April Newsletter!
April Newsletter!
Hello and welcome to the Eco-Schools April Newsletter (deep breath): the Big Battery Hunt is back! It’s the final countdown to pledge for the Great Big School 2022! More LEAF information coming soon! We need your help with a climate questionnaire! Troubleshooting the Eco-Schools Green Flag application process! Bug hotels! And creating the perfect Eco-Code!
The Big Battery Hunt is Back!
The UK’s biggest school battery recycling programme (11 million batteries recycled and counting!) is back for a third year, giving pupils the opportunity to work together and make a real difference to our planet. Head to www.bigbatteryhunt.co.uk to find out more about the programme and learn how you can get involved. There are 80 free pupil recycling boxes and a full teacher resource pack available for every school that registers.
Participation can also be used as evidence towards your Eco-Schools Green Flag award. Eco-Schools have also worked with the Big Battery Hunt team to create a short guide, demonstrating how to give the programme an Eco-Schools twist! View the guide here.
Last Chance to Pledge for the Great Big School Clean 2022!
So far an amazing 243,000 pupils have pledged to take part in the Great Big School 2022 and the Eco-Schools and Keep Britain Tidy teams would like to say a massive thank you, you are all protecting wildlife, improving communities and making a positive difference! If you missed the live launch, you can watch the video by clicking this link! It features eco-author Sarah Roberts and litter-picking legend Beach Guardian, first reading Sarah’s new book Somebody Crunched Colin, then discussing their litter-picking experiences!
If you haven’t pledged yet, there is still time, the last chance to pledge is 10th April 2022! Pledges can be made now for any future litter-picks (even beyond 10th April) and when you pledge you can download resources which now include a handy, holiday litter-picking homework – because Eco-Schools work shouldn’t be confined to term times and school boundaries.
Learning About Forests!
Alongside Eco-Schools, the Education Team at Keep Britain Tidy also runs the LEAF Award. Details on how to apply for this year’s award will be included in next month’s newsletter. Don’t forget, work that you deliver for LEAF can count towards your Eco-Schools application as part of our Biodiversity topic.
Additionally, we will also have more information in the coming months on the big, exciting changes that we’re making for next year’s LEAF programme.
Climate Change Questionnaire!
This Summer, the Eco-Schools Team will be continuing to collaborate with eco-author, documentary-maker and schools-workshop producer Sarah Roberts to create a series of videos for teachers, outlining different approaches and practical tips to help you cover Climate Change topics in the classroom. To guide our content-creation, we want to hear from you! If you have a spare 5 minutes, please fill in our formative evaluation survey by clicking below. Thank you!
27 Days Until Eco-Schools Green Flag Application Window Opens!
There are now 27 days to go until the Eco-Schools Green Flag Application window for 2021-2022 opens! The Eco-Schools team is incredibly excited to begin rewarding young people’s environmental efforts with an Eco-Schools Green Flag!
You still have plenty of time to login to your Eco-Schools account and begin answering questions before then, to ensure you are ready to apply! All answers are autosaved as you go and questions can be completed in any order – helping all of our wonderful Eco-Coordinators save time during those busy Summer Term months!
To support you through the new process, we ‘ve created a troubleshooting document covering all of your frequently asked questions. If your query isn’t covered, please get in touch with the Eco-Schools team.
Eco-Fact Step 6: Monitoring and Evaluating Bug Hotels!
This year schools working on our Biodiversity topic have so far created more than 650 bug hotels or log piles to support insect life in their school and local community! The average school has installed around 5 bug hotels or log piles, and one school has created more than 100! Remember, that if you send bug hotel instructions to families encouraging them to create bug hotels in their own gardens or neighbourhoods, any bug hotels they create should also be included on your Eco-Schools application form!
Please Note: If you haven’t worked on the Biodiversity topic this year, but have created a bug hotel anyway, just because it’s fun and you want to support insect life, we encourage you to tick more than three topics in the Monitoring and Evaluation section of your Green Flag application form. This will allow you to input more answers and demonstrate the true impact of your Eco-Schools work!
Normanton Common Primary Academy, Finding the Perfect Eco-Code!
It’s that time of year when many Eco-Committee’s are trying to decide on the perfect Eco-Code which reflects all of their hard work throughout the academic year! The Eco-Committee at Normanton Common Primary Academy are certainly thinking about this, and have created an inspirational video to launch a whole-school, Eco-Code competition – great evidence for Step 5:Informing and Involving and Step 7: Eco-Code! Their video has certainly inspired the Eco-Schools Team, and we hope it inspires you too! If you would like to be spotlighted in our monthly Eco-Schools newsletter, get in touch using the form below or share your work with us on social media!
