Stuck? Start here.

How to sign in

Go to the sign-in page and choose one of these. Any of them is enough on its own except the password, which always asks for one more thing.

• Email code. Type your school email address, wait for a 6-digit code, type it in. It works once and lasts 10 minutes.
• Passkey. If you have added one, your device asks for your face, fingerprint or device PIN and you are in.
• Password. After your password you will be asked for one more thing: your authenticator app, your passkey, or an emailed code.
• PIN. Only on a device where you already signed in fully in the last 12 hours. It gets you back past the lock screen; it is not a way to sign in from a new device.

The first time you use Scouncil you will be asked to choose a password and a PIN. That takes a minute and only happens once.

My code did not arrive

This is nearly always the school mail filter rather than Scouncil. In order:

1. Check your spam or junk folder. Also check any "Other" or "Promotions" tab.
2. Look for the exact sender. Every code comes from Scouncil <[email protected]> and nothing else. If a message about Scouncil comes from any other address, do not act on it. Tell an administrator instead.
3. Ask for another code. The sign-in page has a resend button with a short cooldown. Only the newest code works; older ones stop working the moment a new one is sent.
4. Wait a minute. School mail can queue for a short while at busy times.
5. Still nothing? Write to [email protected], or find an administrator in person. An administrator can give you a one-time link that gets you in without email. It lasts 15 minutes and works once.

I have forgotten my PIN

Nothing is lost. Sign in fully, an email code is the quickest way, and then set a new PIN in settings. The lock screen has a link straight to the full sign-in page.

Five wrong PINs switch the PIN off for that device until you sign in fully again. That is deliberate: it stops someone guessing at your PIN on a machine you walked away from.

I have forgotten my password

Sign in with an email code, then set a new password in settings. Changing your password signs you out everywhere else and sends you an email saying so.

Applying for Council

If you are eligible, the application form appears while applications are open. It asks for the position you are standing for and five written answers: four required (200 to 1,500 characters each) and one optional. Your name, cohort and House are filled in from your school account; if any of them is wrong, use the "report an error" button on the form rather than working around it.

There is also a 90-second video (anything from 60 to 105 seconds is accepted). If uploading is not switched on yet, the form says so and emails you when it opens.

The form saves as you type, so you can leave it and come back. A draft is private. Nobody, administrators included, can read it until you submit. Drafts that are never submitted are deleted when applications close, and you are emailed an hour beforehand as a warning.

Submitting asks you to sign in again properly (a PIN is not enough) and cannot be undone on your own. An administrator then reads your application and either publishes it, sends it back to you with a reason, or does not accept it. You are emailed either way. Until applications close you can withdraw it from the same page.

Is my vote secret?

Yes. Your ballot is never stored next to your name, and there is no record anywhere that links the two. What the system stores is a list of who has voted, so nobody can vote twice, and, quite separately, a pile of ballots with no names on them.

That means an administrator can see that you voted, and can never see how you voted. Nor can anyone else, including whoever runs the servers.

How votes are counted

You rank candidates instead of picking one. Every contest is counted from those rankings, round by round, and the full working is published with the results so anyone can check it.

• Executive (two seats). First preferences are counted. If nobody has more than half, the candidate with the fewest votes is removed and each of their ballots moves to its next choice. That repeats until someone has a majority: the First Chair. The count then runs again without them to fill the Second Chair.
• House Leader (one seat per House). Only your House votes, the same way: remove the lowest, move their ballots on, until one candidate has a majority.
• Junior Representatives (three seats). A candidate needs a share of the ballots called the quota. Anyone at the quota is elected and their extra ballots move on at a reduced value; if nobody reaches it, the lowest is removed. This stops one grade or one friend group taking all three seats.

A ballot that runs out of choices simply stops counting. Ties are broken by a random seed published before polls open, so nobody can pick it after the fact.

Something else

Write to [email protected], or ask an administrator at school in person. If you have lost access to your school email address entirely, it has to be a person: that address is how Scouncil knows who you are, so an administrator will verify who you are face to face before changing it.