WELCOME TO OUR SCHOOL

The school has made small changes over time by recycling more paper and cardboard, developing the school garden and appointing light monitors to turn off the lights when rooms are not in use. But the installation of twelve photovoltaic cells on the south facing roof will help to reduce our electricity bills by taking advantage of the feed-in tariff. Wessex Renewable Energy installed the panels in February and came back during our ‘Eco Week’ to show the children a video about solar power and to donate to the school some solar-powered toys.

 

   

 

 

At the end of March our long-awaited wind turbine was erected in its final position with the cheers of the children signalling their reaction. The arrival of the turbine on a low-loader caused some traffic jams in the narrow lanes, but some three weeks later, when the wind turbine was commissioned and the blades started generating electricity for our small school – watched closely on the monitor in the corridor, we weren’t worried about the disruption.

 

 

 

 

The last week of the Spring term was ‘Eco Week’ where Family Learning (parents learning alongside the children) was the order of the day. The various eco-art projects included making gift bags from recycled and printed envelopes, musical instruments and necklaces made from junk materials, glass tealight holders made from decorated re-used glass jars and large collages made from recycled paper and envelopes. One of our parents worked alongside the children to make a board game using recycled materials (based upon our new wind turbine), and many more parents and regular helpers have been drawn into our eco week activities. It has been a truly fantastic learning experience for the whole school community.

 

Perhaps one of the most amazing activities this week has been the building of an eco-greenhouse made of 1500 recycled two litre plastic bottles. The whole community has been involved in collecting the bottles and all of the children contributed to the build – by washing bottles and removing labels, cutting off the bases, threading the bottles on bamboo canes or fixing the canes to the frames.

 

   

 

 

The greenhouse is next to our garden area so I’m sure that our gardening club will be making use of it next term
to grow some seeds and plants.

 

Our journey towards ‘Eco’ status continues with the whole school community more informed and more ecologically aware
– and having lots of fun while learning about it too!