Pupil Leadership Groups

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The Westgate offers every pupil the opportunity to participate in a leadership role during their time at The Westgate, being part of our commitment to 'Rights, Respect and Responsibility' across our school. This might be through joining one of the following groups:

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Digital Leaders

We are a group of people dedicated to modernising the school. We actively support adapting new technologies in school, including: wireless boards; VR Headsets; new laptops; and more. We are dedicated to encouraging digital literacy, and are always there to help when technology starts acting up.  

 

We think it is important, in this rapidly developing world, to keep up to date with technology, and to provide support to those who need it within the school. 

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Eco Group

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Our aim is to provide a place for pupils to put forward their ideas about the school environment and work together to discuss and implement improvements. At present the Global group are working on a presentation for all tutor groups to explain what we do. Now we have lots of new members we are trying to encourage recycling in all classrooms. Some of the group are going to be decorating the recycling bags to make them more obvious to everyone and encouraging all of us to put used and broken pens into the boxes provided.

 

We are planning to put a plant in each classroom to make our environment more attractive as well as making plans for herb gardens and more flowering plants around the school. We continue to maintain the new planting in the pond area and have proposed a bug house to provide a home for invertebrates and other creatures.

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Primary Phase School Lead 

As the Primary Phase Leads, our aim is to support younger pupils within the Primary Phase in their interests and responsibilities. We intend to work with the Primary School Council members to encourage them in their roles and to bridge the gap between the Secondary and Primary Schools. We help to ensure a smooth transition between Years 6 and 7 and ease any concerns they may have about the changes they will encounter. We intend to expand our role by assisting with Primary School clubs and enrich their Lower School experience.  

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Curriculum Group

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Our aim is to provide a place for pupils to put forward their ideas about the Curriculum and work together to discuss and implement changes for our Whole School Curriculum. We have focused on how to best suit various learning styles, how to best enhance our learning experiences in the classroom and how to best support others with their studies.

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The Curriculum Group has been working on creating, promoting and monitoring their new subject ambassador forums. They have been trialling ways to get people to use the system and need to spend time properly advertising the forums for the use of all students. They will continue to work on this and a weekly monitoring of the forums as well. 

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GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) Group

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GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) work in the school in order to promote equality within the community for LGBTQIA+ pupils and others. We meet weekly to discuss current events and ways to improve the school to make the community a more comfortable and inclusive place for everyone here and aim to educate and inform others on ways to be active allies. We offer a safe space to talk freely about identity and invite everyone to come along. 

 

House Leaders

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The House Leaders represent and lead the four different Houses at our school. We ensure that there is a wide range of activities and competitions so that everyone has a chance to represent their own House and help to win the coveted House Cup. We work with Miss Humm to support the Westgate Community Challenge to make sure that our House members are able to gain their Bronze, Silver or even Gold badges. we celebrate this success by leading assemblies and promoting our ethos.

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Sports and Extra Curricular Leaders

 

Our aims are to provide as many sporting and extra-curricular opportunities as possible to the pupils both during and after school. A variety of clubs will run during break, lunch and after school which all pupils are welcome to attend. We aim to make the clubs more inclusive so that everybody is involved and have equal opportunities to take part. Additionally, if any pupils have suggestions for new club ideas, then they are more than welcome to speak to a member of staff or a senior council member who can report it back to us as the sports and extra-curricular leaders.

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The Well-being Group

 

Who are we? 

In Wellbeing Group, our aim is to make the pupils’ experience at The Westgate School as enjoyable as possible. We want to create a positive working environment for both students and teachers and allow them to feel comfortable and safe at school. 

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As part of our role at the school, we encourage pupils to join in with different activities. We do this by organising a variety of events aimed to include everyone. For example, in the summer we run rounders for our sport orientated students, and for our arty students we have colouring and drawing sessions. This helps us to promote the school values- be kind, be respectful and be responsible- by giving pupils a chance to work with and get to know people across the whole school community.  

 

Aims for Next Year… 

Our aims for coming year include, continuing to grow a partnership with the #BeeWell project, which is a county collaboration to improve students’ mental health and wellbeing in schools. Furthermore, we want to help pupils feel more comfortable with themselves and encourage them to express themselves more freely without worrying about what other people think.  

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Prom Committee leader and PSA link

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As the senior council representative for Prom Committee, I make sure that the year 11 prom is fun and accessible for everyone. This includes being very organised in orchestrating fundraising events for the prom and being involved in all the other aspects such as the yearbook. Then, communicating this to the other senior council members and teachers. We also support the PSA (Parent and Staff Association). We ensure that the school and parents work together in order to raise money for school projects. We suggest projects through speaking with other groups and organise pupil involvement. 

 

The Charity Group
 

The charity group has always been very busy this term, year 8 baked cakes and sold them to raise funds for Macmillan cancer research. We collected over 260 shoe boxes for the Christmas child appeal. Non uniform day in November raised a massive £1,0051. pounds for Children in Need. We had a live band performance from two of our very successful and popular school bands. Friday 5th December the school wore Christmas jumpers to raise funds for our school PSA, they had contributed bottles, chocolates, money and jam jars filled with sweets to be sold at the fair.  The poppy appeal and sales of poppies was £355.00.  Mr Wylie and colleagues baked cakes and started to persuade a number of members of staff into running a half marathon or 10K in the ABP Southampton race in April. We will be raising funds for teenage Cancer Charity Trust. We will also have our own Fun run in school when the weather gets a bit better.

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Our next project is to support an orphanage in Kenya and to provide them with school uniform so that they can attend school. An ex pupil of the school, Beth, has already been into school and explained how she got involved in the orphanage and is now a main trustee. In January the charity group will visit each tutor group and explain how they can help.

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As always we are grateful to each and every member of our school who contributes in whatever way in donating money, offering support and ideas for fund raising and to the charity group who give up their time each week and for each event.

 

If you need support for a charity close to your heart please speak to any member of the charity group or come along to a meeting and tell us what you need.