Westfield community school

On Wednesday 21 October over 700 students at Westfield Community School took part in a sponsored walk which was aptly named ‘Westfield Walks’.The walk was the brainchild of Mr Simon Dallimore (Head of Science) who spent several weeks planning and arranging what turned out to be a very successful and enjoyable event.

The aim of the walk was to help students build their resilience and team work skills, whilst at the same time enabling them to raise funds for charity and to enhance the rewards system from which they can benefit by commitment to Westfield’s ABC code.  Two thirds of the money raised from the walk will go towards the school rewards system, and the remaining one third will be split between 3 charities – namely the MGA (supporting people with ‘Ragdoll’ illness), Help for Heroes and CLIC.

Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 walked a 7 mile route along public footpaths, fields and country lanes which took them out through Abbey Manor Park to Windmill farm, and back again, whilst Years 10 and 11 had the choice of undertaking a 10 or 14 mile walk.  The 10 mile route took the students out to Mudford via public footpaths, fields and country lanes, with the 14 mile route extending the 10 mile route a further few miles out to Trent.

Students set off from the school from 9:30am onwards full of enthusiasm and excitement for the walk ahead. Apart from a few brief rain showers in the morning the weather remained fine, with the sun even making an appearance in the afternoon.  From 2:00pm onwards students started arriving back at school, and as they came in each student was given a daffodil bulb to plant courtesy of the MGA, who donated 1000 bulbs.  The final amount raised has yet to be calculated, but is expected to be thousands of pounds.