of responsibility towards the end of the year so should be prepared for this.

- Religious Survey. Still waiting for some results.

- Security. See Staff-Student Council agenda.

- Thematic Update. David Hills has said he is available for a Wifi discussion on Tuesday.

- Staff-Student Agenda.

-          Security (Solveig). Following the recent events concerning security, Student Council would like to discuss the possibility of new security procedures such as emergency phones in the academic blocks, coffee lounge, gym etc. or coded locks on for example, the computer lab where there is a lot of expensive equipment.

-          Class Rubric (Andy). Summary sheets from each subject concerning specifics of the course and class were discussed as a possibility for new first years. Student Council were wondering if this could be a possibility for the future.

-          August Period/ Induction Feedback (Tom). Student Council would like to discuss results of collecting feedback about this time.

-          Project Week (Laura). Student Council would like to discuss possible alterations to the Project Week sign-down process for the future such as more time for decision making, having only one preference (could instead possibly be done like Service sign-down) and making it clearer who has priority on projects.

N

-          Night Report. Student Council would like clarification as to whether the night report will be sent to all teaching staff in future and if so, why?