sustainability committee

by Tom Wilson, Year 6 Teacher

This year the sustainability committee has an important role as we move towards our goal of becoming a sustainable school. The committee is made up of a number of students who are committed to helping to protect the environment in which we live. The main aim of our committee is to inform and educate students and the wider community of what we can do to promote a cleaner healthier earth. In order to do this, we aim to reduce our use of natural resources (such as energy, water and paper) and produce less waste.

This year we have already had great success as we have managed to abolish single use plastics and food cartons from our lunch room. All students now eat from reusable plates and use cutlery. It is a small, but significant, step forward in our fight for sustainability.

In addition to this, we have introduced Nude Food week. Nude Food week is the first week of each month, when all students are encouraged to bring snacks which use less, or no plastic packaging. Each class collects the plastic packaging they have brought to school over the week and we can see how much unnecessary waste we are producing. The class with the least waste gets a reward for demonstrating their concern for our environment.

Committee members also continue to organise paper recycling. Each week our members collect all of the used paper in the school and with the help of secondary CAS students it is sent to be recycled. We also actively encourage students to waste less paper on pictures and colouring and to use paper on two sides. Sustainability members also make videos and posters letting students know about the simple steps students can take to help improve our environment.

We give short presentations to educate students and to urge them not to waste food when possible and to turn off lights and to plug out electrical appliances when they are not using them.

Through our work I hope we can raise awareness of how we, as individuals, can help protect the environment and how as a community we can make a real difference to the fight against climate change.