ECO Team
Eco Team Co-ordinator Mrs Finnigan
School Business Manager Mr Shaw
Staff Governor Mrs Helliwell
Caretaker/Cleaner in Charge Mr Butterworth/Ms Blair
NEWS!!
OUR NEW ALLOTMENTS
We are so excited! Our new allotment area for the whole school has now been completed and each year group have started their planting.
The Eco Committee have been transferring the plants they have been growing in pots into their own raised bed. Lots of work to do!
More news and pictures for the rest of the school soon.
The Eco Committee helped to measure out the area with strings, one plot for each class. We cannot wait to start growing our vegetables and flowers and look forward to seeing all our successes!
SO MANY LEAVES!!!
The Eco Committee have been sweeping up leaves around our school site.
These have been stored in their composting bin.
LITTER PICKING
The Greenbank Eco Code
The Eco Team have written the Eco Code for our school. It has been displayed on the Eco Committee's noticeboard in the school hall and in your classroom.
Everyone needs to play a part in looking after our environment and the planet.
Eco Committee Meetings
We have worked on our Environmental Review, which covers the nine topics required by Eco Schools. After completing the review, we chose some areas to work on and added these to our Eco Action Plan.
We are excited to tell you that in Spring 2020 we are going to start keeping bees. We are looking forward to collecting our very own Greenbank honey in a few months time! We will be learning about bees and their important impact on the environment.
We have welcomed the support of Bid Foods, who have started to fundraise for our school, to support our bee keeping project.
Two members of their staff, Emma and Megan, came to present us with a cheque for £227.
We would like to say a big THANKYOU to them!
The donation will help to pay towards some bee equipment indicated on our wall target. In the first two pictures below, the children are pointing at child sized bee suits in the colours they would like to wear.
In the Summer our Bee Mindful Area was designed and erected ready for the arrival of our bees!
We have planted flowers in our Wild Wood Area ready for the arrival of our bees!
PLANTING OUR PATIO GARDEN
The Eco Team planted tomatoes, peas, beans, lettuce, courgettes, strawberries, chilli peppers and flowers in the Summer.
DEC Certificate
Our school has a 1 star rating
The award recognises schools which have made significant reductions in their carbon emissions. The new Energy award runs in addition to the Bronze, Silver and Green Flag awards. It rewards energy efficiency, whatever stage you are on your Eco-Schools journey. The award recognises the efforts of English schools to reduce their carbon emissions as part of their wider sustainability work and commitment to tackling Climate Change.
Campaigns
'SWITCH OFF FORTNIGHT'
SURVEY RESULT - Greenbank School would save nearly 900kW of energy if everyone remembers to turn off the lights and computer screens in unused classrooms and the lights in other rooms such as cupboards and offices!
In the second half of the Autumn Term we presented another energy saving campaign assembly, 'SWITCH OFF FORTNIGHT', to tell you about ways to help everyone around you to save energy in school and in your homes.
As part of it, we asked you to become secret agents at home to discover who in your family wasted the most energy. This was done by monitoring them over 2 weeks and recording how many lights, televisions and computer equipment was left on in rooms they were no longer using! You informed them about energy waste and cost and monitored again to see if they had improved.
All the surveys returned to school showed that families had tried to remember to SWITCH OFF electrical items after the survey, to help the environment and save money too.
The Eco Committee carried out the same survey to check up on all the teachers and staff!
Lights and Electronic Whiteboards were switched off more often, instead of being left on when no-one was in the classrooms!
WELL DONE EVERYONE!
Eco Schools Energy Award
Energy Award EPO Level
1 star 85 or lower
2 star 70 or lower
3 star 60 or lower
4 star 50 or lower
5 star 40 or lower