Sustainability is an important issue for us at Margaret Wix Primary School. Through our curriculum, assemblies and visitors into school, we aim to raise further awareness of the effects of climate change and the need to protect our environment, ensuring we are global citizens. We work together to place sustainability at the heart of everything we do.

We have a eco warriors that meet regularly, which enables children and parents to take an active role in making the school ‘greener’. We also have environment ministers that form part of our ministerial team. 

We want to raise awareness about:

• Ensuring the school is recycling effectively at all times
• Reducing the use of energy in the school
• Increasing awareness about waste reduction, littering and recycling
• Increasing awareness about air quality and the importance of sustainable travel
• Welcoming visitors into our school to talk about actual environmental issues
• Organising cycle training
• Taking active part in Walk to School days
• Engaging and learning about the importance of our natural environment and about the dangers of climate change for future generations

Please find below some of the eco adventures we have been up to this year so far. 

SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH’S URGENT MESSAGE IN SONG 

Sir David Attenborough’s inspirational message about the urgent need to address climate change has been set to music by former Lancashire and North Yorkshire headteacher Brian Beresford, as a completely free song for all schools and children.

A group of children from Whalley CE Primary School, Lancashire, was given the honour of recording the special song. During the project the children discussed climate change, as highlighted by Sir David, and the words used in the song, including, ‘There is a moment when we can change the world and make it better: this is the moment’. They also learnt about the recording process, including the way instruments have been mixed with their voices to produce a performance.

Brian explained that he wanted to help children to understand the climate emergency and to share Sir David’s inspiration with those singing and hearing the song. He said, “I hope the song reaches a wide audience that can also be inspired by Sir David’s message.”

The song is found on YouTube channel, by searching for ‘This is the Moment (Life on Earth)’. The direct link is https://youtu.be/dZNPdG3MQsE There is also a separate backing track on YouTube https://youtu.be/Cu3W8zThzms 

No-one will make financial gain from production of the song, which is a gift to all children.

Increasing wildlife diversity in our school grounds! 

Eco club have refilled the bird feeders around school today and we talked about the different birds that might come and visit and the ways we can increase diversity of wildlife in our school grounds.

In the school year 2023-2024, we:

• On the theme of Biodiversity, planted a wildflower meadow in the grounds to encourage our bees and help them to thrive! We are also proud of our school grounds that provide habitats to encourage insect life, as well as the bird houses that were made last year to provide homes and support for birds and other small animals
• For Energy, the team appointed Energy Monitors who went round and ensured lights and interactive whiteboards were switched off; they also designed posters for each room, reminding people of this.
• On the theme of healthy living, children worked with canteen staff to plan healthy, new menu items and we have plant-based options everyday at lunch. In addition to this, the ECO team planned part of the menu and we now have one whole meat free day each week.
• On the theme of Waste, we organised second-hand clothes and uniform sales, organised book and revision guided exchanges, school letters are sent home via email, we now use hand towels instead of blue paper towels in classrooms when children wash hands; these are then washed at the end of each week. 

We created an action plan for how we will ensure we remain focused on the topics of eco and sustainability.

The key 3 actions are:-

1. Embed the vision for outdoor learning across the whole school through monitoring, evaluation and review, CPD and good maintenance of the woodland area.

2. To create a whole school outdoor learning event; Den Building Day! What a great success!

/ individual classes parental engagement activities in outdoor learning with a focus on sustainability - 

3. To take steps towards achieving an Eco Schools Green Flag.

This year, we:

• Achieved the Eco Schools Green Flag Award - WITH DISTINCTION! 
• Will plan another whole school Outdoor Learning eco event - DEN BUILDING WEEK! This will be happening in the week before half term; watch out for the latest update from Mrs Lyle.
• Will plan and host a whole school, parental engagement event; WixSustFest 2025 in the summer term where we will showcase all of our fabulous Eco initiatives and share practise with the wider school community. 
• Will plan for a new eco and sustainability focus each half term; Eco Warriors to finalise the plan for the year ahead and deliver an introductory assembly at the start of each new theme. 

As per our Eco, Sustainability and Climate Action Plan, the 3 new key actions will be:

1. To maintain vision for outdoor learning across the whole school through monitoring, evaluation and review, CPD and good maintenance of the woodland area.

2. To plan another whole school / individual classes eco event and encourage parental engagement/invite them in.

3. Further embed the sustainable ethos across the school

Last year (2024-2025), we:

- Held a whole school and parent den-building week extravaganza! Our lovely PTA were on hand each day with teas, coffees and snacks for our parents, and children from Nursery to year 6 had the most amazing time, showcasing their problem-solving skills, teamwork, negotiation, listening, coordinating, social skills, Margaret Wix learning powers and so much more!

- Worked closely with Let's Go Zero to create our Climate Action Plan and secured that for the next 12 months - something that the government have insisted all schools have as a legal requirement. Melanie, our colleague from Let's Go Zero was so impressed with everything that we have done and continue to do at school that she said she'd be using us as best practise across all the schools she works in - how cool!

- Worked closely with Herts County Council to secure our school Travel Plan - we achieved a 'good' status for our first  entry, which is great! The Travel Plan accreditation is something that the LA are awarding out to schools who are going above and beyond in supporting and promoting active, safe and sustainable travel within schools and the local community.

- Organised and successfully held our first ever Sust-Fest in the summer term - a whole school event which invited eco-minded heroes from around the local community to come in and showcase their incredible work to the school. 

- Arranged half-termly eco themes to focus on throughout the whole school - delivered at the start of each half term by Mrs Lyle in assemblies and then monitored throughout by the Eco Warriors - some really key changes were made across the school as a result of this!

- Received a handwritten letter from Sir David Attenborough himself in response to the birthday cards and cover letter that Eco Club sent to him for his 99th birthday! Possible our biggest achievement to date?!

Please enjoy the slideshows of all of the wonderful things that happened last year!