Walmley Junior School in Birmingham win Eco-Schools England’s Summer Term Topic Award

There is no better way to celebrate the end of an academic year than by celebrating some fantastic Eco-Schools work and the work by Walmley Junior’s Eco-Council on our newest topic is just that – fantastic! Congratulations all at Walmley: some Eco-Schools goodies are on the way!

Before beginning their Marine Topic activities, many of the children at Warmley were unaware of the effects of plastic pollution and the importance of recycling – so the Eco-Council planned two whole-school activities that would help raise awareness of plastic pollution and its effects on our oceans.

For the first task, children worked on a mission booklet that identified the effects of plastic pollution, the time various plastic took to decompose and the process of recycling each type of plastic. Booklets were differentiated for each year group and, when complete, each pupil made a pledge against plastic pollution and created a poster aimed at raising awareness. These posters were displayed around the school and then taken home to share with parents, friends and family to help spread their important message further.

For the second whole-school task, each pupil was asked to bring in used plastics from home, which would have otherwise been thrown in the bin. Children then used their design technology skills to create marine creatures: year 3 created fish, year 4 turtles, year 5 octopuses and year 6 sharks and whales. The children thoroughly enjoyed this activity and even went on to complete their own creations at home!

After these activities were completed, a group of children volunteered to write a proposal to have more plastic recycling bins around the school and the Eco-Council devised a raffle (using prizes donated from local businesses) and managed to raise well over £100 for the Sea Life Trust.

The Eco-Council have became so passionate about the issue of plastic pollution that they have now also included it as part of their Waste topic work. Parents are being asked to bring their own mugs and drink bottles to Walmley’s Macmillan Coffee Mornings, year 3 maths lessons have focused on calculating plastic waste and plans are being made to sell metal ‘straws for life’ in Walmley – all in all a very successful topic! Great Stuff!

Recently the Eco-Schools team have been delighted to announce our very first Eco-Schools National Award Ceremony celebrating 25 years of Eco-Excellence, because of this the Termly Topic Award will be taking a break until Spring Term 2020.