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Eco Club

This has been an exciting year so far at Rotherfield primary.  In October, Miss Mitchell and Mrs Seymour started up an Eco Council of eco-enthusiast year 6 members. So far they have shared lots of fantastic ideas for how we can make our school a greener and more sustainable environment and have worked hard to share this with the rest of the school through regular assemblies. 
The club's first task was to undertake an environmental review, where we assessed how well our school was doing in each of the 10 eco schools areas. Reflecting on the results, we decided to focus our attention this school year on the following three areas:
  • Biodiversity
  • Energy
  • Waste
 
Eco-Council members, and appointed energy monitors, Grace and Ayva have been busy making a traffic light system, labelling all the appliances in our school so that all staff and children know what can be turned off. They have been checking lights are off at break and lunch times as well as unused interactive white boards. Keep up the good work!
 
Year 5 were lucky to have a visit from East Sussex County Council Chair and Green Party member, Georgia Taylor. She spoke to the class about efficient use of energy through the concept of a circular economy as well as the importance of protecting the biodiverse and beautiful world around us so that our planet can keep providing for our needs in the future. The children and staff were all very inspired.
 
If you are doing anything at home to improve your carbon footprint and minimise your impact on our planet, please share it with Miss Mitchell or a member of Eco club so you can inspire more people with your actions. 
 
Watch this space for more Eco News!

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June 2024 - Our Eco Code

Eco Club have been working hard to come up with an eco code which represents our school's environmental ethos. They have worked with such enthusiasm across the year and, as always, they have created some excellent work. They made an acrostic poem that represents what we stand for and also designed a new school eco logo based on its current design. They changed the flag to the green flag we hope to achieve and use the mythical martlet bird as inspiration for their eco code motto: We will not stop until we save the world. A big thank you and well done to the Year 6 members for all their hard work

 



 

May 2024 - Frogitats & Battery Recycling

 Eco club have been busy making frogitats beside our school pond. We are delighted to see that we alreadyhave one in residence. Can you spot the frog in the photo? Can you have a go at making a nature hotel in your garden or local area? We'd love to share your photos if you do.

Also, thank you to everyone who has handed batteries in - a whole box has been filled already and they are going to be very useful for recycling. Please keep them coming!

Eco Club make Frogitats

 

April 2024 - Earth Day

We had a wonderful, creative and inspiring time celebrating Earth Day across the school. We started the day with an Earth Day assembly, delivered by Eco Club.

Reception, Year 1 and 2 all enjoyed a fascinating visit from our local beekeeper. They particularly enjoyed trying on her beekeeping suit and examining her beehive equipment. Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 all had an inspiring and hands-on session at our forest school site, taking part in habitat building activities with Lisa Stevens from the Ashdown Education Team. They explored threats to biodiversity and solutions to counterbalance these such as building hedgehog highways in your garden fence and nature corridors.
Through fun games such as “Oh Deer” and “Frog and Heron”, they developed their understanding of how habitats are so essential for the survival of species.

"We planted a sunflower and we did lots of crafts. We went to forest school and made birdfeeders and an Earthcollage. By children in Year 3

"We made bird feeders and nature videos, pretending we were YouTubers. We also planted a sunflower seed." By children in Year 4

"Earth Day was really inspiring for me and I learnt all about why people celebrate it and how I can help our planet in the future. I really enjoyed making my wildflower poster and getting to take a sunflower home to grow in my window." By Aggie in Year 5.

Eco Club: Earth Day 2024

 

Sunflower Competition

Across the day, every pupil planted a sunflower to take home. Many thanks to TESCO Crowborough for donating the seeds and soil and to parents and carers for donating pots for planting. Towards the end of Term 6 we will measure our sunflowers so we can calculate the winner from each class and the collective height of sunflowers we have grown.

March 2024 - New Solar Panels and Competition Winners

It has been another exciting month for Eco Club. On Monday, the year 6 Eco members were very excited to announce the winners of our recycling poster competition. There were a fantastic 45 entries and it was extremely difficult to choose a winner!   Huge congratulations to Darcy S-F  and  Jacob L in KS2, and  Erin G  and Mary in KS1 whose posters stood out for being beautifully  presented and informative.  They each received a wonderful eco prize for their work. Thank you very much to Mr Thomas and his company www.lifestylevitamins.co.uk for kindly donating these for the children. Darcy's poster is to be displayed above the recycling bin in each KS2 classroom and Mary's will be used in each KS1 class. 
Many thanks to the Eco club members for all their hard work in creating another fantastic PowerPoint for their eco assembly this week. The group taught the classes about why it is important to conserve energy and what our school is doing to lower its carbon footprint. This Easter, we are having an extensive new solar panel system fitted which follows lots of work on improving insulation and LED lighting earlier in the school year. The next plan is to get a fancy new air source heat pump fitted, meaning that our heating will be totally green.

Eco Club Recycling Poster Competition Winning Posters

 February 2024 - Recycling!

As part of our focus on recycling,  Eco club have been busy looking through the bins across our school and working out how we can do a better job of recycling. The club members made a beautiful presentation about recycling which they delivered in both a KS1 and KS2 assembly, including an interactive game of "What goes in the bin?" Across the school, we have seen much better use of our bins and our recycling monitors now check them regularly, informing teachers if their classes need little reminders!

To make sure we get as many members of our school community on board as possible, the club has decided to run a recycling poster competition - winners announced next month!

As we try to improve what we can recycle as a school, we have also decided to take part in the national Recycle to Read campaign which means we are now taking in used batteries. Please bring your used batteries to the office so we can recycle them for you and try to win prizes for our school.

November 2023 - Cut Your Carbon

In November, as part of our focus on Energy, we invited everyone across the school community to take part in the National Cut Your Carbon initiative. Well done to all the children and their families who got stuck into all sorts of carbon cutting activities from planning no-fly summer holidays to sacrificing long baths and replacing them with short showers. We look forward to taking part again next year to see if even more families can get involved. 

 Biodiversity


 Energy

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Back in November we took part in the National Cut Your Carbon initiative. 
Eco monitors were assigned and now check classroom lights are turned off. The monitors worked hard to create a traffic light system of Red, Orange and Green labels to go beside all devices so everyone knows what can and cannot be turned off. 
To remind everyone of ways to save energy, Eco Club presented a fantastic PowerPoint assembly in March and researched ways to save energy.

Please see below for energy saving tips: 

  • Measure how much water you need in a mug or glass before you put it in the kettle. 
  • Lower your radiator dial
  • Take shorter showers
  • Turn not to use your tumble dryer
  • Turn down your thermostat
  • Choose a water efficient shower head
  • Add window film to your windows
  • Draught proof your gaps
  • Turn off your lights when you're not in the room

Here are some more energy saving tips as researched by eco club member, Scarlett:

Save Energy and Save Money!

  • Lower your radiator temperature to save up to £49/year
  • Turn your appliances off standby mode to save up to £55/year
  • Take shorter showers to save up to £70/year
  • Try not to use a tumble dryer and save £60/year
  • Turn down your thermostat and save up to £105/year
  • Choose a water efficient shower head and save up to £30/year
  • Add window film to your windows and save £60/year
  • Turn off the lights when you are not using them and save up to £25/year

Waste

Friday, 9th February, saw the first Free Fruit stand where any uneaten fruit will be offered at the end of the day for families to take home to enjoy over the weekend. Please come and help yourselves so that this precious resource does not go to waste.