By Michelle Chen (President), Lau Jia Hern (Vice President – Houses), Wong E Vee (Vice President – Departments), Bertram Wang (Secretary – Resources), Michelle Lee (Secretary – Finances)
You’ve probably seen us before – that suspiciously large group hogging a corner of the canteen. That’s us, the 45th Students’ Council, all 59 of us. We know, compared to other CCAs, we’re huge.
And because of that, many think we’re just a crowd — too big to be close, too many to connect with the school. But with 59 voices, 59 ideas, and 59 pairs of hands, as a councillor you have a bigger family to belong to, and as a student you have more ears to hear you.
What’s Council?
Each councillor, also known as 45th, belongs to one of our 4 departments — Presidents-Secretaries Department (PresSecs), CCA Department (CCAD), Student Life Department (SLD) or House Directorates (HDs).
The 45th PresSecs act as a bridge between the various Departments, House Directorates and Functions (DHFs). Our goal is to ensure that while the DHFs work on different aspects of school life, it still feels like one cohesive experience, and that councillors are united by the same common vision.
As the name suggests, CCAD focuses on CCAs, spotlighting them and fostering school spirit. You can always catch them during National School Games seasons, cheering Team Raffles on, carrying boxes of face paints, flags and most importantly, lozenges.
While CCAD captures the attention of the crowd during NSGs, their work also happens behind the scenes. They put other CCAs in the limelight, using @rafflesdynamite as their medium to highlight the diversity of RI’s CCA scene and promote a greater sense of belonging to the various CCA communities.
Our Student Life Department focuses on improving the quality of student life by looking out for your welfare and catering to your needs based on your feedback in shaping our Council initiatives.
If you are not in PresSecs, SLD or CCAD, then you would be in a House Directorate — arguably the craziest department. They bring colour to school events and the feeling of suspense as we predict which House emerges victorious. Beyond that, they ensure that your House is more than the colour of your shirt, but one that has your back.
On top of a Department/House, all Councillors belong to 1 of our 4 Functions — Graduation Night, Orientation, Elections and Open House. As much as the dates and names of the school events stay the same, our functions ensure that that year’s event and experience are unique to that batch of students. That’s why you see Open House themes, Orientation dances, and, if you’re applying to join us as a 46th, a structured election process.
What happens during Council sessions?
Our CCA sessions take place from 8.00am-11.00 am on Wednesdays, during a 3-hour timeframe called Council Protected Time, also known as CPT.
CPT is where we gather the entire Council for mass briefings, meetings, and activities. Our 45th tradition is for every CPT session to have a theme. From Cafes, F1 racing, to Superheros, we try to make every CPT memorable. To add on to some of that charm, we conduct a Wordle challenge at the start of every session related to that week’s theme. The first 20 winners get a sticker which they can proudly display on their laptop cases!
+ Meetings happen during CPT time too. Nope, it is not a wrong use of symbols here! For us, it means “plus meetings”, which is a simple way of saying that these meetings are attended by students, plus our respective Council teachers to discuss our ideas and plans.
CPT is usually split into 2: meetings with our Department/House, and then Function meetings. Yes, + Meets sounds intimidating, and we would be lying to say it’s not stressful at times.
But these meetings are when the most growth happens: you receive insights on your ideas and direction, joke about the crazy ideas, and hear the teachers recount their own experiences. These meetings are opportunities for you to grow, not just in the breadth and depth of your perspectives, but overall as a leader.
More than Just a CCA
The action continues well beyond those 3-hour CCA sessions, too. To further ideate, discuss and plan, DHFs hold – Meetings (short for meetings minus the teachers!) to fine-tune the intricate details of the upcoming Council Events, prepare our proposals to submit to our teacher-mentors, or gear up for the initiatives by crafting the thousand-and-one ingredients needed to synthesise the unique RAFBLOOD — full of prideful house energy, passionate school spirit, and soulful Rafflesian representation — that lies at the very heart of all our exciting events.
While a lot of our – Meetings have transitioned online to accommodate evenings and the weekends, many meetings still do take place at the appropriately named “Council Meeting Room” (CMR) — a room where the histories of previous Councils had been made, and where many more current and future memories are forged, be it at 7am in the mornings or late into the afternoons during the crunch times.
Of course, sometimes after school, Councillors have the duty of manning the Hodge Lodge and creating a safe and relaxing environment for fellow Rafflesians to unwind. During events, Councillors might also be seen running around manning booths, and sometimes you might even catch us ushering Griffles! Besides the duties we have, Councillors also spend their time collecting groundwork from other students in order to better understand the needs of the groups we serve.
At this point, you might be thinking, Council life is A LOT of work! Yes, we can’t deny that it isn’t, but we guarantee you that as much as we work hard, we play hard too! Council life is fun — especially when a loving Council family surrounds you!
45ths spend much of our time together bonding and enjoying each other’s company outside of work, with many DHFs spending quality time in bonding sessions, be it picnicking, dining, feasting, or simply on a chill outing to chat and relax. So, it really isn’t all work, no play either. Rather, it’s about finding the perfect balance of both: building efficient yet bonded teams that strive towards a common purpose, while knowing that we have each other’s backs.
So… is Council worth it?
Well, now that you’ve heard all about Council, you might have begun to realise that the life of a Councillor isn’t an easy one. Apart from managing the higher academic workload, making new friends, and adapting to a new school environment, Councillors are also expected to be committed to their work and uphold the high moral standards of student leaders.
Despite all these, Council can be a very meaningful journey, which is why many of us chose to embark on it. At the heart of Council lies our core value of service — giving back to the school, and helping to improve the multiple facets of life at RI.
We get to serve all the different aspects of school, be it generating school spirit, building House spirit, improving the quality of student life, or even just planning school events for everyone to enjoy. And if you think about it, Council is one of the rare opportunities where we, students, get to contribute towards shaping the school’s culture and serving the student body.
Apart from service, another thing that Council focuses on is personal growth. In Council, we get many opportunities to hone soft skills like teamwork and communication, as well as learn hard skills like video editing and Excel sheet programming.
But beyond skills, Council also teaches us how to be better leaders — to look out for our teams, manage our progress, and exemplify the values a leader should have. Because in Council, we’re not event planners or project managers; we are leaders who follow the core purpose of service. After all, our Council vision is to “serve by leading, lead in serving.”
We’re not going to sugar-coat it: Council is hard. Every Councillor’s experience will be filled with challenges and setbacks, long working hours, and even emotionally draining moments. (Yup, things do get tough sometimes.)
Thankfully, you’re not alone in this journey. Our Council teachers are dedicated mentors who push us to do our very best and teach us to learn and grow from the challenges we face. Moreover, we place emphasis on our One Council culture, so beyond just people to work with, Council provides you with a family — one that celebrates the highs with you, and also sits through the lows together.
So that’s our journey in Council. To be honest, even after 8 months, we can’t give you a simple, neat answer as to why someone would want to join Council.
What we can tell you, though, is that each day in Council is a brand new experience, so while we likely are the students you see at 7am, if you see a group of students carrying 10 bags of Jollibee into school for lunch, driving toy cars around the Council rooms, or learning dances together, that’s definitely us too!
We don’t always have the perfect plan, but we’re always here — trying to make this school feel a little more exciting, a little more united, and a little more fun.
