We have run the story of the tenacious 9 year old Rosie Gurney the past month and in this issue. She wants to be able to walk to school and not have her mother unnecessarily drive her and create more pollution. Rosie is now at Chennestone but was at Beauclerc infant and nursery school which has had a ‘Green Team’ for many years now. Teacher Katy Colclough told Sunbury Matters more. Rosie was part of the Green Team when she was in Year 2 at Beauclerc.
Its part of the Eco Schools initiative and Beauclerc has done so well that it has achieved the highest Green Flag award for years now. There are 10 topics to cover Just a few of the things the school take part in/do: They take part in the annual Switch off fortnight – reducing energy waste within school and home. School power rangers have secret missions to check which classes are switching appliances off and they are awarded green tokens (plastic milk lids).
The class who gains the most at the end of every half term get to keep Power the Polar Bear in their classroom. This has proved very popular with pupils. Beauclerc also has a litter patrol, a rota of children to collect litter within the school grounds. The big Beauclerc clean up takes place annually too and the school has links with the Keep Britain Tidy campaign. The school has a qualified Forest school teacher in Biodiversity who has introduced bug hotels, plants which attract bugs and wildlife, feed birds etc Then there are the Waste Watchers.
This year’s focus for the school is reducing food waste, encouraging children to eat their lunch and fruit. This links in with the continued focus of recycling and using less. The schooldonate surplus milk to the sunbury ReStore a programme and donate at harvest too. Golden boot/walk to school, encouraging greener travel and healthier lifestyle. The school takes part in this every year This year Beauclerc held their second ‘Wear it wild’ day, raising funds for and awareness of endangered animals supporting WWF. The big battery hunt encourages collection and recycling of used batteries. Every child gets a battery collection box and they empty them into our recycling pots in the foyer The marine initiative looks at reducing plastic usage and waste.
The school raises awareness through the curriculum, with one class studying turtles and how plastic waste can harm them. Learning about this had a major impact. The school has a school Eco code which is a reminder to all about what we are doing and why. Year 2 children complete pedals training each year to encourage more children to come to school on their bikes and scooters. All in all sustainability and green issues are planned into many of the topics and the children have a really good understanding, and passion for ‘saving the world’. It is so encouraging to hear about instilling green values into children at such an early age. They can help their parents also make ‘good’ choices. Between us all we can make a difference.