School Council
- Charity
- Curriculum
- Eco
- Publicity
- Rights
- Well Being
School Council
Our School Council aims to give our pupils a voice within the Westgate School community. The School Council consists of six focus groups which meet on a regular basis and which pupils can join at any time. From these focus groups a smaller group of pupils, nominated by their peers represent the six focus groups in half termly School Council meetings. These meetings give opportunity for pupils to feedback on what they have been involved in and are working towards in their groups, as well as raise issues from within the community.
School Council Focus Groups:
Eco Group
The Eco Group is active within the school raising awareness of eco issues and aiming to encourage us to become a more sustainable community. In March we ran ‘Waste Week’, raising awareness of the problem that waste can have and encouraging pupils in the school through assemblies to reduce, reuse and recycle.
The Eco Group have also launched our school allotment, which you can find out about by following this link.
Charities Group
Our pupils do a fantastic job raising money for numerous charities throughout the school year. This is a very active part of our school council, which you can find more about here.
Publicity Group
The publicity group are involved in helping write articles and reporting for the Westgate News. Make sure you pick up the latest copy of our newspaper so that you can appreciate the many things going on within our school.
Curriculum Group
Curriculum Group aims to encourage pupils to engage with their learning in school. The group is particularly focusing on how we can help pupils to understand how they learn and their different learning styles so that they benefit from all the learning experiences available to them during their time here.
Rights Group
As a school community we are aiming to embed the rights, respect and responsibility ethos highlighted by the United Nations Rights of the Child. This group is working to raise awareness of RRR within our school, both with pupil and staff. So far they have judged a RRR competition in year 7 tutor groups and are currently working on an assembly which will be delivered to all pupils later this year.
Well-being Group
This group focuses on improving the well-being of pupils within out school. They have recently provided feedback on the new merit system and raised issues with and ideas for improving the bike sheds in the school grounds.
News/ Minutes
News and Reports from School Council Meetings
March 21st 2012: Lots of great feedback today from our focus groups, which lots happening throughout the school. Charity group have raised more even money through events like Sports Mile, Westgate’s got talent and non-school uniform days. The most recent non-school uniform day raised money to help set up our school allotment. The allotment is now set up and things are starting to be planted. Waste week was successful in raising awareness of the huge amount of waste we throw away and as a result Mr Nicholson has promised to buy more bins including recycling bins. The RRR group are looking forward to judging the year 7 UNCRC display completion shortly.
February 9th 2012: Each focus group fed back what they had been working on during this half term, particular successes included the money raised for the setting up of the school allotment which we hope will happen over half term. The Eco Group are also looking forward to participating in ‘Waste Week’ and have lots of ideas for this. The Charity Group have been collecting lots of tins and dried food for Winchester Basics Bank and also successfully sold roses and cookies for a cancer charity. The Well-bring group helped run assemblies for anti-bullying week, and also raised some concerns on bike shed security. The Rights group have contributed to next year’s planner designs and article per week and are planning a display board competition around the articles for the year 7 tutor groups.
November 17th 2011: In this School Council meeting we were joined by Philippa Little from Youth for Winchester, she encouraged us to discussed what Winchester needs to improve. We decided that we should have more buses so that people don’t use their cars as much. Also we noticed that a lot of people who drive cars don’t stop for people crossing the road. Another problem we face is that older teenagers on buses can’t always pay the child fare if they look to old and so we suggested making a card which we would give to each student so that the bus drivers know for sure if they are the right age.
Head Boy and Head Girl
At The Westgate School we are pleased to announce our new Head Boys are Michael Haslem and Sam Sutton Welch. Our Head Girls are Emily Greatrix and Madeleine Olding.
"We are so proud to attend The Westgate School. This is truly an outstanding school, with facilities, teaching and a positive atmosphere which set its pupils up to be confident and motivated individuals. The Westgate School’s motto is ‘Learning Together: Achieving Excellence’. Throughout the school this can be seen in action: in classrooms, in sports clubs, in music events and, most importantly, between the teachers and pupils, where the crucial balance of enjoyable lessons and trust are just as important mutual respect. At The Westgate School, this is a balance that is central to the way we all work.
Besides academic excellence, there are numerous trips abroad, field trips, concerts, sports competitions and extracurricular events to get involved with. Everyone is encouraged to get involved with school life from Year 7, whether a sports pro or just making your first wobbly steps with a new instrument!
Prefects, Peer Supporters, Learning Mentors and members of the School Council are just part of the student body who work tirelessly to maintain The Westgate School’s well-deserved reputation for its attention to student welfare, and open communication. Badges worn on the blazers make identifying a student who has training in how to help out other pupils easily found, and they are always happy to answer any questions that visitors to the school or younger pupils may have."
- Sam Sutton Welch, Madeleine Olding, Emily Greatrix and Michael Haslam
