We held our Mind Your Mate Week, designed to help students who may be struggling with their mental health during the stressful exam week.  The weather was very kind to us and all our activities, except Cosy Corner were outside at the front of Chancellor’s Building.  We had lots of 5 to 10 minute activities on offer, ranging from doing a section of a GMSU logo jigsaw, painting a mandala, chilling out in Cosy Corner and watching Creature Comforts to having a cup of tea and a slice of cake with Chaplain Gill.  Wednesday was Fairground Fun Day – a new event.  Students got to Hook a duck, Whack-a-rat, ring toss and much more.  Students won tickets and selected prizes from the SU Fairground Cart. 

On Thursday, we had our annual visit from a local farm.  Students got to hold giant rabbits, stroke a sheep and cuddle a tortoise!  The farm is always very popular with both students and staff, who benefit from being around the animals.  We also encouraged students to pot up tomato seedlings, grown by SU staff, and gave away wildflower seeds.  At the end of the week, we had lawn games on offer and SU staff mixed some amazing mocktails to celebrate the end of the week.  It was a fantastic week, sunshine, fun and meaningful conversations with students.  Students told us they loved it.

After a big clean-up of the SU Office, it was time to write our APP Student Submission.  Using feedback from APP student focus groups, the President wrote the submission using student feedback about the new Greater Manchester Pathway.

It’s coming to the end of the academic year, and things are quieting down, but we still have graduation and planning for September and the following year to look forward to.  Our doors are always open to students; whatever you need, we will do our best to help.