News

On 19/10/22 Bury Mayor, Councillor Shaheena Haroon, visited Hazel Wood High School. Thank you to the Mayor and her colleagues for their time and also to our students, who have produced the fantastic report below to share further detail on the visit:

Student Report: Mayoral Visit, 19th October 2022

On Wednesday 19th October, the mayor with two of her cabinet members came to visit our school. The mayor and the two lovely ladies with her toured our school and were invited to have tea with delicious food to snack on. During the event, Miss Hunter, Miss Jones and Mr Greenhalgh planned an interaction between seven year 10 students (Mason, Hada, Alice, Sharo, Mohammad, Sabrina and Mahrukh) and they keenly discussed what they believe the improvements within Bury could be. Moreover, all of them were fully engaged to ask questions and listened deeply on the council member's explanations of experiences within their important role, the cabinet/council meetings they have and the journey they took to be in the position they are in right now.

Mainly, the students intently conversed about Bury's problems and solutions in topics such as:

• Knife crime – to deploy more police in areas where knife crime usually happens
• Cleanliness – to add more bins within the community
• Homeless people – to provide for them until they gain a stable footing
• Language barriers – to assist people who have difficulty learning English
• Diversity – to do more celebrations recognising the different communities
• Transportation – add more busses or improve their timing

The three cabinet members listened carefully and mentioned many different council members to ask for assistance in their respective fields – for example Councillor Bayley who looks after transportation and Councillor Quinn who works around the environment. Not only that, but they also talked about what they are already doing to help Bury, like lifting the flag of Kashmir for diversity, helping anyone struggling due to English as much as possible, a place to seek for shelter for homeless people when the temperature goes down a certain amount, having the police patrol around high knife crime locations, etc. In addition, they delightfully explained how they work within this environment, such as working with voluntary organisations, visiting schools, opening businesses, attending council/cabinet meetings about budgets and decisions to make for Bury, expressing how busy their days are. They shared interesting stories and facts, especially when the Queen passed away, all 10 mayors of Greater Manchester were summoned to go to Manchester to read a proclamation; as they said, a time of chaos.

As this progressed, the seven year 10 students gave the mayor a folder filled with expressive letters from many other year 10 students to give their voices as well. The mayor took it and expressed her gratitude, and how they will try to deliver the letters to the correct leaders in that field (hopefully).

Prior to the meeting ending, the mayor showed the chain covered with dashing diamonds and the royal emblem to everyone. The students were amazed to see a once in a lifetime sight and Miss. Jones immediately went to take a picture of the chain. Soon after, the mayor had to leave due to her busy schedule to improve Bury, and a final picture was taken to commemorate the event.