Student Council

The date was Friday 8^th of February and 34 students stood at the front of assembly before their peers, who had voted them to represent their ideas and opinions. The journey had begun again. For some of these students, the council was a familiar aspect of their college life, but for many of the younger students who were new to the school; this was also an entirely new experience.

The first hurdle was the annual workday and it was a very successful event, with 500 extra workers in the workforce for one day only. Jobs that students worked at ranged from window cleaning to mechanic. Those who couldn't find jobs instead volunteered their service for work around the college. This provided a firm base of events for the year. After this came the raffle, which managed to raise over $1000.00 the proceeds of which were donated to Limbs 4 All. This is a charity started and run by Mark Inglis, which was created to help to provide quality prosthetics and wheelchairs to underprivileged amputees in the Himalayas. We were lucky enough to have Mark Inglis come into assembly personally, and explain to the school where this donated money would be going.

Items that the council has funded this year include the following: The widely used new bike stands by the hall were funded by the council and built by the caretaker, Mr. Mark Lilley. An important proposal was also brought to the council by Mr. Chris O'Connell was funding towards framing in the Brother Dowling Center for prized shirts of Ryan Nelsen and Mark Hammett. This will hopefully be the start of a museum of college and pupil sporting excellence. Money also went to Edmund Rice Sinon School in Africa. A large amount of sports training gear worth over $2000 was also donated to the sports department at assembly for the benefit of sports teams as well as the whole school. It included exercise bikes, balls, weights, and even boxing gloves. Also seen this year was the introduction of the popular wristbands, which are used to easily identify house allegiances. While these were originally a world youth day fund raiser, the bands have now become an aspect of the student council. Lastly, but definitely not least on the council calendar was the ever big annual St Thomas' Week at the end of term two. This fun filled week saw many of the old challenges and events continued, like the house tug-of-war, the junior and senior quizzes, and the ever intense house singing and Haka competitions. But it also saw some new competitions arise, like the Battle of the Bands, and the recently established fair, where all the form classes sold their goods, making an enjoyable afternoon.

All in all, the council has been able to achieve lots this year, which should hopefully help the student body to better enjoy their school environment. It has been a please and an honour as Chairman of the council to have been involved with this great tradition, and the opportunity to lead some great young men. I will be proud to hand over the reigns to whoever is chosen for next year.

Best of luck to all the council members

By Alex McClelland - Chairman College Council 2008