Welcome back to everyone and we hope you enjoyed the festive season break. The Eco-Committee have been busy and are back into the swing of things already. One of our goals this half term is to complete the whole school ‘Environmental Review’ as part of our accreditation process. The Environmental Review is a set of questions that have been designed to help our Eco-Committee understand how embedded environmental action is in our school setting and curriculum. Questions are grouped into sections, linking to the 10 Eco-Schools topics. This process will continue up until half term, at which stage we can review and reflect on the results before our submission.
There are however, many smaller projects that we have been working on, beyond embedding our everyday energy and recycling habits into school life. These include planting bee loving plants around the school grounds and using the school’s compost heap/bin again for our organic matter and of course our end of term Christmas challenge of building a bug hotels.
We have been talking to the school’s catering team and have agreed in line with the recent announcements from the UK government, that Barrow Hills will also commit to no further purchases of single use plastic cutlery and plates.
Here are a few articles:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64205460
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/08/single-use-plastic-cutlery-and-plates-to-be-banned-in-england
https://supersimple.com/article/bug-hotel/https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/nature-on-your-doorstep/garden-activities/build-a-bug-hotel/
We are looking forward to seeing bug hotels and houses that will be placed around the school ready for spring from our holiday challenge. These will be used around the school to encourage our insect population and provide a safe hideaway for wildlife.
FACT !
Lighting in schools accounts for about 20% of schools energy costs and heating around 45% So these are two key areas to target when trying to reduce our energy usage
Have a great week,
The Eco Team
