Eco Council 2023 24

The Eco Council elections have taken place this term where children across the school have visited the Polling Station to vote for their class Eco Councillor.

Eco Council 2023-2024

Year 1 Coral: Luca

Year 1 Amber: Emilia

Year 2 Honey: Nolah

Year 2 Saffron: Lucas

Year 3 Emerald: Poppy

Year 3 Mint: Teddy

Year 4 Sapphire: Alfie

Year 4 Teal: Thea

Year 5 Lilac: Olivia

Year 5 Indigo: Isla

Year 6 Magenta: Aryan

Year 6 Fuchsia: Sam

Environmental Review & Action Plan

As part of their Green Flag Award, the Eco Council have carried out an Environmental Review of the school. They have chosen to work on the following three topics: marine, biodiversity and waste. The children discussed project ideas for each of the three topics and created an Action Plan.

Eco Council 2022-2023

The Eco Council play a vital role in promoting environmental issues at Rickleton Primary School. One representative from each class in Years 1 – 6 is elected by their classmates every year. The children meet throughout the year to lead project work towards the school’s Green Flag Award.

Further information about the Green Flag Award can be found on the Eco Schools webpage: https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/

Eco Council 2022-2023

Eco Council 2022-2023

The Eco Council have been busy working towards the Green Flag Award by carrying out projects within three topic areas: waste, transport and school grounds.

Waste

The Eco Council held a Book Swap where children across the school were invited to bring in pre-loved books. A total of 126 books were given new homes.

The school took part in a battery collection competition to see which year group could collect and recycle the most batteries. The batteries were taken to the household waste and recycling centre. In total, approximately 44kg of batteries were recycled. The children learnt that it is dangerous to put batteries in regular household waste as they can cause fires.

The Eco Council took part in a workshop about recycling led by a visitor from the Household Waste and Recycling Centre. They learnt about which materials can be recycled, the symbols used on packaging and what happens to our general waste.

School Grounds

The children held a flower bed design competition to design a flower bed to celebrate the King’s Coronation. The Year 4 and 5 Eco Councillors planted the flowers on the KS2 yard to attract more wildlife.

Reverend Nick came to talk to the Eco Council about the importance of soil and wildflowers in our local environment. They learnt about how to attract more wildlife to the school grounds.

Transport

The school took part in Sustran’s Big Walk and Wheel. Over two weeks, children across the school were encouraged to walk, scoot or cycle to school to help protect our planet from harmful emissions. Over ten days, the school logged 1332 journeys by foot, bike or scooter.

Action Plan 2022/23

Each year, the Eco Council agree an action plan for the year. This year, it also includes their plans on using our new community garden.

Review 2021/22

The Eco Council have completed their Environmental Review of the school and have chosen three topics to work on as part of the Green Flag Award. These topics are biodiversity, marine and transport. The children have some great ideas of how to address these areas and have put together an action plan. The Eco Council are excited to start these projects in the coming weeks.

GREEN FLAG AWARD

We are delighted to inform you that Rickleton Primary School has once again been awarded the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award! Despite the current situation, the eco council has led the school in ensuring that we are always caring for our environment, both locally and further afield.  

Well done everyone! 

Here is a summary of what actions the Eco Council have been involved with in each topic.

Topic 1: School Grounds

The Eco Council planted flowers around the KS1 yard and school entrance. The colourful daffodils improved the look of our outdoor spaces and encouraged wildlife. They even came back again this spring!

The Eco Council were delighted to see the vegetables that they planted in the autumn had grown successfully. They had fun harvesting the carrots and potatoes in the allotment garden.

With the help of a fantastic design from the School Council, the Eco Council enjoyed planting a flowerbed on the school field. The design was a rainbow linked to the Rainbow Flag Award the school has achieved. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to plant the flowerbed this year due to the lockdown but the Eco Council are keen to do this again next year.

Year 6 have been out in the allotment garden this summer keeping on top of the tidying and clearing of the allotment beds while other year groups are not in school. They have done a great job!

Topic 2: Litter

The Eco Council think it is important to keep the school grounds tidy and litter free. They have made a rota for litter picking on the school yards. Thank you to FORPS for kindly paying for new litter pickers for the Eco Council.

They have also taken part in the Great Big School Clean 2019 where they collected over 3kg of litter from the local area! Unfortunately, the 2020 event had to be cancelled but the Eco Council are looking forward to taking part in more litter picking as soon as they can.

Topic 3: Biodiversity

The Eco Council took part in the ‘What’s Under Your Feet’ survey to discover the types of wildlife living in our school garden. They found the most common insects were slugs and woodlice. The bug hotel has helped to attract more creatures to our outdoor spaces. They plan to plant a wild ‘Blue Heart’ area in the school grounds to attract more insects and wildlife. The bug hotel has also helped to attract many more creatures to our school grounds.

The children in school during the lockdown took part in an Eco Warrior week where they had fun taking part in a nature hunt around the school grounds. They photographed the wildlife living there and used their computing skills to produce fantastic PicCollages. Back in the classroom, the children created some beautiful nature collages using recycled materials inspired by the wildlife they saw outside.

Topic 4: Marine

The Eco Council asked all children in years 1 – 6 to complete a plastic questionnaire to find out what they understood about plastic waste. They discovered that children did not know what a single-use plastic was or which types could be recycled. The Eco Council gave each classroom a plastic collection box and asked each class to put any plastic waste in the box instead of the bin for one week. The Eco Council had a big task of sorting the plastic into different types. They were shocked by the amount of plastic we throw away each week as a school! They used their maths and computing skills to create bar charts of their findings.

Then came the task of sorting which plastics could and could not be recycled. Sadly, they found that most of the plastic could not be recycled in our recycling bins. So what happens to the rest? The children researched the effects of plastic pollution on marine environments. They learnt about plastic islands in the world’s oceans, how plastic is harmful to sea creature and how it can end up in the food chain. They made a fantastic video about this project to share what they had learnt with the rest of the school.

The Eco Council wrote to FORPS to ask for their help in funding a special plastic recycling box that recycles plastic items such as glue sticks and pens. This will reduce our plastic waste as a school and help to look after our marine habitats.

Topic 5: Transport

The Eco Council learnt about the effects of air pollution from vehicles. They wrote to the parents of Rickleton Primary School to share their concerns and ask for their help in the newsletter.

Sadly, the Big Pedal Event 2020 was cancelled but the Eco Council are keen to do a similar project very soon. In the meantime, children in school during the closure learnt about air pollution and carried out a traffic survey. They found cars were the most common mode of transport around our school.

PLASTIC RECYCLING CAMPAIGN

Plastic recycling has been a focus for the Eco Council this year. We are very grateful to FORPS for funding a plastic recycling bin. This is an area we have highlighted as a way in which the school can help improve our support for the environment and so, by having a recycling bin in school, we hope to improve an area in which the council had highlighted as a problem. A link to a video explaining the problem can be found in the 'Our Videos' section here https://rickleton-primary-school.primarysite.media/  and a letter of thanks to FORPS can be viewed below.

Eco Council Activities 2021/22

The Eco Council have been working with the Change For Life Roots and Shoots Project run by Sunderland City Council. The children had fun decorating plant pots, planting cress seeds and learning about who plants need to grow.

The children in the Eco Council have also planted over 20 trees as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy project run by the Woodland Trust to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. The children enjoyed planting the silver birch and rowan saplings on the school field and look forward to seeing them grow in the coming months.