October 2023
What are ECO WARRIORS?We launched the term with the appointment of our new Eco Warriors. The children had to apply for the position and commit to attend the weekly Eco Warriors club after school on a Thursday.
What do we do? Eco warriors will be working within their classes to encourage recycling, reduce food waste from school dinners and support the reduction of the use of energy in school.
We are incredibly proud to report that in the previous academic year, the William Morris obtained the 'Green Flag' award status with Merit. This is a significant achievement that recognises how aware our children are of the current climate crisis and how involved and active they are in actively helping to reduce contributing factors for the climate crisis.
What do we plan to do? Across the Federation, we will complete a new, annual 'Environmental review'. This enables the Eco Warriors to assess what they feel we do really well already. They then identify areas for development.
The Environmental review has 10 key focus areas: Biodiversity, Energy, Global Citizenship, Healthy Living, Litter, Marine, School Grounds, Transport, Waste and Water.
We assess and score our successes and create an action plan that dictates the direction of our meetings. Strong favourites to be a focus are Waste, biodiversity and water. We will meet weekly to work towards our action plan, including presenting assemblies to the school and taking part in school trips and community linked events.
Do look for updates about how you can support us with this.
We cannot wait to see what we can achieve this year!
At times the news about climate change and other human-made environmental disasters can feel relentlessly depressing.
It would be quite unethical to sit and observe and leave the uneasy task of saving the planet to the next generations to come. This is where the work of our BeDifferent Team in partnership with the Eco Warriors can make a difference and implement 'change'.
We have the potential to develop positive, sustainable habits among our children that can last a lifetime and be valuable from the day that they are learned. Whether it's learning about food and hopefully growing some too, finding out about insulation or harvesting rainwater, we can open children's minds to the possibilities of doing more with less and injecting a sense of planetary purpose into their daily routines.
A litter-free school (and of course litter-free routes to school) is a good indicator of a school's commitment to caring for the environment, which is an important value of sustainable development. It's quite difficult to imagine a school that is conscious about its responsibilities to the environment, allowing litter to go unchallenged. Nobody likes to be near litter - it diminishes our lives and shouts out to all who see it: Nobody cares'.
That's why it makes such a great starting point for thinking about the contribution we can make to its community and to the wider world. Of course it's not just about picking up rubbish from the ground. Combating litter starts much further up the chain. Where has the waste come from in the first place? Who bought it or brought it? Is it part of a wider throwaway culture?
Therefore our 'BeDifferent future' is an important part of our Federation's learning philosophy and has the challenging task of teaching, engaging and developing our children's knowledge and understanding of the factors involved in climate change. We aim to give our Eco Warriors the power to start making little steps to a brighter and more sustainable future and engage everyone in our mission towards a BeDifferent future.