Student Congress was held on Tuesday 3 March in the Jennings Centre. Congress is a formal event, which takes place every term during the school year. All leaders from Years 7-12 propose, discuss and debate ideas with the College Leadership Team which consisted of Mr Brennan, Mrs Knight, Mr Chen and Mr Beurs.
Our School Captain, Robert Amendola addressed the Congress and welcomed our new leaders to the Student Leadership team. Raul Spink then led all the students in prayer.
Year 9 student Camilo Angelucci spoke about ways to reduce rubbish around the school, as this is an issue the College is trying to address. His idea was to have ‘nude food’ every Tuesday and Thursday to reduce wrappers that are often left on the floor. The boys raised many points for consideration and the consensus was that raising awareness about the issue had merit and that as College Leaders, we need to lead by example and keep the yard clean.
On behalf of Tomas Wrzesinski, Toby Fenton presented his idea of having food delivered on Friday afternoons to Mannix Campus. The leadership cohort discussed how this may cause many problems among the boys, including problems with the companies missing food items and how this kind of service would not be ideal for a whole year level. Therefore, as a leadership team, we decided that the idea needed to be remodelled and discussed again at a later stage.
Additionally, the same year level group proposed to have a Microwave/Toastie machine bench installed on the campus. We discussed how this was currently a privilege enjoyed only by Year 12s, so it may be unfair to current students who have waited many years for this. As a compromise, we suggested the Canteen invests in re-usable insulated bags for lunch orders to travel in, therefore the food can arrive warm to the campus.
Our final proposal was delivered by Robert Amendola and Eamon McKenzie, who suggested that we have the Year 12s help coach our junior Years 7 and 8 boys in ACC sport. They looked into the positive outcomes, namely that this will help to develop life-long skills by building relationships with other students, developing confidence for senior and junior students and creating a supportive culture across year levels. This also has the potential to increase the level of participation across all year levels and provide stress relief for boys, in creating opportunities to take their minds away from SAC/test pressures. The Congress was all in favour of the proposal, however the logistics are yet to be finalised.
Lastly, updates were given by leaders on behalf of their year levels, highlighting pressing issues that the boys are facing.
To conclude the event, Mr Brennan shared his honest thoughts and opinions, before we enjoyed a light snack.
The event was great, and full of enthusiasm and honesty. Many boys were comfortable sharing their proposals, and the environment was great. A special thanks to Miss Tilley and Mr Azar for organising Congress. We look forward to an improved event in Term 2.
We would like to encourage and remind all boys to present any ideas/suggestions to a Year Level Coordinator or a member of the Student Leadership team.
We each have a voice and an opportunity to make our College community even greater.
Ed Feehan
Sports Ambassador