St Mary’s Eco Initiative

We strive to educate our children and adults on the importance of looking after our beautiful planet. We work hard to carry out actions that will have a positive impact on the environment and make our school more sustainable. We want to make a difference!

Key aims:

• Encourage recycling and reduce waste.
• Encourage people to save energy and water.
• Increase awareness of environmental issues.
• Improve biodiversity and green spaces within the school.
• Support sustainable travel and healthy lifestyles.
• Involve the whole school community in protecting the environment – within the school grounds and Burton Latimer. 
• Develop pupils' leadership, teamwork and citizenship skills.

Eco Warriors

Our team is made up of a dedicated and committed group of children, staff and volunteers who strive to make a difference to our local environment. We have achieved a great deal since establishing our team and we have many more actions to work on. 

As a team we have set up many whole school initiatives. These include:  

Eco Day – whole day during our Blue Planet unit which enabled pupils to research our impact on the world. Each year group then presented their findings to the rest of the school.  

Christmas jumper swaps 

Toy/dressing up clothes swaps 

An eco stall at the Light Switch on to raise money for our projects.  

Walk to school week – to promote sustainable travel and healthy lifestyle.  

Walkie Wheely Wednesday 

Paperless days  

Lights off days  

A weekly Eco Check (light switch off, tidy environments, recycling). The Eco Warriors have taken ownership of checking and recording how classes have responded to the challenges.  They then give out a weekly award to the best class in Collective Worship.  

Local Litter Picks – Combined with the Kindness Ambassadors 

Plant Sale – Instigated by one of our Eco Warriors.  

Gardening Club – we have a waiting list for September already!  

Eco aspects of Collective Worships – Raising the awareness of being eco-friendly each week, celebrating the children and classes that have made the biggest change/impact.  

Following the DFE Heatwave guidance 

Met with Site supervisor to address eco issues or to improve the efficiency of our school.  

We made contact with local businesses and we were successful in receiving two grants. 

• We received £2877.64 from the Burton Wold Wind Farm Fund. This money has been spent on tools, seeds and a shed for our gardening club/eco team. This means we can improve biodiversity and green spaces within the school grounds. We donated some plants and equipment to EYFS too which will positively impact their experiences in EYFS and help to develop their skills linked to ‘understanding the world’.
• We also received a grant for £250 from the Local Wildlife Trust which our Gardening Club members are taking a trip to Bosworth’s to spend in July.  
• Our Eco Governor contacted Bosworth’s and received a plant donation which has since been planted by the Gardening Club.

Impact

• Children have taken ownership of their surroundings – working as a team to reduce waste, turn off electronics and pass on messages to make a difference e.g. dripping taps.  
• A raised awareness within the whole school of the importance of looking after our planet (in many different ways).  
• Children have continued the drive to be eco friendly away from school by starting litter picking in the community with their families.  
• Children are more confident talking about issues in our environment and are showing courageous advocacy to make a positive change – One child even contacted the local council when he felt there was an issue in our town. 

Eco and the Curriculum  

• We have looked carefully at the curriculum to ensure there is clear coverage which promotes a sustainable way of life.
• Fair Trade is taught in PSHE
• Taking care of the environment and our world is a common theme in the Science, Geography and RE curriculum, as well as being a regular topic of discussion during Wednesday’s Picture News assemblies.
• The whole school collectively teach the ‘Blue Planet’ unit which focuses on the polar regions, oceans, mountains and rainforests. 

St Marys - Lets Go Zero Climate Action Plan

Eco Initiative