What have we done? What are we doing?

Environmental Review Score: 2 out of 6 (Red) (May 21) ► 4 out of 6 (Amber) (Oct 21)

In the Eco team we realise that this is one of our worst Eco areas in school. We have an oil boiler that heats the water and classrooms, with no renewable sources of energy, and we are not very good at making sure things like lights and screens are switched off when classrooms are not being used. We are very lucky to have been chosen to take part in a Decarbonisation project to reduce our carbon footprint and move us towards being carbon neutral. (You can find out more about this here). But we also recognise that we need to do more as well in terms of our own behaviours and trying to change what we do ourselves.

Actions:

- Read the meters

- Check which classes are switching off and challenging adults to make sure things are switched off as much as possible.

- Make signs for switches.

- Take part on Switch off Fortnight in Nov 2021.

- Share our Decarbonisation story and what can be achieved with other schools.

Progress:

- Decarbonisation Project is well under way and now nearly complete (Oct 2021)

- Started reading our energy meters

- Took part in Switch off Fortnight in Dec 2021

Switch off Fortnight

We took part in Switch off Fortnight in Dec 2021, to raise awareness across the school of switching off lights and devices when we are not using them to save energy. The Eco team have been putting labels and notices on or near all our electronic equipment.

COP26 Chorley Schools Summit (Nov 2021)

To share our progress on decarbonisation with other schools, St Laurence's hosted and led a COP26 Schools Summit, with 5 other primary schools in Chorley attending. Find out more here

Decarbonisation - Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Chorley Council (October 2021)

Read about this visit and what it means for our school below

You can read the article in the Chorley Guardian using this link

Decarbonisation Update (October 2021)

Our senior Eco-Ambassadors from Y4, 5 and 6 were delighted to welcome special visitors to school on Friday 8th October, taking the opportunity to interview them about our ground-breaking Decarbonisation Project. Our visitors included Sam Johnson, who looks after all the school buildings in the Blackburn Diocese: Phil Gornall, who has been the project manager making sure all the technical work got done on time, and Mike from Mantis Energy, who was responsible for designing the project and recommending which solution was best for us. We are so blessed to have these experts, who have brought so much passion to our project. They have told us that our project is unique in this country and that so many people, including the government, are looking to our school to see how other schools , and older buildings, can be improved to make them greener.  They were also joined by a film-maker, who has filmed the whole of the transformation project over the summer (when we weren't here), and he finished some extra filming with Mrs Marquis today. Sam told us that our film about our school is going to be shown to ALL the delegates at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, to show everyone in the world what can be achieved for the good of our planet. 

Decarbonising our energy (September 2021)

We were delighted to welcome our Decarbonisation Supremos, Sam Johnson and Phil Gornall, as well as Architecture Students from Sheffield University, to school today to learn more about how we are successfully and dramatically reducing our carbon footprint.

Inside the transformed boiler house (September 2021)

Mrs Marquis has given our Eco Ambassadors a sneaky peak inside the old boiler house. This has now been transformed into a new gleaming heat transfer plant, crammed full of modern technology which will provide us with green, renewable energy. The ground source heat pipes, which now sit underneath our school field after all the digging and drilling over the summer, have been connected to the pumps and the heat exchangers in the boiler house. The pipes are already hot and this is being used to supply our hot water in school. Work is now being done to connect the pipes to our heaters inside school, so that we will be able to heat the inside of school with renewable energy when the weather gets colder.  We are well on our way to decarbonising our school!

Generating Solar Energy (September 2021)

There have been so many changes to our school over the summer holidays, as the transformation and decarbonisation got underway. 53 solar panels have been installed on the roof of UKS2 and are now generating electricity that we are using in school. This means our energy is now coming from renewable, clean sources (the sun) and not from fossil fuels. Our Upper Junior Eco Ambassadors have been marvelling at the amount of electricity we are currently generating. We can tell when the sun goes behind a cloud!

Energy Usage - Monitoring the Smart Meters (May 2021)

Every week, our Y3 & Y4 Eco Ambassadors have the important task of reading our smart meters in school. We are recording our energy usage each week so that we have a starting point for understanding the impact of any improvements we make. We are now starting to switch off more, so we hope that our usage will reduce. Better for the planet, better for our bills! We are so impressed with the response of pupils and teachers - everyone is playing their part to reduce the energy we use!