Year 9 pupils from The Westgate School have been working with First Give, a charity focused on inspiring young people to make a positive change in society.
As part of the initiative, the pupils researched local charities and each tutor group chose one to support. Staff from The Winchester Beacon visited the school to talk to the pupils about our work and how we help people experiencing homelessness.
Two tutor groups decided to support The Beacon and they set about planning and organising social action within their school. Activities included making posters and handing out hot chocolates and branded stickers to raise awareness of the issue of homelessness.
The final stage of the programme involved each tutor group presenting to a panel of judges to pitch for a prize of £1,000 for their charity. The groups highlighted the work of their charity, talked about the social action they had carried out and explained how the charity would spend the £1,000.
“The pupils were very professional in their approach to the presentations” commented Nancy Judge, PR and Communications Officer from The Winchester Beacon who went along with other charity representatives to watch the presentations and support the pupils. “They all showed great teamwork and communication skills and had clearly spent a lot of time preparing their presentations”.
After taking some time to discuss the presentations, the judges came to the stage to announce that the winning tutor group was one of the two teams that represented The Winchester Beacon.
“Wow! We are very grateful to the pupils who chose to support our charity” said Nancy. “They should be very proud of themselves. £1,000 is going to make a positive difference to the lives of the people we support”.
Find out more about First Give.
