The primary aim of the School Council shall be to foster among the students a sense of responsibility as well as an active involvement in the running of the school. To develop leadership qualities and organisational skills. It shall reflect the ideas and opinions of the students and shall be the official organ through which members of the student body may communicate with the administrative and teaching staffs on matters of general interest to the school.
The council shall strive to encourage a good school spirit of co-operation, understanding and mutual respect between staff and students. It is hoped that the Council will be a reflection of the vitality of the school and that it will provide the school with incentive and inspiration. The council will consist of the Head Girl, Deputy Head Girl and up to 5 Senior Prefects and the current class prefects.
CONSTITUTION OF THE SCHOOL COUNCIL
Events run by the Student Council include, 1st Year Table Quiz, The Annual Talent Show, Fund Raising and correspondence with our sister school Loreto Matunda in Kenya e.g. Christmas cards for Matunda, Carol singing for Matunda
Visit our archive and learn about the History of our Student Council
2012 Student Council Report
2011/2012 has been a busy year for the student council. Many events were held, and this year has been a huge success. Council meetings were held every fortnight on Thursdays during lunchtime.
This year the Student Council put greater emphasis on our Student Council notice board, which features all the council news and all events taking place in the school. A dedicated P.R.O committee, made up of council reps from each year, meet up at lunchtime every Monday to update the notice board and website on school news. This has created greater awareness of the council’s role in school life.
A new school tuck shop was introduced at the start of the year. The council has been instrumental in helping to provide healthy lunches at affordable prices for students, through meetings with the shop staff throughout the year. The school shop was adapted to suit the needs of the pupils.
Once again the annual Beaufort Talent Show 2011 was a fantastic success. There were a lot of strong performances throughout each year, but in the end the 6th years won the overall competition. It was an exciting day for both the students and the teachers and you could tell everyone put a lot of effort into their productions.
The student council decided to hold a fun council lunchtime party for each year group to create awareness about the existence of the school council and its role within the school. Each party had fun activities such as “just a minute quiz”, showing a Glee D.V.D and solving riddles. The parties created a link between the student body and the council.
One of the big tasks this year for the council was the creation of the Beaufort Memorial book. In coordination with the school chaplain, the council ran a campaign to select various images for the contents of the book and its cover. The memorial book remembers any relative or friend of the Beaufort community who has past away since September 2011. This book is held in our school oratory and a series of sympathy cards were also made.
A Student Council awareness week also took place in our school this year. This involved various activities to promote the council and enlighten students on what their work involves.
At the beginning of the week every class group received a booklet from the student council. This booklet contained information on the functions of the student council, the roles within the council and a matching game to test student’s knowledge on the various council officers. Each class also received a survey which asked them for their opinions on the work of the council.
As part of the week there was also a competition open to first, second and third years to design a new school council logo. This will be used on all council documentation in the future, and on our school website.
The main event of Student Council Awareness week was the open council meeting which was held in our new auditorium during lunchtime. It was open for all students and staff members to attend, and gave them a great opportunity to contribute to the work of the council.
On the 4th April 2012 two council representatives attended the Irish Secondary School Students Union Annual General Meeting which was held in the Department of Education. It was an excellent experience and we feel that our individual council has benefited from attending it. The day was packed with speeches form influential people within the Irish education system (including Ruairí Quinn, the Minister of Education who spoke about his plans for the future of Irish secondary schools).We also exchanged some great ideas for different campaigns which other schools had undertaken.
During the day we listened to a presentation form the ISSU about their work and plans for the future. We discussed the future of the Junior Certificate Exam and heard suggestions for its new name. We finished off the day electing the new National Student Executive for the following year having listened to the candidate’s different proposals, We are definite that they will do a great job in the year ahead.
Student councils from all over Ireland were represented on the day, this gave us the opportunity to compare and contrast the Loreto Beaufort Student Council to that of other schools.
The experience was a positive one and we would love the opportunity to attend next years AGM.
The Student Council did a fantastic job of organising Spirit Week 2012. Over the week a large number of fun events were organised. The week started off with a student vs. teachers rounders match, organised for the first time by the 1st year reps. A fun day was had by all, but the end result left a lot to be desired! The teacher’s victory did not go down well. The annual Beaufort treasure hunt was split in two this year with a junior and senior category. Although there were rumours of cheating, a great sense of school spirit was felt by all. Africa day was organised in conjunction with the 5th years to raise funds for three 6th years travelling to South Africa for charity work this summer. The whole school fully embraced African culture with some beautiful costumes and a few stray animals walking about! The final event of the week was a Céilí Mór organised by the 5th and 6th year council reps. This got the whole school dancing and was a great way to end the week.
Overall this year has been a great success for the student council and we hope to continue this work next year.