As part of their School Grounds topic work, the Eco-Committee and Eco-Coordinator at Penshurst decided to take advantage of the many schemes offering free trees for schools. They contacted the Woodland Trust, the Queen’s Green Canopy, the Tree Council and their local MP – who all donated trees to plant within their school grounds, including a stunning Japanese Cherry Blossom tree donated through an initiative their MP is part of. All trees have now been planted and are being cared for by pupils at Penshurst… in fact the Eco-Committee have even decided to sign up to the Young Tree Council and are now awaiting new tree arrivals!

A pupil at Birchwood noticed that their parents would buy fresh herbs (wrapped in plastic), from the supermarket each week to cook dinner with. Often their parents only used a small amount of the herbs before the plastic wrapping ended up in general waste and the remaining herbs were composted: not great for the environment or the wallet! They decided to bring the problem to their next Eco-Committee meeting to discuss. The Committee decided to grow their own Community Herb Garden. They asked for donations from a local herb grower and used money raised from their farmers market to fund the project. The herb grower came and helped the head (student) gardeners at the school plant it up. The digital leaders took it one stage further and made QR codes for each variety of herb that links you to tasty recipes from the BBC Food Website. Parents and the wider community have been encouraged to come and help themselves!
“It is lovely seeing people out there with a list and scissors collecting their bouquet!”

As part of their connected curriculum, the Eco-Committee at Goldthorpe have created a bespoke outdoor education programme under the Eco-Schools umbrella. Their Eco-Schools programme is made up of five elements: Farm School, Gardening School, Survival School, Conservation School, Construction School.
As part of Gardening School they have been sowing seeds, nurturing the plants and harvesting the produce. Pupils grow a variety of fruits and vegetables and the children always take ownership – during their Eco-Sessions, they work on a variety of projects around the school’s allotment. The produce grown in school is used in school lunches – this is a very exciting part of gardening school that engages children in healthy eating and opens them up to trying new things that they wouldn’t necessarily have or try at home. Now Goldthorpe have also started to sell vegetable plants to parents and carers each morning as part of a new enterprise project. This encourages growing at home: engaging families beyond the school gate!

SJKC Tai Tong Sandakan is actively involved in an oyster mushroom cultivation project from September 2018. The project has a target of harvesting 1000 bags of mushrooms (or more) by the end of 2020.
The funding for the project came from the teacher’s welfare fund and the Eco-Committee were grateful that the first batch of mushrooms broke even with cost of setting up the farm, water piping and other cultivation devices. Now any additional funds the school earn will support other environmental projects.
The mushroom project aimed to create awareness of the beauty of mother nature and expose pupils and the surrounding community to mushroom cultivation. The hands-on project also teaches pupils the proces,s so they can learn about all the procedures involved in mushroom cultivation including entrepreneurship, harvesting and nourishing the mushroom by controlling their temperature, humidity and hygiene.
School administrators, teachers, parents and the community were very supportive of this project – they keep the mushroom farm active by buying fresh oyster mushrooms from the school.

The Eco-Committee at Penshurst Primary School decided it was time to create an allotment on their school grounds. In true Eco-Schools style, they decided to do this using recycled materials: neglected raised beds have been given a new lease of life; ecobricks used to build the main 6 metres x 1 metre bed; and old tyres have been used as potato planters and seating. Year 6 children spent a really enjoyable afternoon working on the project, digging, tidying and planting – working really hard and volunteering to help further as they had so much fun!
The allotment area will teach all pupils how to grow vegetables, herbs and flowers, which they hope to taste themselves and sell via their Community Cafe. It will also provide pupils and staff with an area to relax and be mindful.
The Eco-Committee are especially thankful to a member of their schools’ Cleaning Staff who is an expert gardener and has been a valuable source of information and support – a great example of Eco-Schools work bringing a school community together (Step 5: Informing and Involving)!