A Student Council Election Special

In the days before the election, the students will be sharing their policies on how to improve student wellbeing and academic success. Below is a personal statement from each candidate but please do keep an eye out for their promotional campaigns and encourage students to vote based on the policies. 

Jocelyn Chok

I am running for a Student Council position because I want to lead, inspire, and represent BISS Puxi's student body. My campaign to improve our students' welfare consists of 'Well-being Wednesday,' reworking our school's Instagram account, and Mentor and Mentee Sessions. I believe that these policies are great opportunities for our students to strengthen the mental, physical and academic sides to their well-being.

Furthermore, my campaign to improve our students' academic achievements includes after-school study sessions and student-run clubs. These two policies will help facilitate our students' learning, encouraging them to explore deeper into their current passions while allowing them to expose themselves to new areas of learning. More information about my policies will be on my leaflet, which will be posted on the school's newsletter and handed out in the following two weeks.

Edward Lee 

My biggest motivation to run for student leader is to project a larger student voice in our school. We need to involve more opinions of the majority of students in our school. We want to create plans that both benefit them and benefit our school. In order to pursue this goal, we would want students to be involved more with our planning and know what they are actually thinking.

My second motivation to run for student leader is to create a bridge between teachers and students. Many students would see teachers as an outsider and wouldn’t want to talk about their current status. I would want to make the relationship between students and teachers closer, so students could be more open with teachers.

Merit Competition: using the house colour system to create competition between students. Teachers will note the amount of merits of students every week and calculate the total of merits for each house. The total merits of each house would be shown in the year assemblies each week. The house with the highest amount of merits could have non – financial benefits. E.g. Non-uniform day etc.

The Expression ECA: I will be leading an ECA to solve the problems students face in life. The ECA will consist mainly IB students and they will listen to other students’ problems and try to comfort and find a way to help. We will be having a psychologist to help us to cope with students and we will be hoping that we could help the students in these ECA sessions.

Thor Christoffersen

Since Year 2, 10 years ago, I’ve been studying at BISS Puxi. Not only has this instilled me with the school’s philosophy of being ambitious, but it has also allowed me to fully incorporate it into my life. I always strive to be the very best I can be and even when I reach the top, I still aim higher and higher, always staying ambitious. When I do mess up, however, I apologize and admit to my mistakes. If I've done something wrong, I try to understand what I’ve done wrong and how I can avoid the same mistake in the future. This mindset has taught me to constantly improve myself, and to always be conscious of the gravity that my actions can have. 

My policies:

• Create a Mental Health Club/Society: create posters to raise awareness, discuss things that not everyone might know and try to put it on the posters e.g. coping techniques, manage workload, how to sleep properly, teach time management, the importance of sport.
• Try and support Lifeline Shanghai as a charity or at least raise awareness.
• Try to encourage people to think about trigger warnings before talking about something.
• Create a more welcoming and relaxed environment.
• Find time for more school events, including sports and social gatherings (as soon as COVID restrictions settle).
• Renew school pride.

Joey Wee

I would guess that the ethos of BISS Puxi is “being ambitious”. But to be ambitious, one must first have a goal to aspire to. Through my policies, I aim to help the members of the student body find their passions and, by extension, the things that they strive to. It is my firm belief that extra-curricular activities are the best way to find one’s calling. I am very dedicated to the things I am passionate about; I am very passionate about student council. At the end of the day, once I have made up my mind about something, I will not rest until it has been achieved. One example would be, as I’m sure you are aware, these very elections I am currently applying to run in!

Student Wellbeing Policy: I will continue to develop the student-run ECA programme that I am currently working on with Ms Cavanagh. To ensure its longevity, I will seek to further integrate it with the basic fabric of the student council.

Academic Achievement Policy: Although teaching at BISS is already at a rather high standard, it is not perfect. Our teachers are already visited by Mr Kelly or Mr Lancaster occasionally, but I feel that teachers should also get the student perspective in a constructive manner. I propose that, in addition to teacher feedback, we implement systems to give teachers student feedback. To this cause, we could have student councillors pop into lessons during free periods and non-core subjects (if their teacher agrees) and give feedback. Furthermore, the student council could run a suggestion box - compiling the constructive feedback and giving it to the relevant teachers.