Blog 11.02.2022 - Milford Haven School

Senedd MHS Takeover

Here at Milford Haven School we have completely redesigned the structure for Pupil Voice, and have developed a unique and revolutionary system that closely mirrors real world opportunities to express opinions and affect change.

Milford Haven School has moved away from the traditional structure of various school councils, and have instead developed the unique ‘Senedd MHS’. One of the many benefits of our new system is that is helps to educate our young people on how the Country is governed by mirroring the Senedd structure. Senedd MHS recreates how decisions are made both locally and Nationally, allowing pupils the opportunity to experience real world pupil voice through an age appropriate platform. We feel it is our moral duty to help create ethically and politically well informed citizens. We want our young people to feel empowered to express themselves appropriately and productively, and also for them to be involved in positively instigating change to help our communities thrive.

Since being in role, the young people that make up the Senedd MHS have truly embraced their new positions and have actioned positive changes across our school community. This week, they take over our usual blog to update us on the progress of their projects so far.

This is a new and exciting development in our school community, Senedd MHS have already actioned positive changes to our school life via active pupil voice. I believe that the team will continue to bring about tangible change.

Mr Thomas- Founder of Senedd MHS

Meet the team of young people that make up Senedd MHS

MEET THE TEAM...

Ella

What subjects do you study?
Triple Science, ICT, History and Spanish

What is your role in the prefect team?
I am Head Prefect, my role is to make sure that pupils all around the school feel heard but also feel safe, I make sure I seem approachable for any problems they have.

What’s your favourite thing about being a part of this team?
In Year 7 I always looked up to previous Prefects and I am glad that I can be that role model for younger members of the school.

Bethan

What subjects do you study?
Triple Science, ICT, History and Spanish

What is your role in the prefect team?
I am Head Prefect, my role within the prefect team is to make the pupil voice heard throughout school and make sure pupils are aware of what the school offers.

What’s your favourite thing about being a part of this team?
In year 7 I was just as nervous as many others but also very excited to start fresh, so I am happy to be able to help future Year 7s who feel the safe. and give them advice, one piece of advice I have for younger pupils is to take advantage of all of the opportunities available to you, to find what you are good at.

Dylan

What subjects do you study?
Business Studies, Art & Design, Product Design and Music

What is your role in the prefect team?
I am Deputy Head Prefect, My role within the prefect team is to be a backup for Bethan and Ella and support the pupils in the same way

What’s your favourite thing about being a part of this team?
In year 7 I was by myself a lot. I would usually spend lots of time in the library or in the music room. But now I get along with nearly everyone and I’m having lots of fun doing my GCSE’s. I want to be able to help other pupils in school feel positive the same way as me. My one piece of advice is to ask for help when needed, don’t just give up and do nothing because nobody benefits from that.

Bethan

What subjects do you study?
History, Geography, Additional Maths and Spanish

What is your role in the prefect team?
My role within the prefect team is to help the Head Prefects, but also be available to help with any problems a student may have

What’s your favourite thing about being a part of this team?
In Year 7 I didn’t know very many people and I was very nervous, but now I have made lots of good friends and I am happy I get to help everyone else in school do the same. My piece of advice would be don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it, because there will always be someone who’s able to help you.

Media

The Media Senedd group have been focusing on the MHS school production of ‘Our House’. We started by discussing how we would promote the show and launched a school wide competition for the front cover of the show programme. We have had meetings with the social media team to arrange an advertising schedule to promote the show to the wider community.

Looking forward to the future we will continue to work with the social media team on school projects to promote the school, projects and events.

Environment

We are passionate about looking after our school, local and global environment. Since the beginning of this school year the Environment Senedd Group has been proactive in creating positive environmental change. Most recently 3 of the members of our senedd attended an online SAS – Pupil Power Assembly, listening to the live speakers was quite inspiring. We are currently working on how to implement a proper recycling system for scrap paper.

In our most recent meeting we discussed an upcoming litter pick, giving pupils a chance to help improve their school environment with class charts up for grabs. Earlier in the first term we sent out google slides that were presented to students in their tutor groups. Their tutors collected ideas straight from the pupils and fed them back to us in the environment senedd, needless to say we have taken the ideas onboard and we are moving forward with them.

ALN (Additional Learning Needs)

As ALN Senedd we have spoken to all of the Bay pupils explaining how we can support them to get their views across to the MHS Senedd. We have also created a ppt to promote the team on Facebook. We have created resources to put up on display to help pupils if they have any concerns about ALN.

We have also designed an area in the library where pupils who feel alone can join us and play board games. We have given an order to Mrs Squelch so that we purchase new board games and furniture.

Cymraeg

The Cymraeg Committee have been discussing the ways in which we can continue to push the use of Welsh in our school. We are currently adapting a concept used by other schools called the ‘Siarter Iaith’ to see how we can make learning Welsh more fun for students. We are in the process of reintroducing the ‘Tocyn Iaith’ scheme and as always we are looking for new ways to celebrate Welsh in our school.

Mental Health & Wellbeing

In school, we aim to make Mental Health and Wellbeing a more popular topic! This term, we implemented a Wellbeing Hub in the library which can be used as a safe space for pupils. The anti bullying champions, safeguardians and members of the senedd are positioned in this hub during break to support pupils with any enquiries they may have.

We understand that pupils may feel more comfortable speaking to a pupil as opposed to a member of staff so having these roles within school is vital for pupil support. In the future, we want to offer support to pupils around exam season and also put attention on pupils mental health around any stressful situation at any time no matter how big or small.

Diversity & inclusion

As a group, we want to encourage more pupils and let them have the opportunity to contribute within different activities. We also feel the need for others to have an understanding of different groups of people. We would also like to start an LGBTQ+ group. We want to investigate the school policies to ensure all groups are represented and have a voice. We are meeting with Mr Sayers where we will discuss the actions that we want taken. We will also be meeting up with Mrs Eynon to discuss how this can be shared in Hwb time

Sport, culture & the arts

The school’s drama group has been putting together a production of ‘Our House’. The school Wind Band which is conducted by Mr Sanders has been continually growing and learning new pieces such as ‘The Cars Soundtrack’ and ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. Mr Sanders says that “The school band gives pupils the opportunity to play music in a group which has been impossible for over 2 years because of the Pandemic”. He also says that “It’s a great learning experience and the band has been doing really well!”.

The school also has a Brass Ensemble with Mr Barrett and a Woodwind Ensemble with Mr Sanders. We aim to encourage more pupils to take part in the extracurricular learning opportunities that the school offers this year as they haven’t been able to do any for the past 2 years such as sports, music and much more!

Education: Teaching and learning

This year we are looking to plan more subject days such as the ‘Year 11 Biology Day’. We also want to focus on promoting key skills for life such as Numeracy, Literacy, D.C.F / I.C.T as we believe that these skills will be core for life after school. We also plan to improve the learning environment inside the classrooms, especially the science labs.

We would like to try and improve the behaviour inside and outside the classroom as a good behaved class gets the most out of the lesson. Lastly, we are excited to announce that we have introduced V.R goggles, these are available to classes and with this new and interesting experience we are hoping the pupils will be more engaged than ever!

Economy & finance

So far, we have been able to put together a reasonable budget. Now we have this, we are able to be approached by the other senedd groups with their ideas. From there we can fund the projects that they have without affecting the other funding in the school. A few of the Senedd groups have come to us with ideas and we look forward to working with them to push their ideas into the rest of the school.

I am very proud of the young people that make up Senedd MHS. The brilliant work they have done has already had a positive impact to our whole school community. I am very excited to see what they will achieve next.

Da iawn pawb!

Ms Morris – Headteacher