After the Eco-Committee at Highbury Lodge completed their Environmental Review, it was apparent that their nursery had plenty of surplus fabrics and materials destined for recycling, if they couldn’t first be reused in the nursery! The learning topic they were currently working on, children around the world, provided the answer. Research had revealed that, unfortunately, some children weren’t fortunate enough to have many toys and were forced to create their own toys using available materials. The Eco-Committee at Highbury Lodge decided to do the same – using old bubble wrap and string they made a football and with the aid of an old, unused hoop they weaved leftover fabric strips and made a mat for their reading corner. Now every time a child sits on the mat, they remember other children around the world who are not as fortunate as themselves.

On Wednesday 9th March 2022 around 50 pupils from the 10 schools located in Marlow met at Marlow CofE Infant School for the second all-Marlow Eco-Schools conference, the first to held in person as the inaugural conference was held online due to COVID restrictions. Representatives from Burford School, Danesfield School, Foxes Piece School, Great Marlow School, Holy Trinity CofE School, Little Marlow CofE School, Marlow CofE Infant School, Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, Spinfield School and St Peter’s Catholic Primary School were all in attendance!

During the afternoon, a tour was arranged around the grounds of Marlow CofE Infant school to see the environmental projects that had been implemented, which include: raised beds for growing vegetables; re-wilded areas to encourage bees, insects and small animals; as well as covered outdoor teaching spaces, so learning can take place outside whatever the weather.

Following the tour, the representatives from each school began planning a collective, community effort to to mark this year’s World Environment Day in June – discussing how the residents of Marlow could make a collective, environmental impact. Ideas include: a non-uniform day to raise money for environmental causes; a Marlow community litter-pick; an all Marlow walk or cycle to school and work day; a single-use plastic free day and an electricity free day.

Whilst plans are ongoing for the day, all schools in Marlow have began registering and working through the Eco-Schools programme – following Marlow CofE infant and St Peter’s lead to achieve an Eco-Schools Green Flag!

The wonderful Eco-Coordinator at Rosslyn Park Primary and Nursery School in Nottingham spotted a winter emergency appeal for food item donations from a local community initiative called Himmah. Himmah aims to tackle poverty, racism and social exclusion and improve mental wellbeing – their charity aims fit in perfectly with what pupils at Rosslyn are taught (the importance of helping those in need), so the Eco-Committee quickly added ‘Global Citizenship’ to their Action Plan and got to work!
The Eco-Committee designed posters appealing for donations which were then hung on every class door and distributed to families through Class Dojo – they told everyone to give as little or as much as they could. With only one week to collect, donations were bought into each class daily – staff, children, parents, friends and family all donated. At the end of the week the Eco-Coordinator was able to donate two car loads worth of food weighing in at over 500kg!!! A celebratory poster was then placed on each class door and distributed via class dojo. The Eco-Committee and their schoolmates all loved supporting their local community!

The wonderful Eco-Coordinator at Worsley Mesnes Community Primary in Wigan discovered a crisp packet recycling project that creates survival blankets from crisp packets, which would otherwise end up being sent to landfill. Having told the school’s Eco-Committee about the project, soon all children in the school became involved – collecting crisp packets during lunchtimes, then washing and drying them for their Eco-Coordinator to iron and fuse together creating survival blankets. Once created, the majority of blankets will be donated to local Wigan-based charity The Brick, however, some blankets have also been personally handed to homeless people located close to the school. Everyone in Worsley Mesnes is extremely proud of the project, especially because it helps people and the planet – the school’s Eco-Code has now been updated to, ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Save Lives.’

To celebrate World Earth Day, the fabulous Eco-Coordinator and Eco-Committee at Gorse Hall Primary school planned a, ‘Restore Our Earth’ day. Throughout the day, all pupils took part in a variety of activities to highlight the issues our planet faces as well as completing eco-actions planned to combat these issues. Pupil activities included: dressing in the colour of their favourite animal, bird or flower; collecting money for Water Aid; making an eco-wish; creating eco-awareness posters; designing environmentally-themed mosaics to display outside school; planting flowers around the school boundary; and completing litter picks. The day was a huge success! In the words of Eco-Coordinator Kathleen, “Such a fabulous day… the children were enthusiastic and remained actively engaged in all the activities they took part in: the smiles on their faces summed it up!”

As part of their work on the Global Citizenship and Litter topics the Eco-Committee at Perdiswell decided that they wanted to encourage the entire school community to pick up litter during their school holidays! As some pupils would be staying local, and others travelling abroad it was decided that pupils would be encouraged to litter-pick both locally and internationally (for those going abroad)! This was decided on to highlight that litter and pollution is both a local and global issue.

The Eco-Committee delivered an assembly using powerful images of animals from around the world (with the help of a David Attenborough video) and pitched the idea to their school and, upon returning for the new academic year, found they had plenty of pictures of pupils litter-picking from all over the world including: California, Vietnam, Mexico and (of course) Worcester! The Eco-Committee put the pictures on display in their dinner hall, so everyone could see how pupils at Perdiswell had set an example to the world!

Whilst we were all kept apart during 2020, St Mary’s bought their school community together. They did this whilst promoting fairness and equality with a series of Fairtrade competitions, which were incredibly popular and had stacks of entries. Competitions included: baking (using Fairtrade ingredients), Fairtrade posters (see photo), and a poetry competition (see below).
A non-profit organisation Fairtrade,
An organisation that provides aid,
Preserving hum rights,
Like bright shining lights.
Fairtrade ensures workers are paid good wages,
Setting an unprecedented standard for all ages,
You can find their label on chocolate or banana,
Without unjust wages for workers which seems like a palaver!

Every Wednesday afternoon at Streatham and Clapham High School, students are allowed to participate in activities linked to global issues their teachers feel passionate about – one of these activities was labelled Beyond Crisis, Finding Hope. With estimates classifying 767 million people as living in extreme poverty, the initiative first explored the nature of poverty before raising funds to directly support young entrepreneurs in the developing world.
For a term, students evaluated the effectiveness of micro-finance (financial services targeting individuals who lack access to conventional banking) and learnt about how they could contribute to help young people in desperate circumstances improve their quality of life and general welfare. Pupils then fundraised individually through a variety of actions such as bake sales and portraiture. When fundraising was complete, they loaned the £500 they had raised to a variety of individuals, deciding to loan only to women to help narrow the gender gap. Projects the girls chose included: solar panels in Palestine and stock for a local store in the Philippines. As the money is only loaned to the projects it means that when it is repaid the girls can continue to loan more and more to different projects over several years. Students at Streatham and Clapham High School would love for other schools to be inspired by and replicate their action.

As part of the annual BBC Children in Need appeal, the Social Enterprise Club at Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School prepared and delivered various activities throughout the week.
Students from Tauheedul’s Social Enterprise Club were assigned to a group during their after-school, Friday Eco-Warrior session. Working in their groups, students had a twenty pound budget and two weeks to design and plan a stall to raise money for Children in Need.
At the end of the two weeks, students pitched their ideas to a judging panel in a ‘Dragons Den’ style scenario, ensuring they had a team name and finance sheet with accurate details of cost, profit and products/services. After the pitches, an additional £20 was awarded to the team that demonstrated they could put the additional funds to best use.
During the Children in Need week, the groups hosted their stalls in the school Social Space during lunchtimes selling a variety of food items and hosting challenges and games students could take part in. The week was a huge success raising £863 for Children in Need. Mariya, a member of the social enterprise club, said, ‘Children in Need week was really enjoyable, we worked as a team to raise money for a great cause and learnt a lot of skills that I can use in my future.’