Our new Eco Council meets weekly with Mrs Parker and consists of pupil representatives for each year group (known as our Eco Warriors). Mrs Brotton also supports with the eco initiatives across the school. They are leading the promotion of the issues of sustainability, recycling and our environment in school.
Switch Off Fortnight is a year event run by EDF Energy that schools can choose to take part in to raise awareness of how much electricity we could save both at school and at home.
This year, our amazing Eco Warriors launched the event with a fantastic presentation assembly to the class, discussing the effects the over usage of electricity can have on us and the environment. The children then led the way by doing daily checks on the classrooms to ensure lights and other big electrical items were switched off when not in use. Each class also took part in a planned lesson to increase the children's understanding of how and why it is important to save electricity.
Since September, our Eco Warriors have been thinking of new ways to encourage our school community to recycle more. One idea they had was to introduce a pen recycling scheme. This has been a great success throughout the Autumn term with the collection of many used whiteboard pens and biros across the whole school which have been kindly deposited at the recycling centre in York by Mrs Brotton. Well done Eco Warriors!
Our Eco Warriors (again, with the help of Mrs Brotton) have introduced soft drink can recycling bins both in the school entrance porch and near the staff room to enable staff and families to recycle any washed, used cans they may have at home. Once these bins are full they will be collected by a York based charitable organisation called 'Choose2 Youth' who will recycle to cans to provide much needed funds for their many projects.
Choose2 Youth is a not for profit social enterprise working with children, young people and adults with disabilities and additional needs in York and North Yorkshire.
Eco Warriors Visit to 3 Hagges Wood (Wood Meadow Trust)
Our eco warriors, along with representatives of the school gardening club, went on a fantastic visit recently to learn about conservation of nature and to gather ideas of things we can do to improve/create a nature area in our school grounds. All the children and staff had a fantastic day and cannot wait to visit again in the summer term to see how life to wood and meadow changes across the seasons.
During our visit, we completed an orienteering task to get our whereabouts of the site and to give us a chance to see all the grounds of the wood meadow. During the orienteering we gathered ideas for our school eco areas, such as ideas of how we can make our current bug hotel even more appealing to different species.
We then had a chance to go on a bug hunt and use identification keys to help us learn more about the types of insects and 'creepy crawlies' we can find in a wood pile. During this time, we also had the opportunity to experience the bird hide and see if we could spot any amazing bird life in the area. We were very lucky as we got the opportunity to see two Red Kites flying above us!
After lunch, we followed instructions to create a range of bird feeders including bird kebabs (no birds were harmed in the making of the kebabs!), lard seed balls and seeded apples. The children are very excited to share their new bird feeder making skills with their classes when they become the eco teachers over the next couple of weeks.
Finally, the children ended the day by making a wonderful collage of our school emblem out of natural materials they had found across the site throughout the day.
Great work Eco Warriors!
The Eco Council are currently working hard to achieve our first Eco Schools Award at Green Hammerton. We will update you on our progress very soon. Watch this space!