As a school council, we often meet with other schools councils in the community. This helps us to build on our own abilities as a council as well as having an input into what is happening in the local area.  One way that we do this is through Joint Council meetings.  These involve pupils from all the schools in the local area, as well as representatives from the Waltham Forest Council.

The latest Joint Council meeting was on Thursday 30th April. We had four members of the council attending the meeting: Mairi Primrose, Samuel Ebden, Estee Lynch and Kate Kelleher.  We attended the meeting with twelve other members of local schools' councils, as well as two members of the Youth Council leadership and the local Minister for Leisure.

The meeting was at the town hall, where we discussed the local leisure facilities.  We investigated the reasons why we use the local services, which services each centre offered and how they convey to the public the opportunities they provide for the local area.

We then focused on how the facilities and publications they produce could be improved.  We looked at the effect of colour, images and layout features on a document, and how it changes the way the information is put across.

The last section of the meeting was used for pooling our ideas together into notes.  These were then passed on to the Waltham Forest Council, which will use them in its report on local leisure services.

The meeting was a huge success, as it allowed us to see how other school councils work, the projects they are undertaking and the initiatives the local authority is using to improve the local area.

Report by ~ Samuel Ebden 10B2