Juniors Climate Learning Week

This week, the Junior School celebrated Climate Learning Week. To get things started, all pupils learned about climate change during assembly and discovered many ways they could help address the current climate crisis and protect their planet.

Back in the classroom, every pupil had the opportunity to create a ‘Green Heart’. The Show the Love campaign, an initiative started by the Climate Coalition in 2015 that has run every February since then, aims to get society talking about climate change and put pressure on the government to make a change by making and wearing ‘Green Hearts’. The Green Hearts created by the juniors will all be sent to the government to show that we want to see a change and make a difference. To find out more about this campaign and how you can create other Green Hearts, please visit the Climate Coalition’s website and download the Green Heart Action Pack.

This has come at a brilliant time for the Junior School, as the Plastic-Free Team have now completed all five objectives to gain the ‘Plastic Free’ status. Over the past year, we have created an action plan, taken part in a ‘trash mob’, and carried out weekly litter picks (supported by Croydon Council). We have also challenged government and large companies, asking them to help us reduce single-use plastics. The final objective required us to commit to removing three single-use plastics in school. The three items we felt were most important are: 1) disposable plastic water bottles 2) glitter and 3) disposable salad pots. The school catering team are also trialling the removal of plastic margarine tubs and Little Ivies have swapped disposable fruit pots for reusable ones and started making their own eco-friendly glitter.

Please help us in our commitments! To meet our final objective, we need your help. We have challenged all pupils to find three single-use plastics at home that they can stop buying and using in their lives. We propose that one of these is linked to the snacks the girls bring in for break time. We’d love to see all the pupils using reusable snack pots and containers or bringing in snacks that are free of plastic packaging!
For those pupils who would like even more of a challenge, four Year 5 pupils have asked the Junior School to take part in a plastic-free weekend. The pupils came up with this idea independently, created their own PowerPoint presentation, and shared this with the rest of the school in assembly. We would love to hear all about how you took up this challenge after half term!

Eco Club have come up with a list of handy tips that could help you take on this challenge and tackle climate change at home.

1.     Use a bamboo toothbrush instead of a plastic toothbrush.

2.     Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth (this can save approximately 12L of water).

3.     Use beeswax wraps instead of cling film.

4.     Walk as much as possible, instead of using your car.

5.     Remember to take your ‘Bag for Life’ to the shops.

6.     Always carry a reusable water bottle.

7.     Grow your own vegetables.

8.     Use a compost bin.

9.     Join a local litter-pick event and litter pick around your area.

10.  If you can’t reduce or reuse – RECYCLE!

Be green and keep our planet clean!

Mrs Emily Wragg

Junior Science Coordinator