Obviously environmental issues are at the forefront of many people’s minds and children are becoming increasingly aware of the need to take action to care for their planet. To do this it is important that we as adults set examples and educate them in how to achieve this. Eco-Schools has enabled us to do this in a structured, exciting yet individualised way.
Since joining the Eco-Schools programme last June our school has been working hard to reduce our impact on the environment. To have achieved our Bronze and Silver awards has truly motivated both pupils and staff and has ensured that as a school we are all focused on achieving our Green Flag award
After enrolling on the Eco-Schools Programme we set up an Action Team which is made up of 20 children from across all year groups, and 6 adult members. These include teachers, support staff, our premises officer and a parent governor. The team meets about once a month.
The Action Team completed a formal Environmental Review which formed the baseline to our work. From the results we were able to select the areas that most needed improving or were easiest to get started on. These areas were: Recycling/ Waste, Energy (electricity usage) and Water.
Our coordinator then prepared the detailed Action Plans which have been followed, extended and maintained to help show our progress forward. Along with the action plans which are displayed on our Eco-Schools notice board our monitors also collect, record and display electricity meter readings which are taken weekly and our usage calculated. Paper deliveries into the school and our Inter-Class Lights-Out Challenge chart are also displayed.
We achieved our Bronze award in late July 2007 having got all the base work set up and our recycling well underway. Some of our Reps met with our local waste and recycling officer to arrange for plastics and can recycling along with trialling fruit waste recycling from our Yr 4 classes. We were able to get 5 free caddies from WRAP. (We were already recycling paper and cardboard). At this stage we also placed small notices by all light switches to remind pupils and staff to turn lights off when not needed.
In September we started work towards our Silver Award. We therefore continued to recycle and in Spring 2008 extended the fruit waste recycling to all 24 classes so now each class has a caddie for pupils to put their lunch time fruit waste into. We have large collecting bins in the playgrounds too. We held class cake sales to raise funds for the caddies. Each year group has watched a DVD about the importance of recycling. This was produced and provided free of charge by our local council’s Waste and Recycling Department.
Southern Water very kindly accepted our request for funding of water butts and so in November 2007 we were able to buy 2 of them to start recycling rain water, which will be used to water our flower/ vegetable boxes. We have also placed small notices by all taps to remind people to check that the taps are fully off. In our new changing rooms the taps are the press down type so therefore waste less water. We also have ‘Hippos’ in many of our toilets!
In the Autumn term we contacted Earth Restoration Service (ERS) and together started planning the planting in of our School Tree Nursery. We decided to do this as a whole school project so every child and class teacher planted a tree along with our head teacher, our local mayor and Andreas Kornevall- the Director of Operations of ERS. This was a total of 800 native trees- Rowan, Hornbeam, Elders and Oak. The planting in took place in early December with each child planting and labelling a tree with their name. It took 4 days to plant them in, the first two of which were very wet!!!
It was a great success. We had lots of support with around 70 parents and grandparents coming in to help and plenty of families generously leant equipment too. Several local businesses also gave their support.
To backup this project we have a display up in our main corridor called ‘All about Trees’. This is changing with the seasons and gives information about trees and woodlands throughout the year. We are also soon to have a class assembly all about trees and their importance to our planet.
Our Year 6 pupils also watched a fantastic production by the touring Puppet State Theatre Company who are currently performing ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’. It was amazing!
In late February our 20 Eco-Reps and 3 of our adult members took part in an Eco-Summit in our local Town Hall. This was organised and hosted by our local MP - Tim Loughton. It involved 13 local schools (represented by 150 children), about half of which are enrolled with Eco-Schools. It was supported by several local businesses and organisations too whose representatives chaired the various committees The aim of the Summit was to start the process of establishing a ‘Green Print’ for all local schools and businesses to follow. One of the resolutions that was voted through to the next stage was that all local schools must register with and work towards Eco-Schools status.
We created our School Eco-Code which has been presented in a poem/rap style. Our Eco-Reps created it and then it was presented to the rest of the school via a handwriting competition that every pupil took part in. The winning entry has taken pride of place on our Eco-Board. Each class has also displayed their class winning entry on their class notice board. Our Eco-Schools webpage and Moodle page also display the Eco-Code.
As well as maintaining our Action Plans and recording data i.e. meter readings etc we have gathered lots of photographic evidence of our tree nursery and tree display as well as the news paper articles of the Mayor planting in her tree along with newspaper photos of the Eco-Summit. At each of our Eco-action Team meetings minutes are recorded by one of our Reps with the support of an adult member.
Through our Lights-Out challenge we are able to monitor which classes are or are not turning their lights out at break times. Through keeping records of meter readings we can monitor our electricity consumption however I think we will see a more significant reduction once we have tackled the issue of turning computers off!
Our Premises officer monitors the amount of wheelie bins taken for landfill and has said that there has been a significant reduction since our recycling campaign started. Not only is this an environmental success but a financial one too.
I feel that this programme is really making pupils and staff aware of how our actions really do affect our environment and that we really do need to act to ensure a save future for generations to come. What is also clear is that actions that our pupils are learning at school are being taken home too.
We try to make our Eco-Schools projects provide for themselves by raising money in advance if equipment is needed. We are trialling the sales of drinking water bottles in our school shop. The small profit from each sale will go into our own funds for future projects. The bottles are sourced from Southern Water and are aimed at reducing the usage of one-use bottles.
The Earth Restoration Service funded the planting in of our Tree Nursery however our Friends of the School very kindly donated some funds towards the Puppet Show to support this project.
With regards to time involved in running our Eco-Schools work I’ll just say it keeps me busy but I love it! We have many keen staff who are very happy to support our work which is obviously vital to its success.
| Green Flag: | 1,179 |
| Silver: | 3,922 |
| Bronze: | 4,642 |
