Our Green Team, including pupils, parents and staff, devised a simple Eco-Code that sums up their work perfectly:
- Care for our world – we will look after the plants and the bees
- Always turn off taps and lights – we will save energy and water
- Reduce, re-use, recycle – we will think about how we use paper
- Everyone walk to school if you can – using buses, bikes and sharing cars if you can’t
The Green Team, led by Mrs Collier, worked really hard last year to conduct an energy audit and look at ways we could become more sustainable. We held a competition to reduce the amount of paper we used in the classroom, and we now have energy monitors for each class to ensure that doors are shut and lights/computers switched off when not in use. We had fun planting nectar-rich flowers in our huge playground planter which, as well as looking beautiful when in bloom, encourages lots of insects to visit our school grounds. We used materials from a nearby skip to make a bug hotel in our Dig and Delve garden, which we’re looking forward to examining when the weather gets warmer.
Do have a look at ‘School Blog’ and ‘Gallery’ on The Pod as well: www.jointhepod.org/Sacred-Heart-RC-Primary-School/blog/default
Sustainability
Sustainability is everywhere you look in our school and our commitment is reflected in our recent awards. We have just been gained the Gold level of accreditation for Sustainable Travel, and our original School Travel Plan (STP) was used as an example document across the Borough. We hold the Silver level Eco Award and aim to become a Green Flag school by year-end. The School Development Plan shows that we are committed to sustainable initiatives.
In September we were the first school in our borough to have an energy audit conducted by the Local Authority’s Carbon Reduction Manager. Its findings have formed the basis of this year’s Energy Action Plan, including installing an Efergy meter to identify unnecessary energy consumption.
We recently fitted double-glazed windows to the rear of the school and used grants to install separate scooter racks, a new cycle shed, a large planter and a rock garden. These, coupled with the efforts of our lunchtime “Dig and Delve” club (link to come), have resulted in a playground filled with nectar-rich plants that encourage biodiversity.
Our first ‘Do Something Different Day’ was themed around green issues and we are starting to see awareness of environmental issues really take root.
Community Involvement
Sustainable initiatives are publicised in the school newsletter and blogged on “The Pod” (link), and our Green Governor, Fiona Teague, ensures that the Governing Body is fully involved with the school’s sustainable agenda.
Our partnership with two schools in India (link) provides opportunities for cross-cultural activities and comparison, and we have much to learn from their sustainable endeavors.
Closer to home, children participated in ‘The Big Tidy Up’ and gained positive comments from the local community for their litter clearance from streets and verges. The Student Council consulted neighbours on parking near school; information was fed back to parents to demonstrate the impact of their behaviour, leading to a reduction in complaints about inconsiderate parking.
We work closely with the Council’s Safety Education team and have engendered a walk/cycle to school culture. Our Cycle to School day in May was hugely popular: the Police Safer Neighbourhood Team marked bikes, and a local cycle shop conducted health checks and minor repairs.
Children and parents enjoyed participating in ‘Switch-off Energy Fortnight’ and energy awareness is now included in the curriculum. The whole school learnt about renewable energy from BP and was encouraged to take part in WWF’s Earth Hour in 2009 and 2010.
We are bursting with ideas for future energy savings! We want to work with new catering staff to reduce electricity peaks and involve them in our composting scheme. We will draught-proof, lag, replace and refit to drive down our energy consumption and costs. Solar heating would make a huge step-change in our energy efficiency and would be a visible example to our whole community but is beyond our budget as a small school. We were unsuccessful in a recent competition bid to have solar panels provided free of charge, but we’ll try again next year!
