Cynergy – Different Blogingly

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ll remember that last week we, the Cynergy Green Team, visited Evenwood Primary School to speak to years 5 and 6 about caring for the environment. We thought that the best way to spread the word about going green would be through youngsters – those who will take responsibility for caring for our communities now and into the future.

The class had really impressed us with their enthusiasm and willingness to get involved on the first day. We returned a few days later to see what they’d learned since our visit…

We entered the classroom to a very warm welcome, with all of the students eager to show us what they’d been working on. We were proud to see that they remembered everything we had taught them, and had even gone on to do some further work of their own!

The class showed us the poster projects they’d been working hard on since our last visit. Many had designed their own garden with ways of recycling energy, attracting wildlife and growing their own produce. A few had surveyed the number of birds in the school garden, and one group had even demonstrated where fossil fuels came from and how we should preserve them.

After hearing about what the children had learned over the past few days, we gave them one final challenge to get them thinking. They have already studied the biblical Ten Commandments, but what would be their ideal Ten Green Commandments to follow at school? This started a great deal of knowledge sharing, and also much debate on which ten should take priority – which would be best for the environment overall? Would many people switching off an unused light make more of a difference than a few people making big changes to their recycling habits?

When we asked who had already started making changes at home and at school, almost everyone put their hand up!

To finish off our project, we asked the class if they would be interested in making their own Green Team to continue the great work they’ve already started. It was great to see almost the entire class filled with enthusiasm at the idea! They signed a green pledge to do what they can, and we agreed to keep in touch to share new ideas and make sure we were both keeping our end of the promise!

We finished the day with the class holding an assembly to let the rest of the school know what they had been learning, and why it was so important. We gave every member of the class a certificate to show how proud we were of effort they had put into becoming green. We have to admit that one of the highlights of the day for us was hearing the song that the recorder group had composed in our honour:

‘Cyn-er-gy, Cyn-er-gy, they’ve helped us save energy!’

One pupil, Abbie, read out two fantastic acrostic poems that she had written about us and the environment.

What inspirational young people! We will be keeping in touch with the Evenwood Green Team to swap ideas and keep updated with what each other is up to.

We really appreciate the enthusiasm of all of the pupils we worked with. They have invited us back to see the show they’re planning for July, starring their very own Mr Plantpot to educate others on why they should care for the environment – we can’t wait to see it!

Looks like we managed to achieve our aim!

-The Green Team

The Green Team are proud of the start we’ve made on becoming a green organisation. Lately we’ve been thinking about how to spread the word about going green, and the benefits it can have on the environment and our community. Then it occurred to us – what better way of promoting sustainability than to pass the messages onto children – those who will eventually take responsibility for the care of our environment.

So the Green Team travelled to Evenwood Primary School to talk to years 5 and 6 about what they already knew about the environment, and what else they could do to make a difference.

The children really impressed us with the knowledge they already had about the environment and how to care for it. They even have their own gardening club and are doing a great job looking after their school grounds.

We decided to focus on two big themes for the day:

1. Local produce – we did a taste test of local milk versus Devonshire milk to show that local tastes just as good – and means less harm to the environment!

2. Reducing waste – did you know that turning off a dripping tap can save up to £400 worth of water? We do!

Our class were enthusiastic when we asked them to get interactive and use recycled yoghurt pots to sow seeds to grow their own produce. There was even competition for the job of keeping the pots watered!

We then tested the pupils’ creativity as we challenged them to design a T shirt that would show others what they could do to overcome the two big problems we looked at. All of the finished T shirts looked great and showed that what we discussed had really been taken in. Judging the best T shirt was difficult, I think you’ll agree, but the proud winners were very happy with their ‘I am proud to be green’ winning badges!

The children really impressed us with their willingness to contribute, their bright ideas and the way they worked together to solve the challenges we gave them. We know we chose the right people to ask to look after our environment!

The next stage of the project is to go back to the school to see if our session has made a difference to the way the children think and the actions they take. We also have a few surprises left to really get them thinking!

We’ll let you know how it goes next week. With a bit of luck we may even be able to develop the project so that we can take it to other schools in the area, so look out for great changes in our community coming up!

Big thanks to the staff and very knowledgeable pupils at Evenwood CE Primary School

- The Green Team (Sam, Sharon, Helen, Jayne, Beccy, Fiona, Dave and Marie)