We believe that our young people have a powerful voice and we encourage and support them to make that voice heard. We believe that they have the power to make really positive changes, particularly when it comes to the environment and caring for our world, and that their passion and commitment are fundamental to making lasting and sustainable changes for the better. We call this "courageous advocacy": being brave enough to speak out and speak up and to challenge society to make things better. This is an integral part of living out our vision and ethos in our school, thinking and acting in a way that we know Jesus would want us to.

Below you will find some of the ways in which our young people are being courageous advocates for the Environment and Planet Earth: God's Creation.

COP 26 Chorley Schools Summit (Nov 2021)

On Tuesday 9th November, the St Laurence's Eco team hosted a virtual COP26 school summit, with 5 other schools from Chorley attending: St James, Gillibrand, Sacred Heart, Coppull St Johns and Duke Street. Our chairpersons were Eloise and Millie B-S (Y6) and Flynn (Y5) and they did a fantastic job of keeping everyone in order. Every member of our Eco team had the chance to speak. The schools expressed their concerns about climate change and what it means for the future of our planet, what they are doing to tackle climate change and each school made 3 pledges, or promises, to reduce their carbon footprint. Our school has pledged to work on travel, switching off and food waste. Sally Green, the Climate Change Officer for Chorley Council, talked to us about the Council's plans for making Chorley greener. Finally, the schools issued a joint statement, which we have sent to our MP Sir Lindsay Hoyle and the COP26 leaders, in which our children have begged with world leaders to agree meaningful actions to halt climate change and to improve their lives in the future. We are so very proud of our courageous young advocates!

Schools' Joint Statement: 

"Primary schools across Chorley are united in our fears about climate change and the impact of global warming on our planet. We remind the politicians meeting in Glasgow that our future is in your hands: we want things to change now. This is an emergency. There is no time to wait.

We have made pledges today to take action in our schools: we understand that we all have a duty and responsibility to help solve the p​roblems.

But we are watching Glasgow and holding our breath – we beg you to make the right decisions to save our Earth!"

Our letters of hope for the future

These were written and read out to Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP and Chorley Council leaders, Cllrs Bradley and Wilson, plus other council members when they visited our school in October. Sir Lindsay has committed to taking these letters with him when he attends COP26 in Glasgow next month so that he can convey the hopes and aspirations of Chorley's young people to the delegates he meets.