It seems like yesterday that we were standing in various assemblies giving our speech to the whole school. An opportunity to share our vision for the year that followed. We focused on increasing the awareness of mental health in school. This led us to host a mental health workshop in which years 9, 10 , 11 got the afternoon off timetable to participate in team building and helping us draft a logo for mental health awareness in school.

As Senior Students, we also worked closely with the Peer Mentors (ran by Mrs Wilson-Head) to gain a deeper insight into mental health issues, which encouraged us to promote the school counsellors and introduce a gender-neutral toilet in the ASC. There will also be a gender-neutral toilet in the main school building from the Summer Term.  We genuinely believe we have acted upon our vision of increasing mental health awareness, shown through the thousands of pounds that the students and teachers have donated to charities like ‘Mind’ through non-uniform days. Mind have also agreed and have have future plans with the new Senior Students, to run a workshop with students.

Working in partnership with School Council, we have also worked closely with the catering staff to create a more accessible food menu. Introducing the ‘Vegan Meal of The Day” which allows students and teachers to maintain or introduce themselves to alternative food options. Alongside this we also made sure there was regular updates to the menu, prices on all of the food items and introduced a meal deal with the aim of students getting a balanced lunch at a reduced cost.

Although at first public speaking was daunting and being ambassadors for the school is a huge responsibility, all of us have thoroughly enjoyed every open evening, carol service, Commemoration evening, Edwardians meetings and Year/Executive School Council meetings. It can be said that with hard work and support we have achieved our vision that we shared at the start of our Senior Student journey.

WIth all of this in mind we would like to say a ‘Thank You’ to everyone who has helped and encouraged us in the process. It has been an unforgettable experience and we now hand over  to Luke, Lewis, Phoebe and Claudia to continue the vision!

Layla, Christie, Jena, Tom