What does it mean to be part of the Student Council? In my experience, it meant great dedication and willingness to reach a compromise. But now that I am not part of the Student Council anymore I wanted to know what the new group thinks about participating in the Council and especially what they are planning for the near future. I interviewed one of the youngest members of the council: Alice from year 10 to find answers to my questions.

What events are coming up?

Since I am part of the entertainment group we are currently organising a talent show which is an event that has never been done before at St Louis. We are very excited about the possible outcomes of this event especially as we are now almost fully back at school and we might have the opportunity to hold the show at school. Nonetheless, if we are preparing for the possibility that the show will not take place at school. In fact, we are brainstorming ideas on how to carry out the event online either by hosting a live stream or by judging the different participants on a video basis.

Having been part of the Student Council myself, what is the most difficult aspect of collaborating with the rest of the group?

This year the Student Council has members from all year groups and all the students participating have decisively different points of view and opinions. It has been especially difficult to communicate with each other for this reason. When we meet as a whole Student Council we often have arguments on what activities to organise and how to carry them through. Great tension builds up between members at times and it is hard to find compromises because of this. Nonetheless, the fact that we are divided into groups helps a lot as it’s easier to collaborate in smaller groups.

What are the main objectives of the Student Council this year? How are you going to reach them?

This year has been very stressful for students so far. Online learning surely hasn’t helped to build a school spirit. Furthermore, it was very hard to organise Student Council events online. Every time we met as a student council the main aim was to find something which would involve all students and make them release some stress. Overall our aim this year has been to make school more enjoyable. Although it might seem simple, it’s not. We struggled to find events and activities which students from all year groups would engage in and enjoy. This is especially true for the classes which are going to have exams at the end of the year as they have less free time. Nonetheless, we are sure that events like the talent show will be well received as it will distract our fellow students from school-related stress.

How does the decision making work in the Student Council?

Well, we don’t have a standardised procedure for deciding what activities to organise, however, we usually follow some common steps. When we meet we have to bring some ideas to pitch to the other members. Once everyone has proposed something, we discuss as a group which ideas are the best and then select only a few of them. We then have to vote for which idea to carry through as we have to concentrate on a small number of activities to make sure they are executed in the best way possible. Once we have decided on which ideas to work on we propose them to our supervisor who decides if the ideas are feasible or not. If the ideas are accepted then we proceed to organise the activities.

The interview was extremely helpful to understand how and why certain decisions are made in the Student Council. Finding ideas and putting them into practice will always be difficult when you are collaborating in a group, what’s important is that the interests of the group are placed before the individual ones. It is clear that the Student Council has clear in mind what the interests of the students at St Louis are and what activities to organise in order to satisfy them.