Rednock School sixth former Gemma Sirett is a new columnist for the Gazette.

Here she introduces herself and explains her role as an ambassador.

IF I said the words Rednock School ambassadors' to you, you'd probably have no idea what I was on about. You could take an educated guess, but I think it's easier if I just explain In the early days of 2007, Rednock School's headteacher, David Alexander, held interviews for the positions of school ambassadors'. Following these formalities, a small group of ambassadors were chosen. This little group met together, both amongst themselves and with the headteacher, to discuss issues around the school. Now, at this point, it's sounding like we do the job of a school council, yes? No, not quite. It is our duty as ambassadors to represent Rednock School, both in and around the community. Our main role within the school is to provide means for the student voice to be heard, adhered to and to carry out decisions made by the student council. This means that if the students come up with an idea or something that they would like to see change/happen within the school, it is our job to relay that idea to the relevant people and try to get something done about it.

As you are all aware, the school is currently being rebuilt. Hence why the field looks like a bomb's hit it! But did the students have any input, I hear you ask? Well yes, actually. As Rednock is a Specialist Science College', we intend the new build to have a large focus on the science department facilities. Obviously! Several times during 2007, the ambassadors met up with a small group of architects and designers, in workshops known as the Faraday Project. During these workshops, we took part in some rather odd activities to do with learning spaces and made suggestions as to what we'd like our new science classrooms to look like.

So what are we up to now? Well, at the moment, we are trying to establish liaisons with the local primary schools, to talk about the new school build and anything else going on around the school! We are also getting in touch with both Cam Parish and Dursley Town Councils, in order to talk to them about the same things we'd like to talk to the primary schools about, just in more sophisticated terms!

That's it for now, but there'll be more exciting things on the way, now that we're well into the New Year. Watch this space.

Gemma Sirett

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