On the 2nd of November 2018, the School Council were visited by Councillor Julianne Marriott and Peter Gibb. They came to St Bonaventure’s to discuss what their jobs as part of the Newham Council were and asked some very interesting and educational questions about education in Newham.

Councillor Marriott started off the meeting by raising the question to the School Council about ‘What is a bad school?’. We were all placed into groups and discussed ideas on ‘What is a bad school ?’ among our groups in which we all fed back to each other as an whole.

The School Council came up with many sensible and appropriate answers such as bad leadership, lack of ethos, environmental safety and many more ideas.

Then, Councillor Marriott raised another question opposing the first question she raised, which was ‘What is a good school?’. We then got put into different groups and discussed ideas on ‘What is a good school’ which were all fed back to each other as a whole.

The School Council came up with great and tantalizing answers such as good results signifying good pastoral systems, good leadership, care within the wider community and many more.

The final question, Councillor Marriott brought up was ‘What do you need to do to prepare yourself for life after school?’. This question made the School Council put quite a lot of thought into the answers, we presented the ideas that we gathered in our groups and said them one by one, they were very influential and intriguing. Here are some of the answers we came up with: good grades, personal life skills, communication, leadership, career advice and much more.