As we head towards summer and the closing months of another school year, it comes time to say goodbye to another fantastic student council. Allowing students the opportunity to be part of a student council is a great way to develop leadership and organisation skills, promote the voice of the students and instil a sense of community among the student body.

At ISA, our student council are responsible for organising an array of both curricular and extracurricular school events for all our students. Our councillors also arrange fundraising activities and deliver projects to ensure all our students feel like they belong at ISA. As student body leaders, the councillors are tasked with encouraging school spirit and this year’s council have done a fantastic job of just that. Here is a roundup of some of the 2021/22 student council achievements:

One of the major achievements of this year’s student council is the implementation of houses and their point system. Each high school student is assigned either House Hope, House Nevis or House Lochnagar and are able to win and earn points for their house throughout the year at student council events. A trophy will be awarded to the house with the most points at the end of the year. Our new house system offers our students a sense of identity at ISA and a way to feel connected to other students with a fun competitive edge. Students can win points every week by correctly answering a trivia question that is revealed every Monday morning – topics can range from film to biology to music testing students’ general knowledge!

Another project our study councillors ran throughout the year was our mascot change. Our school mascot was the American Bison as we used be called the American School of Aberdeen. However, the school is vastly more internationally diverse now and we felt we needed a mascot to show this. The student council were instrumental in the development process of changing our mascot, running a series of democratic votes where our ISA community decided on our new mascot……...the wolf! Both our outgoing and incoming student councils are tasked with integrating our new wolf into the ISA student identity.

To promote school spirit, our councillors ran a Spirit Week in November consisting of themed dress up days for our high and middle school students. The themes were:

• Movie Monday
• Twin Tuesday
• World Wednesday
• Tie Thursday
• Fun Friday

On Fun Friday students were asked to dress in yellow, spots or Pudsey ears in aid of Children in Need; councillors also held a small fundraiser inviting people to donate what they can to the cause.

Semester one student council events came to a close with Christmas activities. Jumper Day was an opportunity for our students and staff to sport their best holiday jumper during the week before Christmas break. On the last day of school, our councillors offered cookie and biscuit decorating, providing the cookies and icing for students to enjoy before Christmas break.

Kicking off semester two events was the student councils Valentine’s Day candy grams. High school students – and even some teachers – were able to send a little treat to one another to show how much they appreciate their peers. Closely after Valentine’s Day, we had ISA Book Week running from Monday 28^th February to Friday 4^th March. During the week, the student council pulled together a collection of short stories for our students to read.

Our councillors are student leaders therefore they like to keep their finger on the pulse with current events and in light of the war in Ukraine, they wanted to do something to show our support and unity. Together Tuesday was organised for our staff and students to wear white advocating for peace all over the world. More importantly, throughout the week the school managed to raise around £785 to donate to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. As you can tell, we are super proud of our student council and all they have achieved and improved this year. We cannot wait to see what amazing things the new student councillors get up to. Our newly elected council will be announced on the 1^st of April.