Our House System
At West Moors Middle School, we adopt a vertical housing system that groups our pupils and staff into four coloured houses. These houses are named after species of lizards which depicts our school emblem. The houses are:
- Iguana – Blue
- Komodo – Green
- Gecko – Red
- Sand – Yellow
Pupils can earn Lizard Points for an array of reasons; academic efforts, sporting achievements and representing the school, to name just a few. These Lizard Points are totalled towards a house competition at the end of every term, with the aim of winning the House Trophy.
Why the lizard?
The school’s symbol, the Sand Lizard, was once common on the local heaths in our area. Much of its habitat has been destroyed by development and it was adopted as the school’s symbol to demonstrate a concern for protecting the local environment.
Due to vast habitat loss the species now only occurs naturally in Surrey, Dorset and Hampshire, where it lives on sandy heathland.
Identification
The sand lizard, that reaches up to 20cm in length, have brown varied patterns down the back with two strong dorsal stripes. The male has extremely striking green flanks.
Protection
Due to its rarity, the sand lizard is strictly protected by British and European law which makes it an offence to: kill, injure, capture or disturb them; damage or destroy their habitat; possess, sell/trade them in any way.
The information on this page has been taken from the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust. If you want to find out more, click on the following link http://www.arc-trust.org/