Eco Squad at Thriplow

 

The Thriplow Eco-Squad gathered for it’s inaugural meeting at the beginning of the school year 2019-2020 with this first note:

Eco-Squad newsletter note October 2019

Every two weeks, the Eco-Squad  meet up to have their  meetings, where we talk about what we would like to achieve to be more eco, like switching  lights off, not  letting the water run for a long time and more recycling within the school. Those small changes, will make a difference. We hope those and other improvements to our school will mean we can become an Eco-school and to receive a green flag by the end of the year.
The exciting news is, we are going to start a gardening club which will be on a Tuesday after school and it will swap between KS1 and KS2 every week.

Isobel (Mayflies) 

Gardening Club September 2019

Gardening Club started in the Autumn Term with two groups, from both Key stages who worked hard to prepare the raised beds, tidy the greenhouse, construct and start a couple of compost bins. Parents came in to help out and help organise equipment donations, which was greatly appreciated. We signed up to the RHS Campaign for School Gardening: https://schoolgardening.rhs.org.uk/home Work in the Spring Term switched to help from the children of essential workers, as we stayed outside in the sunshine.

Switch Off Fortnight

We took part in Switch Off Fortnight 18-29th November. https://jointhepod.org/campaigns/switch-off-fortnight   

Recycle with Michael

Was set up ready for Dragonflies to organise the collection and donation of old clothes and textiles to the Salvation Army charity. They have not been able to open for some months. But, we are optimistic that we can pick up where we left off in 2021. https://recyclewithmichael.co.uk/

Bronze Certificate 3 July 2020

We were awarded our certificate before the end of the school year – The Eco-Squad were delighted. 

Transform Our World 9 – 13 November

Dragonflies took part in the Transform Our World week of events and decided to produce a school newspaper to record their learning: The Thriplow Times.

Construction of Bog Garden November 2020

To address the lack of a Marine environment the Eco-Squad decided that we needed to create our own. So, Dragonflies worked in the Wild Space to construct a Bog Garden in a natural hollow. They cleared the area, laid out a pond liner, made some holes in it, and then piled on earth to cover it. We need some pond plants next.

Silver Certificate 17 December 2020

Dragonflies have taken over the stewardship of the playground. They clear leaves, remove weeds and make sure there is no litter. The Dragonflies Eco-Squad Bubble has managed to keep the rest of the school informed of issues by being the hosts of the Friday Celebration Assembly and updating their notice board.

We were thrilled to have been awarded Green Flag status on the 19th of March.

Karyn Fullerton (Eco-Schools Delivery Officer) congratulated our school she wrote:

‘I would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you for continuing to work on your Eco-Schools Green Flag during these unprecedented times- it is a true reflection of your schools determination to make a real difference. If possible please pass on my thanks to your Eco-Committee.’

Well done everyone!

Eco-Schools requirement for 2021-2022 was that as Green Flag holders we should focus on 3 areas. The previous year the children had decided those subjects would be: Recycle, Nature and Grow.

Recycle:

1. The Eco-Squad wanted to reduce the waste created at lunchboxes and so took photos to demonstrate the most environmentally friendly lunches. The Squad emphasised the importance of taking home any waste, so that it could be recycled.

 

2. The Eco-Ambassador presented an assembly on not dropping litter and a group of Mayflies have regularly been a litter picking squad.

3. Dragonflies took part in the Transform Our World week which coincided with the COP26 Conference: https://www.transform-our-world.org/ We focused on Life on Our Planet, Revive Our Oceans, a Forest of Promises and how to Eliminate Waste.

4. As a school we all took part in collecting for a reverse advent calendar (everyone brought in some food on a certain day before Christmas) which we donated to Cambridge Sustainable Food: 
https://cambridgesustainablefood.org/ Our donation formed part of food parcels which went out at Christmas for families in need. 
https://twitter.com/FoodCambridge/status/1475844526807912459?s=20&t=tFNhY-X9Iv9A3rMBWZVuMw 

5. In January we collected over 90 bags for Recycle with Michael: https://recyclewithmichael.co.uk/schools-recycling