Pupil Well-being

Improving pupil well-being is something the youth cabinet feel very strongly about.  We know the difficulties young people face and the pressures we are under in schools, at home and with our friends, and it’s no wonder things can get too much for us to handle sometimes.

That’s why this week, as the Youth Mayor I attended the Pupil Well-being conference run by the Healthy Schools Network and the Vale of Glamorgan Council.  It was a very interesting event with a lot of information about ways schools and health services can support young people.

During the morning session I learnt about the way the council uses SELFIE, a tool to measure pupil well-being and how the results are used to gain an overall picture of pupil well-being and identify those who may need extra support.  There were also examples from Gladstone Primary school and Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Morgannwg about the amazing work they do in their school such as the CWTCH  Room and the Nurture Room.

During the afternoon I visited many stalls and made contact with organisations that will help the youth cabinet learn more about services available to us. We then had a presentation about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) and watched the film Resilience which showed how ACES impact our lives.

I’m hoping to arrange for the youth cabinet to take a closer look at the SELFIE data which may help us in the work we do. After all, everyone wants young people to achieve the top grades but that’s only going to happen when young people want to learn and want to go school and are happy when they’re there.

Back to work!

This afternoon, the Youth Cabinet held it's first meeting of the term.  The first item on the agenda involved evaluating the twinning youth camp we attended in Mouscron, Belgium at the beginning of August.  We have made a presentation about our trip which we will be presenting to the Vale of Glamorgan Twinning Association to tell them about our experience and to thank them for all their support.

Also on the agenda was the National Assembly for Wales' enquiry into Youth Work which is currently being run by the Children, Young People and Education committee.  We gave our views on youth services in Wales and you too can take part in the survey here.  We also had our say on what we thought of the new Welsh Government Travel Behaviour Code which has been an ongoing piece of work for us since 2014.

It's not long until the next Youth Mayor election which will take place during Local Democracy Week (week commencing 10th October).  This is a busy time for the Youth Cabinet and some of our members are already preparing their manifestos hoping to get your vote to be the next Youth Mayor for 2016-17.  

Campaign for The Children and Young People's Assembly for Wales: what do young people want?

At the Vale Youth Forum meeting last night and as discussed at a recent youth cabinet meeting we talked about a current campaign being run to find out what young people want from the National Assembly for Wales. On the 5th May, people in Wales will vote for the next National Assembly for Wales and we need to make sure the politicians know what's important to young people and what we want them to do for us!  You can also get involved in the campaign and give your views and opinions by emailing: engagement@cypaw.wales.