Florence and Ryan in Year 13, along with Maya and Raye in Year 11, have been busy representing the student body and working to make improvements to the student experience in various ways.

One of their key roles is in gathering student voice and sharing these comments and suggestions with Mr Ward and Ms Jones. The primary means through which students from Year 7 to Year 13 can get their opinions on life at school heard is through Student Forum. The Heads of School send out an agenda to the elected Reps from each form group a week before the Student Forum meeting, so that the forms have time to discuss what they would like taking forward. After the meeting, the Student Leaders present the views of the school to Mr Ward and Ms Jones and work with them to explore what changes might be made. Examples of some things they have made progress on include the availability of gluten-free sandwiches to give students with this dietary requirement greater choice at lunchtime, having the timing of the servicing of soap and paper towel dispensers in the toilets changed to better suit the pattern of use during the school day, re-scheduling Additional Maths lessons for the new academic year to give students taking this extra GCSE subject a better experience of studying it, and working with the IT department to ensure easier access on the school network to websites useful for those sixth formers taking the EPQ.

In addition, they have launched a couple of their own initiatives such as organising a system for students to use the Library as a group-working space after school and collating student-perspective information on what it’s like to study various subjects at GCSE and A level to help the next cohorts of students who will be making decisions around this in the new year.

This is all in addition to displaying and honing their impressive public speaking skills when talking to the whole school in assemblies or visitors during Open Day, liaising with our caterers to share feedback from Student Forum, and generally keeping Mr Ward and Ms Jones up to date with what’s going on in the school in their fortnightly meetings.

It’s been a busy first half of their tenure; we look forward to seeing what they can achieve before handing over the reins next March!