Peterborough Eco Awards

2011

Project Brochure

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Timetable for the day There is a very strict timetable for the day so please adhere to the timed events below 9.30am Schools Arrive, begin putting up displays 10am - 10.25am Schools should be completing their displays 10.25 am Brief announcements by Jill Foster 10.30am Judging starts - You can visit the Media table for a range of activities for the pupils or you can take the pupils outside, weather permitting. Note: You will be given a time slot to return to your table for judges questions. 11.30am Judging will finish. You can now go round and have good look at everyone else’s displays and cast your votes for the Eco Factor Award. 11.50am Carousel of activities and lunch. You will be given a timetable of which activities you are doing when 12.50 Finish lunch and activities. Everyone should be seated in the tiered seating ready for the presentations to start at 1pm prompt 1pm Presentation ceremony starts. Please move to the stage quickly when your school is called. Photos will be taken to the side to keep the ceremony moving 2.15pm Ceremony will finish, time to pack up and go home 2.30pm Everyone should be off site

We hope you will enjoy the day. Photos will be sent in CD form as soon as possible

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Please take the time to look at all the school displays Hampton Vale Primary School Theme - Transport The newly founded travel group have been working with Nicola Winstone from Travel Choice to look at how their school could use more sustainable means of travel. The children conducted mini research to find out what the issues were for the school. They then mapped out routes to work out how long it takes them from different distances to reach school without using a car. They decided to deliver the information through local radio BBC Cambridgeshire, Peterborough Evening Telegraph, whole school assemblies and by creating an information leaflet for the parents. This was followed by a sustainable travel week and the introduction of the 'walking bus'.

Ken Stimpson Community School Theme - Waste and Recycling In November 2010, Altruism, our Post 16 Young Enterprise Company, consisting of 15 students, set up Kenny Cans, an aluminium can recycling scheme. The big launch was during Enterprise Week in November with an inter-form competition and the Post 16 students have been responsible for collecting the cans and organising the 'can crushing'. The winning form collected over 100 cans in the single 'Enterprise week' and the school as a whole gathered 1,000 cans in that week alone. They are aiming for a huge total (60,000 cans!) in order to sell them for scrap aluminium and will provide a donation to a charity. The school's Site Management company (Ecovert FM) are on board and the cleaning supervisor asks all of her team to collect any cans found around the school whilst cleaning the classrooms and communal areas. They have collection bins in the Post 16 common room and staffroom and over the summer term plan to place collection bins around the school, involve parents and the community and to introduce an incentive scheme (similar to the Tesco Green Clubcard points idea). This is intended to be a sustainable project and to be expanded over the next few years.

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Caverstede Early Years Centre Theme - Biodiversity Their project since the autumn has been based on increasing the Biodiversity of the nursery garden. The children have helped to create a 'Bug Hotel' within the garden, finding a position, building the structure and contributing materials from home, and the nursery garden, with emphasis on recycled and natural materials. They have also created leaf cages to use the fallen leaves from their large trees productively to produce leaf mould, again increasing biodiversity, and also to future mulch our flower beds and fertilise our vegetable patch. The children have also built a log pile to help increase places for insects to live. They are now beginning to plant a 'nectar café' to increase their insect population within the garden. They have further incorporated bird feeding stations into the garden to maintain and increase the population of birds. The children enjoy watching the birds from the classrooms and in the 'bird hide' whilst in the garden. The children are actively involved in creating all of the areas and are very excited to see the variety of insects and birds attracted to the different areas of the nursery garden.

Jack Hunt School Theme - Waste and Recycling The Eco team at Jack Hunt have been working hard on a project aimed at reducing litter around the school and the local community. This has involved making a 'Litter Watch' documentary - which has been sent to all tutor groups in the school and an inter-house recycling and litter competition.

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Braybrook Primary School Theme - Transport Since the introduction of the Eco-Warriors, the School Travel Plan has become a real team effort. During a Year 4 maths lesson on modes of travel; the children found that a large number of people who lived a short distance away from school were driving. Braybrook Eco-Warriors decided that they wanted to change this. Over the past few months Braybrook have been promoting sustainable travel even further. As well as taking part in the usual bike and walk to school weeks, other activities the children have been busy doing are: making posters which were put up in the car park; monitoring how children travelled to school; researching both the positive and the negative effects of travel and designing leaflets. They were also fortunate that a group from Year 5 were able to take part in the Travel zone project led by Nicola Winstone from Peterborough City Council. The Eco-Warriors have also designed their own questionnaires. They wanted to know if children were able to choose how they travelled to school or if this was controlled by their families. Road Safety education is also embedded across the school curriculum. They are now working to maintain the level achieved.

Gladstone Primary School Theme - School Grounds Gladstone students have started to redevelop an unused area at the front of the school to turn it into a learning and growing area. The project includes: building a bottle greenhouse, raised growing beds, wildlife area and outdoor learning space. The materials they plan to use would be reclaimed as much as possible, and they are using the process as an opportunity to talk to the children about recycling. It has also allowed them to develop cross-curricula links with maths, literacy and art. The project will also include a mural on the external wall, the design of which will be the result of a school wide competition.

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Bishop Creighton Academy Theme - Waste and Recycling They held a whole school eco day based on recycling. This included the recycling team delivering assemblies and a recycling relay for each class. They borrowed top trumps cards for each class to play in small groups and the Going Green game for each class to play outside (both borrowed from the climate change team). Dave Farrell assisted with the Waste Challenge floor game, also played by each class in turn outside. Classes also played the Recycling floor game and games with the Recycling inflatable balls (borrowed from PECT). A flyer was sent to parents beforehand to bring in old ink cartridges and mobile phones to be sent to Recycool and old clothes to be picked up by Bags2School. When classes weren't involved in the organised activities they took part in recycling activities in class based on the Recycling Role play pack or teachers own ideas. These included making posters to encourage people to recycle, writing their pledges to recycle on footprints and designing their own recycling machines. It was a successful and enjoyable day and children and adults learnt a lot about recycling and felt motivated to recycle more at school and at home.

Hampton College Theme - General Eco Awareness The Hampton College Green Team have been working very hard on a 'Green Song' suitable for younger students to learn and enjoy. The song has been written by enthusiastic members of the Green Team, and over the past few months they have been practicing and teaching the song to other members of the group each week. As Green Team have become more confident, the students have designed some choreography to go with the music. The group have really enjoyed doing this, and are excited about sharing the song with the local primary schools. They have been working with Hampton Vale Primary School; sharing ideas, and helping with Green issues such as room monitoring. They have helped encourage Green behaviour around Hampton College by starring in their own Assembly video which was played to each House.

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West Town Primary School Theme - Energy This project is about raising awareness of the need to save energy to help the planet (natural resources being used up and the effects of greenhouse gases). The ECO team are identifying ways to reduce energy consumption in school and then motivating the rest of the school and people in the local community to join in. By doing so, they are hoping to save the school some money too. Having analysed data from the Automatic Metre Reader, the ECO team have chosen to start their project by ‘Switching Off ‘ lights and appliances around school when not in use and encouraging their classmates to do the same. To bring a competitive edge to energy saving, they are now monitoring energy wastage in each class daily and awarding a weeks visit from a cuddly polar bear and congratulatory certificate to the best one. They have two energy saving assemblies planned to present the issues to the whole school. A school display including information about ECO themes and events, metre readings, pledges, posters and photos is in progress. The Eco club are planning an ‘Energy Down’ Day for June whereby each class will have a chance to explore renewable energy resources.

The Beeches Primary School Theme - General Eco Awareness To promote ECO thinking within the Beeches School. The school held an ECO week recently when Jim Foster from Natural England came in to show slow worms, frogs and lizards to the children and they had handling sessions. The children were all very excited about this activity. This was all linked to habitats of different animals. The school is holding a competition to design a new Eco garden and there are now have Eco Warriors in school to look at Waste, Energy and Biodiversity. One group has already been on a field trip to Stibbington to look at different habitats and another has been on a bee keeping event The children are all very enthusiastic about this project and are looking forward to completing all the activities. The children are working towards their Silver Eco Schools Award and are hoping to gain it as soon as possible. A trip to the local Materials Recycling Facility is planned.

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Eye Primary Theme - Waste and Recycling They are focussing on food waste as their project this year. They have looked at the school meals provided and after an audit of food waste, adapted the school kitchen menu to provide meals that are healthy and nutritious, that the children enjoy more and consequently leave less waste. They have also set up composting of fruit waste throughout the school and improved their understanding of how compost is made. They held an introductory assembly from the composting unit of the council to help the project get started. They have a number of compost bins that are used by the children to compost their fruit/vegetable snack waste and packed lunch fruit waste. They held a whole school competition to create posters to encourage composting and during their eco-week, one of the main activities was to compare and contrast areas of the world that are suffering from hunger with those that produce masses of food waste.

St Thomas More Primary School Theme - School Grounds

They are linking their organic fruit and vegetable growing, with their school meals and cooking club, selling their own grown produce to the school kitchen and parents. They will be celebrating their food culture at their International Food Festival and publishing their favourite recipes in their own cook book.

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John Clare Primary Theme - Energy The school has embarked on a long-term project to reduce its carbon footprint, which began with an extension – opened last September – with a sedum-covered roof, recycled insulation and energy-saving light sensors. It uses a biomass boiler, fuelled with wood pellets, and generates energy from solar panels – a turn-around from its previous dependence on oil. The Green Team Eco Warriors – two pupils from each of the four classes – have made a film to launch a ‘Switch off’ campaign to encourage the whole school community to reduce their carbon footprint and energy costs. They are monitoring the school’s energy usage, reading and recording the electricity and water meters monthly and publishing the results on their eco notice board. They also have an ‘invisible’ Green Fairy, who does spot checks to see which class is the best at switching off lights and other things at break times. The winning class will receive a 'green prize'.

Matley Primary School Theme - Biodiversity At Matley Primary School the Eco Warriors team is currently focusing on

developing and improving the schools existing wildlife area. It has been

neglected over the last few years and the Eco Warriors have been

working extremely hard to clear it all so they can lay down a path and

plant lots more new plants.

The project began earlier this year when the children drew designs of

what they wanted and what the new and improved wildlife are to look

like. They then sat down together and composed a letter to send out to

local businesses asking for donations towards to wildlife area. They were

very lucky and received lots of wildlife boxes and feeders along with a

monetary donation. The children have nearly finished clearing the wildlife

area and are beginning to think about where to place the wildlife boxes

and make decisions on how best to spend the money.

By the end of the project they hope to have produced an excellent wildlife area which the whole school can use and help to look after.

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Middleton Primary School Theme - General Eco Awareness The School Council were challenged by the governors to make their school ‘Greener.’ After lots of research they launched the green initiative with a non-uniform ‘Green Day.’ All the children and staff came to school in green clothing with recycled accessories and a green prize was given for the ‘best’ dressed in each class. The School Council held an assembly where they shared the findings of their research with the rest of the school and introduced their plans to make Middleton Greener. Following Green Day, there is now a group of children; the ‘Go Green Gang’ who take it in turns to patrol the school at break and lunchtime checking that lights are switched off, doors to the playground are kept closed, heaters are turned off in unused rooms and taps are not left running. They also empty the recycled paper and the fruit waste bins which were bought from the money raised by their non-uniform Green Day . The children also organised a 'Bag2School' day which involved the school and the community collecting old clothes for recycling and raised £280. Their next initiatives are to recycle unwanted CDs, DVDs and games and hold a bring and buy book sale.

Nene Valley Primary School Theme - School Grounds

At Nene valley they have put a lot of work into improving their outdoor area. It was started with a big gardening day where children, parents, school staff and volunteers from the community came and helped renovate the grounds. It came about as a result of the school council who wanted more outdoor learning at school. The school council planned the renovation with the CEES. The whole school has had training on outdoor learning through an INSET with CEES. Since then, children have been maintaining the garden by regularly going out to water, weed and plant and do nature trails. They have been able to eat some of the vegetables that they have grown for lunch! Many of their lessons now take place outside e.g. comparing the conditions of different habitats outside, mapping the outdoor area, poetry inspired by the outdoor areas, summer stitching with wool colours to match colours outside, monitoring the weather station etc.

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St Augustine’s C of E Junior School Theme - Healthy Living Their Summer term topic is ‘Food and Farming’. They visited Pigeons Farm (Thorney) to examine practical farming - including animal and crop production. Work has included:- • healthy eating and what makes a healthy packed lunch (including

parent involvement and surveys), • where cheese comes from and why calcium is important for healthy

teeth and bones, • why eating a variety of fruits and vegetables is important. Our local

Budgen’s provided a selection of fresh produce to taste and evaluate. Different cooking activities demonstrated how to use different produce.

• growing vegetables and salad items (using recycled containers) for a summer fete pupil run farmers’ market .

• how wheat grows and the practical side of bread-making including baking different herby breads.

• Future visit to an allotment and examination of the importance of bugs to plants.

• the role of food packaging with Year 4 visiting the recycling centre. • Year 3 will be writing persuasive leaflets to encourage ‘Buy British’. • Year 4 studied the importance of ‘Fair Trade’ when buying from abroad. • Year 4 led an assembly on ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ whilst Year 3

performed a role play assembly in Church based on the parable of ‘The Sower and the Seed’.

Sacred Heart RC Primary School Theme - Global Dimensions/ Recycling Sacred Heart are linked to the Oro school in Nigeria. Their KS1 pupils have looked at photos of the children playing in their playground and realised that they have very few resources/ toys to play with. They noticed that the children at Oro had made paper chains out of old pieces of paper. The children at Sacred Heart thought how lucky they are to have so many toys at school and that they might be wasteful with resources so FS, Year 1 & 2 have made resources out of material they would normally throw out or recycle. They have sent photos to Oro of the games and toys they made.

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William Law C of E Primary School Theme - School Grounds

They are a group that represent the Environmental needs of all William Law children and over the past 2 years they have worked hard to make the school more Eco friendly. They have joined the national Eco Schools Campaign, achieving a silver award for commitment to recycling and improvement of the outside area. Their new goal is to reach the Eco schools ‘Green Flag’ status by summer 2012. In order to achieve this they would like to develop their newly obtained orchard area. They are developing this as a wildlife garden and orchard to be tackled in stages. stage 1 and stage 2 are complete, they are currently working on stage 3. STAGE 1 – ACHIEVED! They enclosed the land and put in a lockable gate. We planted the first 10 fruit trees and laid a gravel path winding round the orchard. STAGE 2 – ACHIEVED! They added raised beds for planting vegetables, fundraised for and purchased a story telling bench, purchased and installed bug/wildlife homes such as hedgehog houses, and finally dedicated the orchard to Mr Williams, their former head who retired in the summer 2010, By naming it William’s Orchard. Mr. Williams was passionate about improving the Children’s outdoor learning environment. Throughout the project they have used voluntary help from children/ local businesses and teachers of William Law. They even invited their local McDonalds workers to come and join the ECO Team for a digging afternoon. It was great fun and we even got a free lunch! STAGE 3- Ongoing... • buy brightly coloured plants/flowers to attract wildlife and add colour to our blank orchard. • buy plants/soil to allow each year group to grow vegetables in raised beds • create an area of quiet reflection for the children at William Law CE School by buying seating for children to use during lunchtime/break time or for teachers to share stories in a reading area with their class. The overall wish is to develop the orchard into an outdoor classroom that

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will let all William Law children learn about the environment outside and among nature.

St Botolph’s C of E Primary School Theme - Healthy Living The Eco council have been working on setting up a tuck shop for key stage two children. They have found that many children in key stage two do not bring a snack at playtime and so the aim is to provide affordable and healthy foods that the children can purchase during their break. The project is being planned by the children, allowing them to apply and extend their learning in a real and purposeful context. The Eco council have consulted pupils, parents, staff and governors and have received very positive feedback. They have been using the views of the whole school community in the planning for the project, from what types of foods to sell, to how the children should access the tuck shop. Alongside the tuck shop and as part of its promotion, the children will be involved in a range of cross curricular activities to encourage healthy eating.

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List of Participating Schools and the themes of their projects.

Bishop Creighton Academy Waste and Recycling

Braybrook Primary School Transport

Caverstede Early Years Centre Biodiversity

Eye C of E Primary School Waste and Recycling

Gladstone Primary School School Grounds

Hampton College General Eco Awareness

Hampton Vale Primary School Transport

Jack Hunt School Waste and Recycling

John Clare Primary School Energy

Ken Stimpson Community School Waste and Recycling

Matley Primary School Biodiversity

Middleton Primary School General Eco Awareness

Nene Valley Primary School School Grounds

Sacred Heart RC Primary School Global Dimensions/ Recycling

St Augustine’s C of E Junior School Healthy Living

St Botolph’s Primary School Healthy Living

St Thomas More RC Primary School Healthy Living

The Beeches Primary School General Eco Awareness

West Town Primary School Energy

William Law C of E Primary School School Grounds

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Awards being Presented

Eco Leader Award Nominated by the schools. A truly inspiring Eco Coordinator.

Green Aspiration Award Nominated by the schools. An Eco Team with big ideas who have made a real difference to sustainability of their school

Green Supporter Award Nominated by the schools. A parent, governor or friend of the school who have gone above and beyond to support the schools Eco work

Waste and Recycling Award

School Grounds Award

Energy Award

Transport Award

Biodiversity Award

Global Perspectives Award

Healthy Living Award

General Eco Awareness Award

Judges Special Award Chosen by the judges today, 2 schools who they felt showed the most enthusiasm and commitment to their Eco endeavours.

Eco Factor Award Voted for by the pupils today, the two displays which they felt were the most interesting and informative.

Each of these awards has been judged on the day based on the pupils displays the information they gave the judges.

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There are a number of people and organisations we need to say thank you to. This event has been made possible thanks to support from Perkins

and the Caterpillar Foundation and support from Peterborough City

Council Children’s Services, thank you.

Thank you to our judges, both for today and for judging the additional

awards in advance of the event, we know it was a very tricky task.

Thank you to Hampton College for hosting the event and in particular

thanks to Rebecca Armour Eleanor Pullen Walenn and the Green Team

for their help in organising the event and helping out today.

Thank you to the following organisations and people for providing the

lunchtime Eco Activities for the pupils.

• PCC Climate Change Team, Jenna Hiley

• Enterprise Peterborough, Waste and Recycling Education Team

• Nene Park Trust, Anna Thomson

• Clare Cottage, Nicola Day Dempsey

• Wildlife Trust - Rachel Price

Thank you to all the individuals and organisations who have donated

prizes: Anglia Cooperative, Organic Recycling, Clare Cottage, PCC

Climate Change Team, Cllr Pat Nash MBE, Enterprise Peterborough,

The Green Backyard, John Lewis, Moor Farm Newborough, Queensgate

Shopping Centre, Riverford Organics, Send a Cow, Serpentine Green

Shopping Centre and Van Hage.

An additional thanks to Riverford Organic who donated fruit for the pupils

to have as a morning snack.

Finally and most importantly thank you to all the pupils, teachers

and helpers for all your hard work on your projects and for coming

along today.