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)