Westfield is an elected member of Round Square, a world-wide association of over 100 schools which share a commitment, beyond academic excellence, to personal development, responsibility and international understanding through service, challenge and adventure.
Service
Girls are involved in service in both the local and wider, international community. Upper Four girls have the opportunity to participate in a variety of service projects in the Archbishop of York Youth Trust Award. This is a useful stepping stone to the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme.
A large amount of money is regularly raised for charities, including North of England Children's Cancer Run, St.Oswald's Hospice, National Blind Children's Society, Action Medical Research and The Children's Foundation, to name but a few.
Many girls take part in overseas service projects. Girls have recently taken part in projects in South Africa, Cambodia and Peru.
Westfield students regularly go on conferences, projects and exchanges to other Round Square schools in the European region and worldwide.
Adventure
Through Round Square, Westfield prepares pupils for physical and mental challenges as well as academic success. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme is very popular and the school has an impressive record of Gold and Bronze Award Winners.
Exchanges with other Round Square schools
Girls from most year groups have the opportunity to visit other Round Square schools. There are also opportunities for younger students to participate in Junior and Young Round Square conferences aimed specifically at their own age groups and usually held in the UK or Europe.
Round Square schools are built on six pillars that are encapsulated in the word IDEALS.
International Understanding
Democracy in Education
Environmental Awareness,
Adventure,
Leadership and
Service.
Westfield students regularly go on exchange and visit other Round Square schools as far afield as Botswana, British Columbia, Toronto, South Africa and Australia as well as regular European exchanges.
Sponsorship
Westfield sponsors 2 girls at Starehe School, Kenya. The school educates around 1000 girls from severely disadvantaged backgrounds, including extreme poverty. Each Autumn term the school devotes an afternoon to fundraising activities to raise as much money as possible to fund the tuition fees of two of these girls.
Environmental Awareness
The Environmental Club encourages girls to participate in recycling programmes and many of the excellent ideas thought up by the girls have been implemented as school policy. The whole school participates in projects in the school grounds at Westfield and at Hadrian School, Percy Hedley School and Gibside School.
In 2009, Westfield School gained its Green Flag status - one of the very few schools in the North of England to be accredited for its environmental work. The school has recently been awarded its second Green Flag for its continuing commitment to sustainability and the environment.
Round Square Opportunities in 2016
There are a number of forthcoming opportunities to attend Round Square Conferences during 2016.
Please contact Mr Steve Ratcliffe for more information.
