STUDENT COUNCIL CONFERENCE On Thursday 19th October, King Edward VI Aston hosted the first ever Student Council Conference event. All nine King Edward Schools were invited to give presentations explaining the importance of their respective school councils, how their councils run and what they have achieved in the past few years. The event started at 9:30am and ran until 3:00pm. Six representatives from our school – myself, Suraj Sanhi, Maryam Shafiq, David Akinfemiwa, Talbir Singh and Jack Griffiths – attended the event. We gave a presentation to highlight the impact of our school council’s hard work, hoping to inspire other schools to take on board our actions and implement them into their own schools. Each school’s presentation was unique and any changes and ideas were discussed later in the day in an Action Plan activity. Our presentation lasted approximately 15 minutes with a short Q&A session afterwards where other students were able to ask questions to gain a better understanding of the structure and efficiency of our council. Our presentation focused on our school council’s input to the Astroturf pitch on Baker St, Show My Homework, water fountains and new lockers. King Edward VI Aston were fortunate enough to have the event sponsored by Subway, Domino’s and Morrison’s, allowing their lunch service to be catered for. The lunch break allowed us to mingle and socialise with students from all the other schools. Throughout the day, three discussions took place for which we were split into mixed groups so we were with students from other schools. A number of questions proposed by the main speaker enabled each group to discuss possible answers to the proposed question: “If your school had an unlimited amount of money, what would you buy?” To end the day we completed an “Action Plan” where each school made a plan of possible ideas, taking on board the views of the other schools that had been presented earlier in the day. Overall, the day was a great success. The plan is for it to become an annual tradition, with different schools hosting each year, therefore formalising the interaction between the councils within the Schools of King Edward VI and incentivising further achievement. An event like this helps to motivate school councils to push for greater changes so they have something impactful to report in the future. Arran Bola, 13BGE In December, a group of Year 9 students visited RAF Cosford in Shropshire, to hear about the history of the Royal Air Force and World War I and II. We were taken around the site by our guides, Suzie and Lilly, who told us interesting facts regarding various aircraft that took flight in the First and Second World Wars, such as the Comet 1xB and the Bristol Sycamore HR14. There were also activities prepared for us, like identifying the artefacts, missiles and trenches, where we had the opportunity to try on clothing from the First and Second World Wars, such as gas masks and clothing the pilots would have worn in the cockpits of their fighter or bomber aircraft. Ultimately, this was a fantastic experience for us all. Rajan Aulakh, 9G The first part of the schedule was Fun ’n’ Flight where we got to try out lots of scientific activities about aircraft. There was also a war aircraft we could enter and experience what life was really like for the pilots. This part was very interesting. We also got to look at different uniforms the pilots would wear and extra things like goggles and gloves. Then we headed for a new building which contained several jets from the Cold War and other equipment related to warfare. There were also mini films we could watch which were very factual and we got to learn about more recent wars and more about the Cold War. During the afternoon, we went into a classroom to learn about World War II. We learnt about the shelters and actually went inside one, which was very dark! We examined what life was like for the people living back then. The trip itself was very interesting and we have a lot of new information to take into our lessons. Ajay Mann, 9W RAF COSFORD 17