Joint SC/APC Meeting 06/03/06 Minutes

Student Council / Academic Policy Committee Minutes

6th March 2006; 1.30-2.15; Montgomery Room

 

Attendance:
PW, IP, EJTW, JCV, LM, PLFA, RJG, BJO'K, JMcL, PFB
H Gillum, B Even, O Schonfeld, H Kingston, A Woolf, T Randolph, S Thrasyvoulou, T Glynne-Jones, B Lloyd-Hughes, I Kamdar, J Bentley, T Forrester, E Emmett, B Guevel, M Maltby, C Cullen, B Gray, G Garcia

PW opened the meeting by saying that the APC and the Student Council had come to different conclusions about the proposals for reforming Apposition. The purpose of the meeting was primarily to allow APC to hear the Student Council's views on the proposed changes.

The issues discussed were:

Should Juniors be excluded from Apposition?

- Some said yes, because:

  • All pupils will eventually be U8th Formers and so be able to attend Apposition.
  • Most Junior prizewinners go on to win prizes as Seniors, and will attend Apposition then.
  • Removing Juniors from Apposition will facilitate the extension of Junior prizes, as intended by Principle 2, as there will be no need for more room at Apposition.
  • Some proposed a 'Junior Apposition' ceremony. They felt there is nothing wrong with separating the prize ceremony into one event for Juniors and one for Seniors.

- Though agreeing with Principle 1, others said no, because:

  • It is unfair to exclude the whole Junior school from Apposition.
  • All prizes should be rewarded equally.
  • If anything, Junior prizes should be rated more highly because:
    • They are few in number and so are only awarded for exceptional excellence.
    • Pupils work to achieve them without prospect of immediate advantage, such as a university application, unlike 8th Form prizes.
  • There is no guarantee that Junior prizewinners will win prizes as Seniors.
  • The U8th already have the Leavers' Ceremony as an opportunity for the year to celebrate each other's academic achievements. If too dominated by the U8th, there is a danger of Apposition becoming a second Leavers' Ceremony.

- One member suggested a 'Two Tier' system enabling Junior prizes to be extended.

  • Under it, only some prizes would merit a place at Apposition, and the rest would be awarded at assemblies.
  • However, it was pointed out that it would be very difficult under this proposal to judge exactly which prizes would merit a place at Apposition and which not.

Would many non-prizewinning U8ths want to attend Apposition?

- Council felt that the vast majority would not: in a straw poll of 40/50 U8ths, no-one said they would want to attend Apposition if they had not won a prize.

- Concerns were raised whether attending U8ths would take the ceremony seriously.

- Lack of interest could be because there was insufficient knowledge about what Apposition involves

- It was felt that preventing Juniors from attending would not help this problem.

- It was pointed out that there was no intention for Apposition to become compulsory for U8ths.

What should be the nature of prizes?

- Some felt improvement prizes were too patronising or that they would be seen merely as an excuse for getting a wider variety of pupils to attend.

- Others felt that they were a good idea

- All agreed that improvement prizes should be less important than academic prizes.

- A mixture of views arose about whether prizes should reward the whole year's work or specific tasks.

  • Whole-year prizes take better account of effort; they are not vulnerable to people being ill/absent when prizewinners are chosen
  • Task-specific prizes allow a greater variety of prizewinners; they allow pupils excelling at specific aspects of their subjects to be recognised.

- A mix of the two types was therefore agreed to be the best arrangement.

- 6th Form prizes should not be awarded simply on performance in the Mocks, especially since this is not announced in advance.

- Council felt that having been awarded a prize in past years should not prevent a pupil from receiving one in the future - especially because this might undervalue the prize for whoever wins it.

Should the distribution of prizes be adjusted?

- There was universal agreement that the distribution of prizes should be adjusted to reflect better the uptake of subjects, as outlined in Principle 3 of the APC Proposal

- There was universal agreement that there should also be more prizes for Juniors, as stated in Principle 2 of the APC proposal.

  • However, it was not thought necessary that all these prizes should be awarded at Apposition (see above).

At the end of the meeting, members of the APC made some comments:

- The APC Proposal was intended to be more inclusive not only of U8ths, but also of parents and of non-teaching staff.

- In some subjects, awarding a second prize would not mean awarding it to someone who was 'second best' but would simply allow for the fact that some pupils are especially talented only in some aspects of their subjects.

PW brought the meeting to an end and thanked everyone for their contribution.