Eco and Sustainability

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.

This year, we plan to:

• On the theme of Biodiversity, there are plans afoot to have a wildflower meadow planted 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 have appointed Energy Monitors who will go round and ensure lights are switched off; they have also designed posters for each room, reminding people of this.
• On the theme of healthy living, children have 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 are going to be encouraging the school to have one whole meat free day each week.
• On the theme of Waste, we have 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 have 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 / individual classes parental engagement activities in outdoor learning with a focus on sustainability 

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