At the heart of our drive for sustainability is our wonderful Eco-Warriors team, involving staff and pupils from across the school who meet every week throughout the academic year. The pupils work in five teams, each with a different area of responsibility: Water & Marine, Energy & Transport, Litter & Waste, School Grounds & Biodiversity and Global Citizenship & Healthy Living. This mixture of year groups working together has resulted in new bonds and friendships being formed around a common goal of making a change to the environment. They lead by example and encourage everyone in the school community to be a part of environmental change.
Their knowledge and positive attitudes enthuse every- one else to get involved. This year, the Eco-Schools group have added more water butts and compost bins to the school, planted wildflowers, created a herb garden near the school kitchen, set up dedicated ‘no-mow’ areas in the grounds, added more bird tables and bug hotels, as well as carrying out litter picks in school and in Castle Fields park nearby. They have collected data on the use of electricity, gas and water within the school as well as preparing a traffic survey, and have started work on a car sharing app.
Their passion and enthusiasm are infectious as they encourage everyone to have a better awareness of environ- mental issues and what we can do to improve the places in which we live and work. They have promoted the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ motto and implemented it in many areas of school life. The pupils have met with the Catering Manager and Estates Team to discuss practical changes that can be made. The Prep School pupils all bring their own water bottles to school to avoid having single-use plastic bottles. The Outdoor Rangers have worked hard to develop our Outdoor Learning Area, complete with its Eco-Classroom which has a wind turbine and solar panels to power the electric light inside with renewable energy.
Pupils sold spring bulbs, which they had planted in pots, using the money raised to fund initiatives in the Outdoor Learning Area, where a garden is being developed. Posters were put up in the car park to encourage parents to turn off their car engines whilst stationary in order to reduce pollution and improve air quality. Pupils in the Eco-Schools group reminded others about our own school eco-code for ways in which we can all act to improve the environment.
The Eco-Warriors launched an eco-poster competition for all children in the Prep School, with winners announced in assembly and prizes awarded. The pupils also made presentations in assemblies, Senior Leadership Team meetings and to the Governors’ Education Committee.
These presentations included ways in which we can all be involved in making improvements within the school community. This enabled the message to come shining through that having environmental awareness and promoting sustainability is something that the whole school community must be involved in and highlighted how important every individual action can be, when each one contributes to the group effort. Our pupils have demon- strated that they truly care about what happens to our environment both locally and in a wider context and want to play an active role in ensuring a bright future for our precious world.
We received our first Green Flag in 2021, when we were commended for the excellent work done, even during lockdown. The second time around, we were aiming for renewal with Distinction – and achieved it! The feedback we received for our Green Flag application in 2023 included many positive comments about what we have done well this year, such as the number of pupils involved in the Eco-Committee, the ability to engage others and the impactful activities contained within our Action Plan.
At Wellingborough School, we believe in an education for life, creating curious learners who have a desire to ask questions and a thirst for knowledge. Links have been made across the Prep School curriculum so that pupils can understand the effects of things such as climate change, not only on us, but on the global community. The International Primary Curriculum that we study includes many such links in a wide variety of topics, as well as the pupils being aware of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and what they mean to us. We were recently announced as winners in the Renaissance Learning awards, in the category of ‘Creativity and Innovation’ for our creative curriculum and we are proud that this has contributed to our pupils’ ‘big picture’ view of the world in which we live.
Above all, the passion, enthusiasm and commitment to real change are what shines through and it clear to see that the pupils and staff truly care about making improve- ments to our precious world and its environment. We were delighted to be the winners of the Environmental and Sustainability Award at the Northamptonshire Education Awards last month, it’s a culmination of the hard work and dedication of our school community. Our next plan is to collaborate with other local schools to drive forward the importance of the environmental message; if you are interested in working with us, please do get in touch.
Together we can truly make a difference.
Find out more about Wellingborough School at www.wellingboroughschool.org
Katharine Owen
Head of Prep Wellingborough School
