The Student Council has been busy at work since coming back after the Christmas break. The term commenced with Mary Ward week celebrations within the school. On January 24th some representatives from the Student Council joined the Special Choir and travelled to Mullingar for a beautiful ceremony.

The cathedral was filled with Loreto students from all over the world, including two students from the latest addition to the Loreto network in Nairobi, Kenya and a group of boys and girls from a school in Australia. It was a great experience and gave us a sense of pride to be a “Loreto Girl”.

Also in January, Mr Denny came to speak to us about Mary Ward, her philosophy and aspirations for Loreto students. He outlined her beliefs, in which everybody should strive to do their best and achieve independence of mind and responsible citizenship. He informed us of a striking statistic: that basic education for the world would roughly cost $6billion, while military spending is a staggering $780billion. With this in mind Mr Denny continued by telling us about Mary Ward’s belief that Loreto students should be “agents of social change”, and seek to develop dynamic leaders, and be “lovers of truth and doers of justice”.

At the beginning of December, the Student Council was invited to a meeting with the Board of Management. A report of our activities last year and our year plan based on suggestions from the students for this school year were presented. The Board of Management gave us a list of five questions for us to put to the students in order to involve students in the school’s strategic plan for the next five years. We consulted the tutor classes and compiled a report which will be given to the Board of Management at their next meeting. A copy of this will be available on the Student Council notice board, located on the stairs leading to the library.

In response to suggestions from students proposing social events within the school involving the different years, we organised Bingo for 1st and 2nd years in December. This proved a huge success. The Parents’ Association agreed to buy four more lunch benches that will be situated outside the cafeteria within the next few weeks.
Overall, the year so far has been a huge success and a very enjoyable experience, we look forward to the upcoming activities.

By Kelly Coghlan - Student Council PR Team