Woodville Infants School is aiming to become an Eco School. We are working towards becoming a sustainable, environmentally and eco-friendly community, taking positive action to protect and preserve our planet.

Eco Council  

Our Eco council members are the representatives and voices of all the children. Through them, all children have the opportunity to make their voices heard on matters affecting their immediate and global environment.

The council has two representatives from each of the Year 1 and Year 2 classes. Following an introductory assembly, every child interested in the position had to create a poster or write a brief letter explaining why they wanted to become an Eco councillor and what skills they would bring to the committee if elected. There was a fantastic response from the children wanting to be Eco councillors! This shows how many of our children want to be a positive influence on our school, environment and world. Each class selected four candidates whose names were put on voting papers. They were then voted for in a democratic way with voting papers being placed in ballot boxes. Twelve children in total were elected  and meet every fortnight discussing the changes we could make in our school to become more eco-friendly.

Our Eco council is guided by Mrs. J. Lloyd with support from Mrs. S. Baker and Mr. D. Welsh.

Our aims

We are aiming to achieve the status of becoming a Green Flag eco-school, the highest award from the Eco-Schools organisation.

 
Eco-Schools is an international programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education that aims to empower students to be the change our sustainable world needs by engaging them in fun, action-orientated and socially responsible learning.

Stepping stones

On our journey to achieving the Green flag status, we have to first work towards achieving bronze then silver awards. The Eco council members will carry out an Environmental review of our school to find out what we are doing well currently and areas to improve. From the results we will write an action plan and focus on three main topics. 
This year we will be targeting; Energy, Litter and School grounds.

Energy

Switch Off Fortnight

8th - 21st November 2021

We have joined an organisation called ‘The Pod’ which helps schools with eco activities. We have signed up for a national campaign through the Pod called ‘Switch Off Fortnight’. This campaign makes the children aware of the importance of switching off lights and electrical apparatus when not in use. Even items left on standby are using electricity. 

The Eco-committee have completed a ‘before’ audit, recording lights and equipment left on when not needed. At the end of the fortnight they will audit again with an ‘after’ audit. Hopefully they will find that classes have become more mindful about switching off. This will help the school by reducing energy bills and benefit the planet on a wider scale.

A homework sheet to audit ‘before’ and ‘after’ at home has been sent out. Please support your child/ren and help them and hopefully make some changes!

Litter

Waste week

8th - 14th March 2021

We have joined a campaign run through ‘The Pod’ called ‘Waste Week’ which will take place in March which teaches children why we should not drop litter in our environment. It also teaches the benefits of a reduce, reuse and recycle mind set which will benefit the planet for their future. Further information will be sent out nearer the time.

Last year’s Eco council introduced separate fruit waste and milk carton bins for the children to use at playtimes. It is lovely to see the children already recycling on a daily basis!

School grounds

Our school grounds are a huge asset to Woodville-federation school where the children happily play and learn. Following the Eco council's suggestions to make improvements we have developed our Federation Allotment and pond area. The children have started to grow plants and flowers and are able to observe nature on a daily basis. Also, in our recycle and reuse mind set, we would like to creatively use recycled materials such as tyres and bottle tops in artistic ways. Any good ideas and donations would be most welcome!