Lucy, Olivia, Lee and Jack joined other pupils from around the city for a conference. This is what they told Charlotte and Leilah about the day...

On Monday the 17^th of December, several people from different schools across the city went the Civic Centre to learn that your life can get better and you can achieve a lot even if life seems difficult  at times.

At the young people’s engagement conference, they listened to Alison Cairins. She had a stutter and it was really obvious when she was nervous. Her middle school life was very difficult and she told this story to encourage people not to be afraid to speak out. Alison Cairins is now a head teacher so it proved that you can do well, even if you face issues.

They also listened to Paul Johnson, who was made homeless at 17 years old. At Christmas, he was fed by charities and he is now employed as a caterer at the civic centre and can support himself. This shows that no matter how bad your situation is, it can always get better.

They then had a tour of the council chamber. They were shown the decorated windows and they got to sit in the Lord Major’s seat. The seat was a tall, green, velvet chair and it was very comfy. They then played Jenga and answered questions. It was very enjoyable because it was fun and everybody was happy to join in.

Their final task was to write about school and different parts of it. For example, who they would go to if they had a question and how they would talk about it. Finally, Lucy (7HTH) drew around a boy from another school. Inside the figure, they wrote negative and positive aspects of school e.g. how hard it is to see a teacher.

It was a fantastic day and Lucy’s favourite parts were seeing the silver gallery and meeting pupils from other schools. They learnt to make their views known to other people, to care about other people and to realise that even when you are at your lowest, you can rise up, if you’ve had a bad start, you can get back up again and do things that you’ve never imagined!

By Lucy and Olivia