On 9th June, we had a full School Parliament meeting. The vision for Parliament this year is based around community and inclusivity.

All ministries are currently working on how they can make St Mary's more interconnected. For the arts, we plan to introduce more competitions with staff. A wide range of ideas included photography, bake-off and drama competitions. We also want to focus on celebrating a wider range of talents which could be performed in a school-wide talent show.

For the environment, we want to achieve the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award for St Mary's. We also are looking into reducing food waste and Dr Kirk discussed how there are already steps in place to look at decarbonising the school.

For co-curricular, we are looking into introducing activities beyond academic and sports to involve wider life skills. These could include DIY skills, cooking and driving theory and knowledge of car maintenance.

For pupil welfare, we have been looking into what kinds of sessions girls would be interested in attending that help promote welfare. A survey found girls are particularly interested in learning about how to deal with anxiety, how to safely travel abroad and how to talk about loss and change.

For the community, we have been discussing how to raise funds more effectively. For mufti days, we plan to publish how much is raised in order to motivate and praise girls for their generosity. This year, among others, we want to focus on food bank support and litter picking. We also plan to improve on the integration of charity events which bring together all the strands of the fundraising activities.

For learning, we would like to evaluate methods of teaching to find the best combination for St Mary's students. We plan to use surveys and class observations to gather information about the most effective techniques for teaching girls of all ages. We also would like to explore how the use of our new Library can be increased year-round, and plan to try and promote reading to all year groups.

Juliette, LVI Form (Year 12)

Over the years, having sanitary products available for emergency use in the main school bathroom has been requested within the school community. As the Head Girl's Team, we thought that this was a great idea and something that would bring about positive change. So, before Half Term, we held a trial that turned out to be successful, as we saw the products weren’t being taken advantage of and only used for emergencies. After bringing this up in our recent full School Parliament Meeting, we’ve decided to get funding for a permanent supply of sanitary products for the main school bathroom. We hope making these products available will improve students' lives in some way and reduce stressful situations. Looking to the future, we would like to provide eco-friendly/biodegradable sanitary products.

Sienna, Head Girl, LVI Form (Year 12)