St Andrew’s Eco Update

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!                   We have just been awarded the Green Flag for the 3rd time-June 2016

ECO Team

This years ECO team members are: Hannah Fahy, Alex Frazer, Louis Booth, Eva Christie, Alice Ockwell, Lucia Starkey, James Holder, Kitty Hall, William Fearnhead, Arya Savannah, Joseph Lane.

Recent Work

The Eco team have been working really hard over the last couple of terms. Our main focus has been on energy and biodiversity. The children decided it was important to reduce our energy usage at St Andrew’s so we went on a tour and guided talk by Mr Jones and compiled a report of our findings. Since then we have been monitoring the energy usage and looking at graphs from a yearly perspective. We are looking to launch a ‘switch off fortnight’ to reduce our energy soon!

Wildlife area

We have also been busy building and developing our wildlife area at the back of nursery. We have been lucky to come into contact with Dave Holmes a local tree surgeon. He recycles trees and wood and turns it into fabulous creations. He has very kindly made us some stools and a table using recycled wood from St Edmunds school. We have also just had a delivery of various sized rocks from Salford Eco Team to make a rockery to attract bugs and insects. Hopefully this area will be used to support areas of the curriculum.

Recycling with Freshstart

Following our Fresh start recycling competition we are currently looking for a landscape builder to start work on our recycling centre. Hopefully you saw our picture in the advertiser recently. Below is the Freshstart magazine article-

Pupils give rubbish a Fresh Start

There’s more than meets the eye to these clever constructions by some Salford school children! The Transformers had nothing on the children of St. Andrew’s CE Primary School, Boothstown, when inventive youngsters took the opportunity to turn their rubbish into something exciting and new in a recycling awareness competition sponsored by local recycling business Fresh Start Waste Services.

Pupils came up with such creative ideas as a bag made from old crisp packets, a space shuttle, a rocket constructed with tin cans and a princess castle. The overall winner of the Fresh Start School Challenge was Emily Clay (Nursery – age 4).

The winners received Disney vouchers, sponsored by Fresh Start. Teacher Miss Gemma Scowcroft said: “The pupils had a lot of fun building their recycled pieces, which will also contribute to the national Eco-Schools Award Initiative that we are taking part in.”

The fun competition had a more serious intent however. St. Andrew’s is helping Fresh Start pilot an eco- scheme that the company hopes to roll out in schools across Salford and further afield. With a portion of the school grounds now designated as a recycling centre, complete with Fresh Start recycling bins, pupils will be encouraged to recycle as part of their everyday school lives.

Green Flag

After achieving our bronze and silver eco awards, I am delighted to say that we have achieved all the criteria for our green flag award and we are awaiting our final assessment to be officially given green flag status by Eco Schools.