Staff Student Council 14.11.12

AGENDA             

AC Community Engagement Activity

Honour Code

UWC Exchange Program

Pre-IB Response

Small issues with alarms

Tracking System

 

AC Community Engagement Activity- This activity will be proposed next term and may work with current systems. The idea is to encourage and implement student responsibility within the Llantwit community. The activity would write letters, organise community events and offer help for general requests such as gardening.

 

Honour Code – Isaac Urner has brought this to the council. The concept here would be that the students would abide by a ‘moral code’ which would act below the code of conduct. It could change the mentality and culture of AC regarding certain issues and allow positive peer pressure to be applied. There are concerns that the group would become too ‘police’ like or that it would be difficult to impose however the suggestion has been met with general positivity and will be looked into further.

 

UWC Exchange Program – Phillipa Hawke and Ricardo Tuma are looking for ways to increase communication and relationships with other UWC’s so as to encourage interaction and support the ethos. Potentially, students would visit other UWC’s either during term time, project week or holidays. The students would pay for the experience themselves and may have to undergo an application process. The issue here would be the practicality of missing school and the effect therefore on the students IB. The idea will continue to be developed and a formal proposal will be written.

 

Pre-IB Response – There is a split among the students between those who have accepted the Pre-IB program but who would like to ensure we are deeply involved in its inception and those who oppose the idea entirely. We, as the Student Council,  will be forming a document that expresses our main concerns with the course (e.g. integration, teaching time) and express how we would like to see the program develop.

 

Small issues with alarms – Difficulties with the alarms such as beeping throughout the night, arriving to school from holiday very late in the evening and contacting the night porters from outside the houses to open the doors will be looked into.

 

Tracking System – Students wanted clarification about what information was seen on this new tracking system. Dave and Nick have explained that every student has an individual profile where information such as attendance, grades, reports, medical files and more are stored. However, certain information can only be accessed by specific people therefore keeping what should be confidential private.

Student Council 12/11/12

AGENDA                             

Follow ups

Governors meeting

Community Engagement Activity

David’s Plan

Honour Code

Post alarm nightriding

Curriculum Time Debate

Pre-IB discussion

UWC Exchange program

IQ Selection process

Night train

House rep elections

Staff student agenda

                               

Follow ups – Laundry machines don’t take foreign coins, please be respectful to the kitchen ladies and the Wi-Fi survey will be coming out by Friday this week.

Governors meeting – the governors are coming to the school on Monday the 26^th November. House reps will be meeting them in the Great Hall at 6pm that day. For all other students we are planning a ‘mingling’ event for that evening which will allow you to ask the governors questions and get to know them a little bit.

Community Engagement Activity – The concept is to enhance student responsibility through letters, community events, general helpfulness e.g. helping the Llantwit community with their gardens and the roads etc. This activity may start next term.

David’s Plan –. We need the students to rely on each other to behave responsibly while still having fun. David’s idea is to introduce ‘Student police’ (the name is susceptible to change) who would be two elected students in each house that would be exhibiting behaviour that other students could follow in such a way that it would limit the number of people ‘crossing the line’. If there was a serious breach of responsibility the student police would then report the act/s to staff. There was a lot of discussion about this and David has agreed to answer questions about the idea so email him with pressing queries. He will be composing a more formal proposal for a trial period of this plan.

Honour Code – Isaac has brought this idea forward. The Honour code is a more flexible and student enforced version of the code of conduct where misbehaviour is incredibly negative and students who partake in breaking the ‘honour code’ are dealt with by different levels of the student body. This idea could work in coalition with David’s ‘student police’.

Post alarm nightriding – The question of punishment for nightriding was raised now that the alarms have been put on. We have decided not to question whether the punishment for leaving the house after check in has changed but rather clarify what the punishment for vandalising, breaking or manipulating security equipment is.

Curriculum Time Debate – A formal debate will be proposed to Dave Booker for all students to attend. The idea is that Dave and the students will have a formal debate about this issue so that the student body and the staff can see arguments from both sides. There would then be an informal poll at the conclusion of the meeting to see whether opinions have changed and what the consensus is. We have yet to ask Dave.

Pre-IB discussion – We would like to form a report that states our concerns about the program but, because we do know that the Pre-IB course will be coming, the report would also include very concrete requests, suggestions and ways in which the implantation of the Pre-IB course will be formed to our preferences where possible.

UWC Exchange program – Phillipa and Ricardo have talked to John about this with positive response and they will create a proposal.

IQ Selection process – Phillipa will investigate what the current IQ selection process is and look into ways of standardising it.

Night train – We would like to trial this idea but there have been arguments from night porters that it is not in their job description and a change in their job would mean a change in contracts etc. Ricardo will talk to the night porters, John and Nick about trialling this idea.

House rep elections – This Sunday (18^th November 2012) your elections for new house reps will take place. Thank you so much to the house reps who have worked in the student council presenting your views for the last year!

Staff student agenda – This will be sent out today. Staff Student Council is tomorrow (Wednesday 14^th November) at 9pm in the Great Hall. ALL are welcome.

Student Council 05.11.2012

AGENDA             

Laundry

Wi-Fi Survey

House Rep Election

John’s Letter to Parents

Curriculum Time

Roof Climbing

Strategic Plan

Alarms on Doors and representation of Student Body

 IQ selection and screening

night train

Exchange program

 

Laundry – If a machine breaks put a sign on it immediately to tell others it is out of order then email Ollie Williams and it will be serviced. Also, do not try and use foreign coins in the machine, it blocks them and causes moderate chaos.

 

Wi-Fi Survey – There will be a meeting on Wednesday to discuss survey questions, ask your IT rep for more info.

 

House Rep Election – Elections will take place on Sunday 18^th November. So firsties, start writing your speeches! (ask your house reps for more details)

 

John’s Letter to Parents – Over the break John sent a letter to all parents about the college, its progress and its future. If you have not seen it maybe ask your parents to scan and send you a copy. The student body has felt badly represented by this letter which appears to disregard or ignore some of the issues the school has been facing and the student response to these problems. We, as the student council, would like to form our own letter to parents giving them an update from our perspective.

 

Curriculum Time – Again we discussed the wide variety of reasons for and against curriculum time. We would like to propose to Dave that we hold an open debate about this issue and then take a poll in houses to see the general consensus about how the students feel and what should be done.

 

Roof Climbing – House reps will reiterate in house meetings that this should NOT be done. The cost to the school to repair the castle after roof climbing is absurdly expensive and the dangers regarding injuries for the students should also act as a deterrent.

 

Strategic Plan – Today at 5pm in Bradenstoke come and discuss John Walmsley’s plan based on the student perspective we sent out to all. (attached is the copy).

 

Alarms on Doors and representation of Student Body – Student may have felt under-represented by Student Council. A meeting was held before half term to address these concerns. We will wait and see what happens after a few weeks of the alarms before looking again at this situation.

 

IQ selection and screening – Is the IQ selection process too dissimilar across the globe? Phillipa and Ricardo want to look into a way of standardising this process if there is not one already.

 

Night train- Ricardo and Phillipa have had this idea that would enable ‘legitimate nightriding’. They have seen John Walmsley about it today and will report back next Monday.

 

Exchange program – To encourage and facilitate the UWC movement Ricardo and Phillipa wanted to look into starting an exchange program between UWC’s and their students. It would make the movement less fragmented potentially and we could learn from each other.