Autumn term

• VP Diversity – Successfully created and elected the first Vice-President for Diversity.
• Free Emergency Sanitary Product Scheme – the SU started the brand new ‘Free Emergency Sanitary Products’ Scheme in all Communal Female/Male + Gender Neutral Toilets across the school!
• Gender Neutral Toilets – Installed multiple ‘Gender Neutral’ Toilets within all school buildings.
• Discounts – Successfully campaigned for more discounts around the Guildhall area, culminating in over 10+ new discounts!
• Welcome Fair – Ran a successful online ‘Welcome Week’ for new students, including an in-person ‘Welcome Fair’, Whole School Quiz, Welfare Wednesday, International and Post Graduate Meet and Greet!
• Big Society Investment – Invested almost £5k in Guildhall Societies, including 7+ new groups bringing the total to 20+ societies!
• Guildhall Hoodies – Designed and Released over 400+ GSMD Hoodies. We have done two major orders, one in November and the second in June 2021.
• Clearer Communication – one of our main aims for this year was to make it easier and clearer for students to access key services within the SU and the school. You may have noticed all the key student boards and more across the school have now been with filled with information regarding the SU Team, Societies, Policies, and the new SU General Feedback poster with QR code.
• New Feedback Initiative! What do you want to change at Guildhall? We have created a new way of getting as much student feedback as possible, using a new anonymous feedback form now all over our social media, in the news bulletin and across all buildings in the school (using QR codes!). This new form has already allowed us to act on feedback from students. You will find these yellow posters + QR code around the school, making it even easier to give feedback to Guildhall and be heard!
• Basement Revamp – The SU is working very closely with a team of technical theatre students to revamp the lighting in the Basement, as well as redesigning the overall layout of the bar. The end goal is to utilise the space better, to make the bar seating area larger for quieter weeknights, allowing more people to socialise in smaller groups as well as large ones, and then to create a more open space for busier nights.
• Rebranded – we wanted to rebrand the SU to modernise the look of the union and to make us stand out throughout the school.
• Social Media – we have overhauled the social media pages, making it clearer, sleeker and more interactive than ever before. We have encouraged more students to get involved with our Instagram takeovers throughout the term and are continuing to work with societies to display the brilliant work of our fantastic students at Guildhall; As an SU we want to celebrate our student’s successes!
• Virtual Guildhall Christmas Festival – The SU has faced several challenges this year, and one in which we had to overcome was hosting the famous Guildhall Christmas Festival. This year we delivered an entirely online festival, streaming online performances from the Basement Bar and Milton Court. We kicked off with a Christmas Message from Senior staff accompanied by our fantastic Guildhall Christmas Choir, we then had some fantastic sets from groups down in the basement bar swiftly moving over to the Milton Court Concert Hall where we had a full 51-piece Guildhall Pops Orchestra on stage (all socially distanced!) who performed their traditional set of Christmas tunes! We topped the evening off with a Christmas Quiz back in the
basement on Kahoot! The SU would like to thank the mammoth team of techies and musicians who helped put together the festival this year!

Spring term

• New online support for the 3rd lockdown – The SU created a new google form to submit anonymous questions, queries and comments about the new online start to the term. This allowed us to act on direct feedback from students and support them throughout the challenging beginning of term.
• New Lighting in Sundial Courtyard – the need for more lighting in the courtyard in the evening came up in the first term Sundial Court resident meeting. We worked with Facilities to get a brand-new set of festoon lights all around the courtyard, brightening up the space and making it more welcoming for residents.
• Online Events – the SU hosted a collection of online events in the first few weeks of term to help students get back into the online learning environment. The ‘Morning Call’ was hosted every morning for the first two weeks by our Academic Affairs VP, Michael Madigan, providing a space for students to start their day and discuss what they had planned for the day. We also hosted multiple virtual library sessions, Q/As and a couple of game nights (Bingo and Scribble!).
• Welfare Committee – we set up the school’s first student Welfare Committee that meets twice a month, with students from all backgrounds represented. This group also sends three delegates to sit on the schools new Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee. If you are interested or want more information, please don’t hesitate to contact either uniondiversity@stu.gsmd.ac.uk or unionwelfare@stu.gsmd.ac.uk
• New YouTube Channel – The SU now have a brand-new YouTube channel! The aim is to upload as much content from our live and virtual events and act as an information hub about the SU to students who want to see what we do!
• EDI Work – The SU was involved in the Anti-Racism Taskforce and contributed towards the finalised goals of the new Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee. The SU will have two permanent members on the new EDI Committee, and one non-SU student representative from our Welfare Committee.
• New Board Games for Sundial – The SU has been working with Student Affairs to buy a bulk load of board games for Sundial Residents. These board games will then be moved down to the Basement Bar once open again for all students to use in the student bar.
• 75% Increase in Technical Team Pay – we have increased the pay for the technical team in basement per night from £20 to £35, closer to the industry standard.
• Ear Plug Dispensers – the SU campaigned for more noise protection or students in Guildhall. There are now Ear Plug dispensers outside all the large practice rooms/ halls in Guildhall.
• Sundial/ Basement Mental Health Plan – the SU have been working with Student Affairs and Facilities to create a Mental Health Plan for Sundial and the Basement Bar, this includes campaigning for compulsory mental health first aid training for frontline contacts; Basement Bar Supervisors, Sundial Security Guards and the SU team. We are also looking to further awareness of mental health with sessions for Sundial Residential Assistants (Sundial Reps) and the general student body.
• New Water Fountain in SS Common Room – we now have a new water cooler in SS common room, and we are now working to get more in place around the school.
• Intimacy Coordinator (Vocal/ Opera Department) – the SU hosted an open discussion with students across the school, discussing the issues affecting women in the Guildhall community and worldwide. We had many great suggestions on how we can act to make Guildhall a safer place to learn. The SU met with the vocal/ opera department to see what could be done and the following is now in place; Intimacy Coordinator, Dynamic Disclosure Form and more sessions with Intimacy Coordinators implemented into the curriculum.

Summer Term

• SU Team Mental Health Training – One of the SU’s goals this year is to provide more support for Mental Health. Last term you may have seen we updated you about the new Sundial Court/ Basement Mental Health Plan in place and now we are delighted to announce that the full SU team is trained in MH First Aid.
• New Common Room Water Fountains – We now have a new water cooler in both common rooms common rooms, providing cool fresh water.
• Common Room Upgrades – We wanted to give both common rooms in Silk Street and Milton Court a spring clean and update with a few additional items! New items include Lots (!!!) of Tea + Coffee in Kilner Jars, Drying Rack, Washing up Equipment, Mugs (with Mug Tree), Kitchen Towels, Plates, Bowls, Cutlery, New Eco-Friendly Pint Glasses.
• Accommodation Talk – The SU were involved with the Student Affairs Accommodation talk hosted by Julia Oliver. This session gave tips and advice to students about moving in London. There will be another session held in mid-June.
• SU Life Skills Series – The SU are looking to host and make more ‘Life Skills’ sessions available to students. The first session was hosted by Guildhall Lecturer, Trevor Ford on Friday 17th May at 7pm on Financial Literacy (What Financial Literacy is? Budgeting to manage your money, especially as a freelancer/ Setting Financial Goals/ Paying Bills and Saving Money/ Credit Cards and Credit Scores/ Brief overview of tax). The second session was hosted by Guildhall Alumni, Mhari Gayer, and she talked about Compass Collective, a non-profit theatre company working with people seeking sanctuary. They deliver theatre projects, arts-based professional development programmes, and one-off drama workshops
• Acting and Activism with Fehinti Balogun – The SU teamed up with Central School of Speech and Drama hosting an event on Acting and Activism. Hosted by Fehinti Balogun (Climate Activist), the session was inspiring and covered all things acting, activism, climate change and more!