ECO SCHOOLS PROGRAMME

The school Eco Warriors are a small group of children who are passionate about the environment. Like School council, we meet to discuss arising issues and what we can do as a school to help.

How are Eco Warriors elected?

Each class has two Eco Warrior representatives, who are chosen by a democratic secret ballot by members of their class. If someone is interested in being an Eco Warrior, they can put their name forward and give a speech on why they would be suitable for the role. Once the two members are selected, each warrior is given a badge to wear on their uniform.

What happens in the meetings?

We meet fortnightly during assembly times to discuss any issues and to plan future events. The Eco Warriors think of ideas we could use in school and we then talk about how these can be implemented. We discuss how we can raise awareness so other children in the school are mindful of the environment too. Some meetings are also held outside, where we are either tidying a wildlife area or being creative in other ways.

Our exciting events this year so far…

At the start of the year, with the support from some sixth form students from Sutton High, we created our wonderful ‘turtle and jellies’. These were huge artwork pieces made on the fence of the cage, made entirely out of plastic bags! We created these by first marking out the outlines with masking tape and then carefully weaving stipes of plastic bags between the railings. We were extremely proud of the result and we hope others were inspired to recycle their plastic bags by using them in creative ways. Our hope was to raise awareness about the amount of plastic washing up in our oceans and how we need to reduce the amount of plastics we use!

We have introduced some more items that can now be recycled in school and are making sure everyone is disposing of these items in the correct way. We now recycle paper, batteries, crisps packets and every type of pen.

Another exciting event was the planting of two new trees in our playground! One of our Eco Warriors, Eloise, and her family were very generous in donating two trees they had received from the Woodlands Trust. We believe that they are a cherry tree and rowan tree. With the help from Mrs Bakker, Eloise planted these trees in carefully chosen locations and we have enjoyed watching them grow.

During the Spring term, we started clearing the garden quad of weeds and making it inviting to wildlife. We have a few plans for the quad and cannot wait to get creating!

Recently we have teamed up with the School Council to discuss and plan our ‘Robin Hood goes Green’ day. This will be a whole day dedicated to raise awareness of being environmentally friendly and donating our mufti money to local Eco charities in Sutton. We are planning lots of exciting activities through the day including making bird feeders, recycled art, planting seeds and exploring our nature garden. We also hope our friends from the local care home will be able to help us with these activities.

In October 2018, Veolia came into assembly to promote the benefits of recycling. The children were so enthused by the information imparted that we invited the company back to lead workshops for each class. Veolia also presented a wonderful opportunity for our Eco-counsellors to work together to produce a piece of art for their media page. The children collected recyclable materials and used these to create a ‘50%’ sign on the school hall floor. This was to celebrate the fact that the local authority had reached 50% recycling rate!

Eco-counsellors are currently working with us to develop the school’s nature areas and get their ideas across of how we can achieve more outdoor learning. We have been redesigning the quad with Eco Local and have plans to give it a new lease of life in the Spring. The plan is for the Eco-counsellors to help cut and clear the current area, in preparation for planting. We will be talking to local garden centres about any donations or off-cuts they may have to brighten up the space and attract wildlife. Once we have begun to clear the area, this page will be updated with our progress. Watch this space!

https://www.veolia.co.uk/london/about-us/about-us/news/sutton-schools-celebrate-national-recycle-week