Layston is proud to say that we are an ECO – SCHOOL
Layston C of E First school became an Eco school in 2011. Being an eco-school, means that all of us here at Layston C of E First School have an on-going commitment to being eco-friendly. We want to improve, nurture and respect the environment whilst growing up to be brilliant and clever adults.
Being an eco-school also means that we have to be taught about 9 different eco topics within the school curriculum to make us understand the world a little better. They are:
1. Water
2. Energy
3. Healthy Living
4. School Grounds
5. Biodiversity
6. Global Perspectives
7. Litter
8. Transport
9. Waste (including Recycling)
What does eco-friendly mean?
“If you are eco-friendly, you are someone that is friendly to the environment” says Lizzie, an Eco Rep from Year 3, and she is absolutely right! Being Eco-friendly literally means earth-friendly or not harmful to the environment. If you are eco-friendly you try to do what’s best for the environment by trying to save energy, keep it clean and tidy, try to stop pollution and look after wildlife. At Layston we started looking after our school environment. Once we were really good at that we started to think about ways we can look after our local community. Now we are trying to keep working hard to keep up the good work whilst looking at places around the world. We want to be super eco-warriors!
What do Layston Eco-Warriors do?
Because we have been an Eco school for a while, the children and adults here are all very good at knowing what to do so we all now call ourselves Eco – Warriors! This means that we are all superheroes with the special power of being eco-friendly! We all know that even if it wasn’t us, we should turn a tap off if it’s running, close an open door or window to keep heat in and to pick up any rubbish we see on the floor. Because of this our school is beautiful and is now a lot more thoughtful about what we are doing.
Eco Warrior jobs include:
* Saving water by turning taps off
* Keeping heat in by keeping doors and windows closed
* Reusing paper for free time
* Recycling paper, bottle caps, stamps, cardboard etc
* Putting biodegradable things like fruit cores and left over lunches into a compost bin
* Bringing in spare uniform and clothes to give to our teachers so that other children have spare clothes to use in case of accidents (or daddy’s shirts for art aprons!)
Eco Reps
Because we are all Eco-Warriors, we have a small group of children called Eco reps who meet once every half term to think Eco. We meet to talk about all the good eco-friendly things we do and have seen others do and decide on whether we could do anything even better. After our meetings we talk to our classes about any decisions we make and ask for their opinions. The Eco Reps’ next big project is to start working on the green tree schools award, where we will be joining more than 12,000 schools taking action to help the environment.
Which adults help our school in being Eco friendly?
All adults in school help Layston be eco-friendly because they are all told that we have to recycle and look after the school grounds but some adults help us make better decisions. These adults make up the eco committee. They are:
* Miss Moss is our schools eco-leader. She meets with us eco reps every half term to see what we are doing and what we can do better.
* Miss Lomax is our Forest School leader. She teaches us outside in the Wildwood about nature and caring for it. We have lots of fun making things like bird feeders, homes for insects and other animals and planting plants. We do all of that and more so we attract different animals and insects to our school. Mrs Lomax also gets us to use the compost bins correctly too.
The most important steps Layston take to be Eco Friendly are remembering to…
1. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
2. Buy Recycled materials
3. Save as much energy as possible
4. Keep attracting wildlife into our wildwood and sensory garden
5. Use the food from our allotment for cooking lessons
6. Look after our school grounds and each other
A note from the Eco Committee…
At Layston we promote an eco code of conduct and follow an eco action plan each year in order to continuously help the local and global environment. Please view these here.
Action plan & Eco Rules
We are very proud of being part of the family of Eco School Green Flag owners, an elite band of schools which is growing steadily not only in the UK, but internationally as well. If you are reading this and want to know more about getting started as a sustainable school, then why not look at the Eco Schools website www.eco-schools.org.uk for more information and inspiration? If anyone is interested in getting involved and volunteering in any way, shape or form then please get in touch.
