Welcome to our Eco Club!

Our Eco-Ambassadors are in charge of our mission to make St. Laurence's Primary School green, clean and sustainable. The club is part of the international award winning Eco-Schools programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a simple framework to help make sustainability an integral part of school life.

We are so proud to have been awarded the Bronze and Silver Awards by the Eco-Schools programme and we are working hard on the next achievement, the Gold Award.

Eco-Ambassadors and YOU

Our Eco-Ambassadors are volunteers who are passionate about our planet and want to make a difference in our school. They are in charge of our  plans and projects, and have the responsibility of representing and leading everyone else in our school community. We have members from Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6.

Whilst our Eco-team provide leadership, we are resolute in our belief that looking after our planet is EVERYONE's job here at St Laurence's. Everyone has a part to play, however big or small, and its not just up to our Eco team. It all starts with YOU!

Environmental Review

The Eco-Ambassadors have completed an Environmental Review, in which they gathered information and assessed the school's performance in 10 key areas, as set out in the Eco-Schools Programme. These include:

• Energy - to reduce the amount of energy used and to reduce our carbon footprint.
• Water - to explore the problems of a ‘water crisis’ and other issues surrounding water supply.
• Marine - to examine how we help to keep oceans and rivers clean and safe.
• Biodiversity - to try to increase the variety and population of species in our school grounds.
• School Grounds - to ensure that the school grounds are used effectively and kept clean.
• Healthy Living - to ensure that pupils are aware of what a ‘healthy lifestyle’ is.
• Transport - to encourage eco-friendly transport.
• Litter - to reduce the amount of litter on site.
• Waste - to reduce/monitor the amount of waste produced at school.
• Global Citizenship - to teach skills, values, attitudes and knowledge that will allow pupils to participate in a truly global society.

Here is our latest Environmental Score Chart and we will update this each term to show our progress and the difference that our actions and projects are making. We have improved our Eco score from 32 out of 60 (Amber) to 40 out of 60 (Amber) from May 2021 to Oct 2021. The Eco team updated this assessment in June 2022 and updated the score to 42 out of 60 (Amber). We are making progress but still have lots to do!

Key priorities (2022 - 23)

After completing our Environmental Review and taking part in COP26 Primary Schools Summit, we have decided to focus on these 3 key priorities for the next year. These are linked to our COP26 Pledge:

- Energy - reduce unnecessary use of energy in school by switching off lights and devices when not in use and take part on Swuitch Off Fortnight. Raise awareness of switching off and encourage everyone to do their bit.

- Travel - promote and encourage more eco-friendly travel to and from school through the Walk to School scheme.  Reduce traffic outside school, improve pedestrian safety and encourage healthy travel

- Waste - reduce the amount of waste that we send to landfill, particularly food waste, and recycle more

Action Plan and Weekly Meetings

Having completed the Environmental Review, the Eco-Ambassadors have identified the priorities for our school and this now forms the basis of our Action Plan for future projects and initiatives.

Each week the Eco-Ambassadors meet to look at our progress against the Action Plan and to discuss and plan what we need to do next. Things we have done so far include how to save money by recycling, using less plastic, reducing energy, litter picking and improving our school grounds for wildlife. We have installed some new composters to collect organic waste at break time, we have put out bird feeders to encourage more wildlife in our school grounds and we have introduced a scheme to recycle batteries. We are going to be involved in the amazing Carbon Neutral Pioneers project this year, as well as gardening, planting and more recycling!

You can see more about the campaigns and events that we will be involved in on the link below.