In order to best support our children and encourage them to become the best global citizens they can possibly be, Mrs Lyle has arranged for there to be a sustainability focus for each half term; something for the children to work on in school and hopefully at home too! 

So far...

Autumn 1 - Food Wastage - Mrs Lyle has been weighing the bin bag in the lunch hall at the end of each lunch session and has been collating the data; this was shared in an assembly at the end of September! We have decided as a school that this is something we want to continue to focus on. Often changing one's habits can take time, and the Eco Warriors are dedicated and passionate that collectively, we can continue to improve in this area even more! 

January 2025 update - 

We have done so well to reduce food wastage in school! Through dedication, consideration and a new and improved school lunch menu, we have managed to reduce food wastage from an average of 7.8 kg each day to 4.2 kg! This is really wonderful and demonstrates what eco-minded young citizens we have in our wonderful school. Keep up the fantastic work!

Autumn 2 - We will be working on reducing our carbon imprint as part of the Eco Schools, month-long carbon-cutting challenge for the month of November. Keep your eyes peeled for more information on this coming soon! 

January 2025 update - 

We have done well to reduce our carbon footprint in some small but mighty ways. I am really proud to show off part of our new and improved school lunch menu which contains a whopping 16 vegetarian or vegan options! Think about the positive impact that reduction in meat options will be having on our planet. Imagine if every school could do something similar?! 

Spring 1 - We are focusing on litter picking and recycling this half term. Mrs Lyle's introductory assembly encouraged us to help out with recycling correctly at home, mentioned the new system of recycling bins that we are getting at school, new for this month (including a food waste bin...hooray!) as well as how we can encourage our grown ups to visit our local recycling centre to dispose of our recycling and other household waste properly. For every family that visits the recycling centre, they will receive a certificate, designed by the Eco Warriors as a thank you for committing to fighting against climate change. As well as this, we have a new set of litter pickers that our Eco Warriors and other children are using each play time and lunch time to collect the rubbish that blows in, on and around our playground and the fact that the bags and buckets are full by the end of each week is quite astounding! Please do continue to work as a community with this; as well as being an eye-sore, litter and pieces of rubbish are so detrimental to local wildlife. 

Spring 2 -

This half term's focus has been on water usage. Mrs Lyle delivered an assembly on the different ways we can and should all be more conscientious about how and when we are using water, as we know that wasting water can have a detrimental impact on our planet. In Eco club, we discussed some of this further and worked out that wasting water can put a strain on the finite fresh water resources that we have, which could lead to a reduction in available water for humans as well as different habitats, where fresh water is essential. It can also contribute to climate change by adding to the ever-increasing energy-intensive process of water extraction and treatment. 

We decided that the easiest ways to reduce our water usage at school and home is by turning the tap off when brushing our teeth, by using a watering can instead of a hose when watering the garden, when washing up dishes, either fill the sink by using a plug or use a washing up bowl, have a shower instead of a bath and if you are using a dishwasher, ensure that it is really full so that the water cycle is more efficient! 

Next year, we are going to look into how we can track this even further and calculate our water usage from the meter, throughout the year. It would be really awesome to be doing our bit for the planet as well as saving the school some money on our water bill!

Summer 1 - 

This half term, we learnt more about sustainable ways to travel and discussed the many, many benefits of this. 

We decided that the most sustainable ways to travel were:

- Cycling

- Scooting

- Walking

- Taking a bus or train for longer journeys

- Teaming up with friends or family if you do need to use the car, in order to reduce the number of cars on the road

- Using an electric bike or scooter

We know that the more cars are being used, the more air pollution is given out into our atmosphere; this includes toxic gases that can have a really negative impact on our health both short term and long term. 

Equally as important, being out and about in the fresh air has an endless positive impact on all of us! Our health and fitness will improve and this can all add up to a far more positive mental wellbeing. So double the reason to try and travel more sustainably!

Summer 2 - MARGARET WIX SUST FEST!

Woah. This was the coolest part of the whole year! Mrs Lyle, along with the help of some truly fantastic eco heroes from within the local community, organised a festival event on the school field that had volunteers from a wide variety of eco and sustainable initiatives in, all showcasing their fabulous companies and ideas. 

We had Soil Squad, Batchwood Pickers, Plastic Free, The Green Party, Sustainable St Albans, Playing Out, Christ Church and The Green House all in attendance at our wonderful school and it was such a pleasure having everyone! The event happened to fall during the crazy heatwave that we had in July, which meant that some of the children went home a little earlier and missed out on Sust-Fest sadly, but I am sure we will be able to rustle something else up for next summer too :)