Eco Schools
Eco-Schools
Well done Perton First, you have achieved your Green Flag!
What is it?
Eco-Schools is a global programme engaging 19.5 million children across 67 countries, making it the largest educational programme on the planet.
For nearly 25 years Eco-Schools has been empowering children to drive change and improve their environmental awareness through the simple Seven-Step framework in order to achieve the international Eco-Schools Green Flag award.
What have we been doing?
Our Eco Committee have been amazing, they have worked so hard this year to prepare for the renewal of our green flag award.
To do this they carried out their own environmental review, and then decided on the 3 topics they wanted to focus on. They then created an action plan, which can be found in the section below.
Our first area of concern is biodiversity. Miss Sami talked to the group about bees, and other flying insects. She explained to the children how native flowers are very important to bees, and how other insects are needed to help create a food chain for other animals in our local area. The children then decided that they should create a wild area in the corner of our school field. They have started work on a bug hotel and planted wild flower seeds. More work is to be done on this area, but keep your eyes open for the construction of 'Bugingham Palace' and look out for the beautiful wild flowers that should be growing very soon! To add to this the eco committee have all planted young trees in our school grounds, not only to help with our need for biodiversity, but to also celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, (part of the green canopy).
Our second area of concern is litter. We had noticed that more and more litter was appearing on our school field, that had either blown in from the street, or has been thrown over the fence. The children were concerned about this, not only as it is not pleasant to play amongst rubbish, but it can cause greater harm to the wildlife that pay us visits, or could end up being blown into the local lake. Some littler pickers have been purchased and the children are using them to collect litter during their lunch breaks and free time. Some 'eco' minded children have also taken them home to collect litter from their local areas too. We also committed to collecting 10 bags of rubbish for the 'Keep Britain Tidy' litter pick. Well done team!
Our third area of concern is energy. As we all know the cost of electricity has increased considerably, and wasted energy is therefore wasted money. The eco committee are ensuring that teachers turn off the whiteboards, computers and lights when they are not in use. Hopefully they will continue this at home too, to save their parents some money!
If anyone would like to design some posters to display around the school, we would be grateful!
Our next step is to apply for the renewal of our green flag and continue to review and action any concerns.
If you would like to get involved please use the link below to find out how you could make a difference.
https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/inspiration/news/
Thank you to all of Perton First for taking on board our Eco issues and making a difference to this world.