Eco Council
It is a great honour to be only one of a very few schools to have been retained the Eco-Schools 'Green Flag' for 8 years. For the last three years, we have been awarded the 'Green Flag with Distinction' award, reflecting the sustained improvement and development in this area, led by the pupils. We are hugely proud of this achievement and commitment to ensuring we look after our world properly.
At The New Forest School we believe it is vital to take responsibility for our planet. At KS2 there is a weekly Eco Club which forms the KS2 Eco Committee; during the weekly club time, the committee conduct meetings and carry out many of their chosen actions. The Eco Club members, led by Mrs Barnes, work throughout the year to raise awareness of their initiatives throughout the school. At our KS1 site, Miss Hibbs leads an Eco and Gardening club who ensure that the initiatives are worked on consistently across both sites.
We follow the Eco-Schools model to ensure that standards are high and that we are covering all areas. Below can be found the School Environmental Review, carried out by the Eco Committee in September, and their resulting Action Plan for the year. This year's focus will be Global Citizenship, Healthy Living and Waste; however we will continue to work in all areas of the award.
Activities that we have taken part into achieve our 'Green Flag' Status
Updates to the School Curriculum
Two of the topics have been adapted this year to incorporate the Global Citizenship target on our action plan. Year 3 and 4 studies a history topic on the Windrush generation and their impact on Britain today. Year 5 used the informal letter-writing unit to contact a school on Hiemaey Island in Iceland in a bid to make links with pen-pals. This is an area we studied in a geography unit on volanoes earlier in the year.
PTA fundraising and gardening
Our amazing PTA have continued to fundraise to develop our school grounds. This year has seen the addition of vegetable trugs on each site which have been planted and looked after by each class at KS1 and the gardening / Eco club at KS2.
Clubs
Gardening clubs have been running weekly on both sites for much of the year. There has also been an enormous daily effort to ensure that the plants remain watered during the hot weather we have been experiencing. There has also been a weekly Book Swap club running at KS2. There are plans to continue both clubs next year and incorporate the Book Swap club with a Reading club.
Parish Council liaison
The school community voted to contact an MP about protecting green spaces earlier in the year. The School Council already had plans in place to work alongside the Parish Council to give our views about how the local green spaces should be developed and protected. We are going to await the outcomes of this work so that we can include a real-life working example in our communication with an MP.
MLP Parliament
The Eco Committee actions have supported the work of the School Council and the MLP Parliament in their focus on the environment this year.
Global Citizenship
* Year 5 have written pen pal letters to an Icelandic school as part of their informal letter-writing work. This linked to a geography topic covered earlier in the year.
* The Eco Committee surveyed the school to ask which topic they would like them to write to an MP about. The clear winner was protecting the local green spaces. The Eco Committee decided to wait for the outcome of the parish council work on local green spaces (due to take place following consultation between the parish council and our school council) as they would like to include evidence of how collaboration can help to bring about change.
* The Eco Committee presented an assembly about the sustainability development goals to the whole school at the start of 'Welly Wednesday' and have displayed posters about the goals around the school site.
* We have taken part in the 'Cut Your Carbon' campaign. As a school, we reduced our carbon footprint by 1,020.65kg of carbon dioxide during the month of the 'Cut Your Carbon' campaign.
Healthy Living
The School Council and Eco Committee worked with the kitchen staff to adapt the school menu to try and include more seasonal veg. They took part in a taste-testing session and the highest-rated meals were incorporated into the menu. This continues to be looked at and adapted following feedback from the children across the school. The children at each site have also been growing seasonal veg in our lovely new veg trugs. Some of the produce has been used for snacks or taken home to be used in meals.
Waste
* Changes have been made to lunchtime to reduce the food waste. The children are now only allowed to move onto their dessert after 12:15pm; this has resulted in less food being placed in the food recycling bins.
* Information posters have been placed next to the recycling bins showing what can be placed in there. This has been helpful in reducing the number of wrong items placed in the bins.
* A weekly Book Swap club has been running at KS2. As it has been successful, we will continue to run it next year.
* We have taken part in the 'Count Your Carbon' campaign. The results can be found at the top of the page.
Litter-picking
The school have have continued to use the litter-pickers for each site. A ten-minute litter-pick is carried out as part of each Forest Friday undertaken by each class.
Bikeability
Year 6 have undertaken Bikeability training to ensure they are safe to cycle on the roads. They will be encouraged to cycle to school where it is safe and possible to do so,
Eco-Club
A weekly Eco-Club has been running on both school sites throughout the year to raise awareness of the importance of the environment. Recycling crisp packets, watering indoor plants, gardening and planning new initiatives have been activities carried out each week during Eco-club.
Energy-Free Days
During the Autumn term, each class across the school completed a day's work without using electrical devices such as laptops and the SmartBoard. Lessons were adapted accordingly. Many of the classes spent the day with the lights turned off!
Walk 2 School
This is now embedded into our daily routine as the chiln log how they travel to school using the Living Streets website.
