The student council, chaired by Nova Taukamo has gone from strength to strength as a group in 2021.

They have discussed and written a submission to Mike Fowler around ‘dress coding’. This led to guidelines being co-constructed to advise staff around the best practice to address students about what they are wearing. Students feel very passionately about this and would like to be spoken to by a trusted adult in private rather than in front of their friends. This is an important step in supporting our students and wider initiatives such as the body positive movement. As a College we are committed to students expressing themselves and as a staff we will discuss with students anything related to their clothing choices in a mana-enhancing way. The council did a wonderful job to address this issue.

Liz Jones, one of our librarians at the College visited the council and asked for feedback on what would make the library more effective as a space for students. The council found this difficult to answer and I am sure if you have any suggestions to keep the library current and engaging for students, Liz would love the feedback. You can email her liz.jones@staff.hagley.school.nz. The library website is an amazing resource in itself – Take a look here.

Angela Brett also visited the council and challenged us to review our current Prize Giving events. There was robust debate around what students do and don’t like about the current way we run things at our Prize Givings. The end point has been the set up of two sub-committees. One group is looking at Year 9 Prize Giving and the other group is looking at a Graduation-style event held on a Year 13 student's last day of school. The purpose behind a graduation-type idea is to recognise a student’s last day at secondary school as something meaningful. We will continue to work on making this a special event.

Our school also held our annual Wellbeing Expo in the last week of Term 2. It was a great event with record number of external exhibitors. Student council members asked students the question, “If there was one thing you would like to change at Hagley, related to your wellbeing, what would it be?” We have collated the responses and plan on addressing a few of the key trends that came through. A number of these will be solved through the rebuild so increasing the awareness of our new buildings will be a priority of the school over the next term.

As you can see, this team of student leaders are involved in some big things and they are such a valuable part of students' voices being heard. In Years 9-11, students are selected via tutor groups and the council is open to Year 12 and 13’s that wish to be part of it. If you have a child at home that wants to be part of the council but currently isn’t, please see me in my office in the Principal’s area.

A big thank you to the student council – they are motivated and energetic and keep me on my toes! Special thank you to Nova Taukamo who is doing an outstanding job and Mel Graham who takes excellent notes.