IMPACT Environment Action Report Issue 3
Welcome to our latest annual environmental report which shares the positive steps that the Caterham School community has undertaken to improve our impact on our local, national and global environment. This weekend world leaders will convene in Sharm El Sheik for COP27 to review the progress made since the Paris agreements of 2015 and Glasgow last year. As the spotlight inevitably turns to big decisions made globally to help solve arguably the most important challenge to face us all, it is important to remember that each and every action we take as individuals also has impact on our environment. Given the current geo-political context and the resultant challenges all global economies are facing at present there is a much greater awareness of the link between the environmental and economic imperative for action. At an international, national, corporate and individual level our awareness of and responsibility for the environment needs to be central to the conversations we are having. The worst thing we can do now is assume that the tough decisions and actions will be taken by someone else, somewhere else. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the extent of the challenge ahead of us. However, this is a time for hope and positive action (tinged with reality of course). Humankind has the power to be destructive but also to solve problems though creativity and collaboration. Schools have a key role to play in encouraging the next generation to ask the hard questions, to challenge complacency and to help inspire future experts and academics. Working with young people it is hard
not to be optimistic. It is vital that we work with optimism together to change behaviour and unlock solutions. We must never forget how powerful we are individually, and as a community. At Caterham we take our impact on the environment seriously at every level, from inspiring and supporting our pupils, from the youngest to the oldest, to engaging and embracing the expertise and advice of our parents and alumni, to ensuring that the leadership team and Board of Trustees evaluate and improve our impact annually in the same way we measure other indices of success.
Our individual and collective actions, our care of our environment and our community, can and do make a difference to our future.
Yours sincerely,
Ceri Jones Headmaster
Tatler Schools Guide 2023: Recognised as an Eco Warrior For schools who have ‘gone green’ and championed environmentally-friendly initiatives
The Week: Best of the Best Inspiring Green Initiatives
IMPACT
Chartwells Catering
Eating Green With over 1,500 hungry humans to be fed every day, catering for our community has been a key area for improving our environmental impact. In the last 12 months our caterers, Chartwells, have removed all supplies brought in by air freight to reduce food miles. The use of waxed cardboard packaging, which is harder to recycle, has also been removed from all deliveries to the kitchens. Children in the Prep School have embraced a weekly vegetarian day and in the senior school there is now a vegetarian only lunch menu one day every three weeks, in addition to vegetarian options being available each day.
Motoring Ahead With families travelling to Caterham from a wide area, our transport network plays an important role in cutting down on single-family car journeys.
Waste Not
The overall range and number of pick-up points on our coach and minibus network continues to increase to allow the maximum number of pupils to use the system. Connection points with main public transport connections have also been improved with services between both Caterham and Upper Warlingham Stations and the School at the beginning and end of each day.
Improvements across the last year in how school refuse is processed mean that no waste from school is sent to landfill. A new bulk waste contractor is in place which sees all school waste sorted and separated to extract recyclable materials with any remaining waste sent to an ‘Energy from Waste’ site which generates electricity from the incineration of non-recyclable waste.
The programme of improving the sustainability of school vehicles has seen vans and cars replaced with electric or hybrid vehicles at the point of a new lease. New visitor parking bays with electric charge points have also been installed at the senior school site for parents and visitors using electric cars. A new bicycle rack has been installed on campus and the PA Classlist platform also enables car sharing.
Food waste from the School’s kitchens goes through a dewatering system which ensures that the removed water stays within the water distribution system and also results in significantly less bulk waste to be dealt with.
Thank you to our parents who have been supporting our vehicle emission lowering drive by ensuring engines are turned off during waiting times at the Senior and Prep School.
Hot Topic The management of cost and carbon output from keeping buildings warm and well-lit is a challenge for everyone. Works to install double glazed windows across all school buildings continues to ensure increased retention of warmth. The introduction of a the upgrade to the Building Management System has also brought significant improvements to heating efficiency at school. The installation of PV solar panels on the Sports Centre roof is now complete and the replacement of floodlight bulbs to LED lights on both the Astro pitch and in the School’s mobile floodlights has brought significant efficiencies to our electricity use.
Switch off lights, laptops, chargers and screens when not in use
ENVIRONMENT ACTION REPORT | ISSUE 3
Stronger Together The most significant change comes from collective action and it is clear that the different groups within our school community have been driving forward the Caterham sustainability agenda and putting it into action.
Change and Climate across the CaterhamConnected Community The interconnected issues of changing behaviours and global warming were explored with an expert panel at the CaterhamConnected Insight Evening hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering in spring 2022.
The Green Committee: Acting Local, Thinking Global The Green Committee pupils meet each week during term time and have successfully instigated projects across the School in the last 12 months. The most visible of the committee’s initiatives is dedicated re-wilding areas across campus to provide flora to support our bee and insect population. These areas are marked by giant blue hearts and will be seen in their full natural glory in spring 2023. A new recycling centre is now in full use in the heart of the School ensuring that the community reuse, reduce and recycle as much as possible. The Green Committee became part of the global Roots and Shoots initiative set up by Dr Jane Goodall. This means Caterham is now linked with schools across the globe who can share projects, ideas, hope and inspiration. Together all Roots and Shoots schools act locally and know that their global network has a significant positive global impact. The joining of Roots and Shoots was celebrated throughout Arts Week 2022 with year groups throwing themselves into positive environmental projects. The Green Committee’s target for 2023 is to achieve the next level of certification by the Eco Schools having achieved the Bronze Award in the last academic year. The older committee members continue to look after the School’s beehives and were thrilled to harvest some honey in summer 2022.
Global leaders in sustainability, psychology and change management shared their expertise and networked with Sixth Form pupils, parents and Old Caterhamians. The sell-out evening, supported by the Old Caterhamians Association, was abuzz with conversations exploring positive examples of sustainability and why individuals, companies and whole societies resist change. The evening was opened by keynote speaker Almuth McDowall, Professor of Organisational Psychology and an award-winning researcher. Almuth combines an active career in academia with a portfolio of consultancy activities including consultancy with organisations who have enacted significant changes including the Metropolitan Police and the NHS. Our panellists included Old Cats, parents and friends of the School from across our CaterhamConnected
network. They included Simon Virley, Partner, Vice Chair & Head of Energy and Natural Resources, KPMG. Simon advises some of the world’s largest companies on the energy transition and the shift to Net Zero and represented KPMG at the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November 2021. Before joining KPMG in 2015, Simon spent 25 years in the UK Government, including at No. 10 Downing Street, HM Treasury and latterly as Director General for Energy in the Department of Energy and Climate Change between 2009-15. Simon is a Fellow of the Energy Institute (FEI) and was awarded a CB by the Queen in 2014 for his work on energy and climate issues. Andrew Elmes, Head of Business Development, UK and Ireland at Siemens Gamesa provided his insight on the night. Andrew’s extensive international experience has seen him develop and execute renewable energy, engineering and infrastructure projects and portfolios. Siemens Gamesa is a leader in the renewable energy industry, working to provide the world’s best offshore and onshore wind turbines and services. Robin Gwynn, Director, Whyteleafe Solutions gave his perspective on 11 years of COP. Robin was previously a senior British diplomat specialising in Africa, with 25 years’ track record in policy-making, negotiating and operational delivery at the heart of government in the UK and overseas. During his government service Robin was twice appointed to represent the UK as a London-based Special Envoy. That included leading UK efforts to work with climate vulnerable countries in the international negotiations running up to COP 15.
Huge thanks also to our fellow panellists, Olivia Garran, Founder, 3E Assessment, Claire Dunn marine biologist and climate investment expert, Dr Rachel Avery, Clive Furness, Director of Contango and OCA President and Clare Black, Managing Director of Streets Consulting.
IMPACT
Prep Eco Warriors: Eco School with Distinction The Prep School Eco-Warriors are a dedicated and focused group whose influence, energy and action has been significant throughout the last year. In May 2022 our Eco-Warriors ensured Caterham Prep was awarded EcoSchools Status with distinction. This was no mean feat as there were seven steps to go through which all involved a huge amount of work. These steps included: Forming an eco-committee; undertaking an Environmental Review of the entire school including the grounds and kitchens; Creating an Action Plan; Finding out all the Curriculum Links; Informing and Involving others; Monitor and Evaluate; Write up an Eco-Code for the School. The Eco Warriors didn’t just stop there – they gamely completed enough bonus sections too to earn our new higher eco status with distinction.
Plastic Free Status Not content with achieving one award, the Eco-Warriors also achieved Plastic Free Status for the Prep School. To win the award, the children assessed how much plastic we were using in the School, raise awareness and took action which involved writing to an MP and writing to companies that produced plastic products and suggesting that they made a change.
Our youngest pupils are included too with two ‘Earth Cubs’ in each Pre-Prep class who act as leading lights for their class.
Battery Powered The Prep and Pre-Prep are currently taking part in the national Big Battery Hunt initiative. We have made this into a class competition whereby each class in the Prep and Pre-Prep are collecting used batteries to enter into a national project but there will be a prize internally for the class with the highest number of batteries in Prep and Pre-Prep. So far we have collected 1,200 batteries which will now be recycled. All the classes have learnt about recycling of batteries during this project.
of hope that we should protect our oceans. One of our Year 5 pupils wrote a poem about these murals. We have also entered these murals and the poem into a national competition entitled: Message In a Bottle. We are waiting to hear if we have been successful.
Inside and Out Encouraging natural life inside and out, pupils have been working to install at least one plant in every classroom in addition to establishing a herb garden and planting bee-friendly flowers outside. The School’s home made compost will nourish the herbs and flowers, which we hope will be watered using our imminent water butt. We also took part in the RSPB bird count in January 2022 and raised awareness about Earth Hour in March 2022.
Wild Inspiration
Our green ambassadors are growing with our new Junior Green Team and Earth Cubs this year. The Junior Green Team is made up of two reps from each Prep School class who take on the responsibility of helping their classes to remain environmentally friendly in as many ways as possible.
Art and Action For a while the Prep School have been collecting plastic milk bottle tops and this year we have made two large art murals using the bottle caps. These murals have been designed to send a message. One is hope for the earth and our beautiful land – made up of blue and green bottle tops representing the earth and sea surrounding a heart filled with the continents and oceans and a dove of peace. The other picture is of the ocean and has a large turtle and a whale in it. This one sends a message
We were thrilled to welcome parent Clare Dunn into school to talk to our Eco-Warriors about her work with the WWF protecting turtles. Clare gave an enthralling insight into life as a marine biologists and the children were absolutely enthralled listening to her. Safe to say we now have a few budding marine biologist! Thanks to Clare for her time and her kind donation of a book to the library on The Blue Planet.
When you recycle be careful to keep non-recyclables out of the mix
ENVIRONMENT ACTION REPORT | ISSUE 3
Parent Power at Caterham Caterham parents have lent their support to the community’s green ambitions. Our Parents’ Association have been a key element to our community sustainability drive. Nearly New Uniform shops in the senior and prep school alone have ensured hundreds of pieces of uniform enjoy an extended life, not to mention helping to raise funds for good causes and enabling parents to buy or replace items for less. Sports kit that can no longer be used at school is donated to charity Eusebia Hope Foundation who offer a home, education and unconditional help to abandoned and orphaned children in Kenya. Community collections organised by the PA and the School, such as the regular Bags2School collections, have also supported recycling. Across the last year our parent community donated 1067 pairs of shoes to fabulous Parents’ Association’s chosen charity, Sal’s Shoes. Following the collections at school, shoes of all descriptions were transferred to Sal’s Shoes HQ for sorting and preparation for their onward journey to find new feet. As a result of the PA initiative at school, over 1,000 children in the UK and across the globe received vital footwear.
The work of this national and global charity is crucial as footwear is often a requirement for accessing education in many countries, as well as supporting health and wellbeing. To find out more about Sal’s Shoes visit the website: salsshoes.com
Bee Happy Caterham School is home to three beehives, and the staff and pupil beekeeping team who tend them. Sixth Form members of the Green Committee, under the leadership of Dr Soltysiak and Mrs Brown, take the lead on looking after and monitoring the hives. Monitoring the hives provides significant learning about how weather and climate conditions affect the behaviour and health of the hives.
Close windows before you leave a room
To see the team in action click on the video above and for live updates on their quest for healthy hives and honey follow on Instagram: @caterhamschoolbeekeepers
IMPACT
Caterham’s Old Park Woods Old Park Woods was secured by Caterham School in 2015, removing the decades-long threat of commercial development of the land which includes relatively newly grown areas and ancient woodland. The School’s purpose in securing Old Park Woods has been to maintain the area as a healthy and viable woodland for the long term, for the benefit of the local environment. The School’s priority remains to regenerate the woodland so that it has a long term future as a thriving biodiverse environment. Old Park Woods is now used extensively by Caterham School pupils from the youngest children in the Prep School who enjoy regular sessions in the Forest School, to the older pupils who have been learning the basics of woodland management as part of the skills element of their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Throughout school holidays local children are able to learn more about the environment at Forest School camps. We also welcome local primary school pupils to the woods throughout the year as part of our broad East Surrey Learning Partnerships programme. Old Park Woods has also facilitated learning for those from outside of the School and local community too. Prior to the Covid-19 lockdowns the School worked with a Lantra/NPTC (one of the leading awarding bodies for land-based industries in the UK) instructor who has been able to train members of the general public and representatives from various government agencies, including Network Rail and the Environment Agency, to complete chainsaw training courses.
If you are waiting in your car please keep your engine switched off
Ash Dieback in Old Park Woods Reports into the health of Old Park Woods identified a significant and rapidly growing natural threat to the future of the woods in the shape of Ash Dieback. Due to decades of neglect and resulting lack of biodiversity, almost 80 per cent of the trees in Old Park Woods were ash trees at the point at which the School took over the woodland. In early 2020 Old Park Woods was assessed with an onsite visit from the Forestry Commission who have been assessing the impact and prevalence from this disease across the South East of England and beyond. This visit identified the serious nature and advanced progression of Ash Dieback within Old Park Woods. As a result of this visit by the Forestry Commission, an urgent action plan and prioritised plan of works was established.
ENVIRONMENT ACTION REPORT | ISSUE 3
Replanting for the Future With the ash dieback felling work almost complete in the first clearance areas, new life can now be breathed into the woodland and the foundations of Old Park Wood’s regeneration can, quite literally, take root. The felled areas will be replanted with UK native trees such as oak, birch, hazel, beech and cherry. Whilst it is unfortunate that so many of our ash trees need to be removed, the necessary felling works have been incorporated into the overall plans to regenerate the woodland. Introducing a diversity of native trees in place of the diseased ash will help the long-term sustainability of the woodland. Introducing a wider breadth of tree species means that if, in the future, a disease threatens a certain species the overall impact on the woodland will be less severe than it has been for Ash Dieback.
CaterhamConnected Woodland Walks Parents (current and former), alumni and friends of the School are welcome to join our regular guided woodland walks, followed by tea, coffee and cake back at school. The next Woodland Walk takes place on Friday 11 November at 9am departing from the front of the main school building.
The replanting will begin in the winter of 2022/23 which gives the new trees the best start in their new environment. A mix of saplings/whips and more mature trees will be bedded in. Caterham School’s Parents’ Association have already supported the purchase of more mature trees with many parents also signing up to be part of the Old Park Woods Replanting Party. The Parish Council have also supported the replanting with a number of whips provided by Surrey County Council.
Join the Party! If you would like to get out into the great outdoors and contribute to Old Park Woods’ future you can sign up to the Caterham Replanting Party. You can lend as much or as little time as you would like –every tree planted helps regenerate Old Park Woods and secure it for the future. To join in sign up here: caterhamschool.co.uk/events/ help-us-replant-old-park-woods/
Inspiring education for life
What next? A drive to sustainability is embedded in our school and approach with a clear intention to improve and reduce our community’s environmental impact year on year. Our targets for the next 12 months are: – Purchasing: bulk purchasing at fixed times to minimise road miles and packaging – Plate waste: reducing food waste – Paper: reducing print and copying and using recycled paper wherever possible – Car emissions: reduction in idling engines on the School site – Recycling: maximising recycling and provision of recycling bins across the campus.
Contact Us Please get in touch if you or your child have an idea or project that will help sustain our environment for the good. All ideas and suggestions are welcome. Email: enquiries@caterhamschool.co.uk