January Newsletter!
Happy New Year, we hope you all had a wonderful break and are feeling relaxed, rejuvenated, and ready to make a difference in 2023! For our first newsletter of the year, we’ve got everything you need to drive change and achieve Green Flag success this academic year… even if you are only just beginning your Eco-Schools journey! We have our exciting new Cut Your Carbon campaign, Spring-Term dates for Eco-Schools training, and a list of fantastic partner projects all of which can be used as evidence when applying for an Eco-Schools Green Flag! Let’s make 2023 green!
Cut Your Carbon
Cut Your Carbon is our latest national campaign aimed at inspiring pupils from across the country to get active, raise awareness, and cut their carbon. The campaign asks young people to focus on one of three key areas, before completing a series of simple, free activities throughout the campaign week.
- (Re)LoveOurStuff connects to fast fashion and textile waste encouraging Eco-Committees to plan, advertise, and deliver a pop-up, second-hand thrift store for their schoolmates.
- Energy Investigators asks young people to review energy-usage in their school before stepping up and delivering 5 simple, free energy-reducing activities across the campaign week.
- Plant-Based Portions encourages pupils to research and raise awareness about the environmental and health benefits of plant-based food choices before completing 5 positive plant-based actions during the week.
Each area comes with its own delivery guide and resources, in fact, there is everything you need to make the campaign a success. Following completion, we simply ask that you complete a two-minute monitoring form, so we can calculate the combined impact of every amazing pupil who has cut their carbon and celebrate their work! We love this campaign, and we hope you do too!
Eco-Schools Training
You can now register for Spring Term Eco-Schools training dates. The focus of these Sessions is including environmental issues in your learning and expanding the reach of your Eco-Schools work to your wider school community. The session will also touch on the ethos of the Eco-Schools programme, and the Green Flag assessment process, before a finishing Q&A with a member of the Eco-Schools team.
The session is relevant and open to all, whether you attended Session 1, or have only just signed up to the Eco-Schools programme in the first few days of 2023… but places are limited, so register quickly to avoid disappointment.
Eco-Projects, Events & Ideas
If you’re in need of inspiration, or looking for easy eco-wins, there are plenty of free school events, activities, and resources that you can get involved with before the Eco-Schools application window closes on July 31st… and of course, participation in each of these activities, or projects, can then be used as evidence when applying for an Eco-Schools Green Flag during the Summer Term!
Click the link below to view a selection of our favourite projects and resources from other charities and organisations who are friends and partners of Eco-Schools!
Eco-Question: How much paper waste does the average primary school pupil produce each year?
As part of the Cut Your Carbon campaign, we will soon be launching an interactive Eco-Schools quiz on the Eco-Schools website, above is one of the questions, but do you know the answer?
- 22 kg
- 45 kg
- 112 kg
Answer is revealed at the end of this post!
Congratulations to King’s Academy Ringmer – Winner of the Department for Education Sustainability Award 2022!
We are delighted to celebrate King’s Academy Ringmer (Green Flag accredited since 2003), who won the Department for Education’s Sustainability Award in 2022! The award recognised King’s Academy Ringmer’s 20 year legacy and the school’s ability to teach students to ‘think like environmentalists’ through a curriculum designed to foster an inherent love of the environment.
Since King’s Academy Ringmer decided to make sustainability an integral part of their school in 2002, their achievements include:
- The installation of a wind turbine and solar panels, which generate 20% of their energy during winter months and up to 100% during summer months, these energy sources are helped out by the low impact energy lighting used throughout school buildings.
- A biomass boiler responsible for 70% of their heating, again helped by increased insulation in older parts of the school.
- A dedicated Eco-Building made from natural materials (including a turf roof), and a new sustainable building with geothermal heating.
- An EV charging point for staff members
- Achieving a waste reduction of 20%, CO2 savings in excess of 300 tonnes a year, and recycling 110 tonnes of material a year.
- And perhaps most impressively 20% of the student body are now actively engaged in Eco-Schools work!
Since winning the award, King’s Academy Ringmer have continued to positively impact their school, local community, and our planet, with plans in place for a living wall, Eco-Reps working on improving the wildlife sustainability of their site, ongoing maintenance of their school pond, and plans to ‘grow their own’ for food technology lessons! We hope this snippet of their story inspires you as much as it has us! Congratulations King’s Academy Ringmer, we are proud to have you as a Green Flag Eco-School!
Answer: 45 kg, but a secondary school student will only produce less than 22kg! Keep an eye out on the Eco-Schools website for the full quiz, launching soon!
