Eco School
As of July 2024 St Peter's has been awarded Eco School status with Distinction!!
After we submitted our application, the Eco-School's team sent us an email highlighting a number of things they were pleased with including:
‘’Thank you so much for sharing examples of pupil’s work in your application, they really helped our team understand and appreciate the environmental learning occurring in your school. "
"Your Eco-Committee have used an impressive variety of methods to promote sustainability and keep their school community informed about their Eco-Schools’ initiatives throughout the academic year. "
"We are thrilled to see the incredible successes you’ve achieved since joining the Eco-Schools initiative. The planting of over 140 trees was a fantastic achievement. The Forest School program has been outstanding, with every class benefiting from a well-structured schedule of engaging activities. Moreover, the Gardening Club's early achievements, from preparing raised beds to harvesting the first crops of vegetables and herbs, are truly commendable. "
"Congratulations! Your application truly stood out, and we’re thrilled to award you an Eco-Schools’ Green Flag with Distinction! Keep up the fantastic work next year!"
You are able to view the full email below. Well done everyone on this fantastic achievement and thank you for all the support our St Peter's families have given us to get this award!
During 2023/24 the Eco Committee has been super busy thinking of projects that we can do within school to raise the understanding and the profile of our ecosystem and spreading the word about how important it is for all of us to think about our environment and what we can do to help improve our own little corner of the world. Below are some of the projects we carried out last academic year.
Cut the Carbon month
Our first mission in becoming an Eco School was a Cut the Carbon Month during November! All our school families and staff were given a checklist to try and cut their carbon - at the end of November, the total amount of carbon saved was counted by our Eco Committee. We have sent our figures off to the Eco School website and are waiting to hear the results!
Coat Swap
In November the Eco Committee organised a second hand adults and children coat swap. This was a chance to bring in any coats that children had grown out of or coats that people had grown tired of and see them go to a new home! We sorted through everyone’s donations and they were then made available for everyone to help themselves to for either themselves or their children.
We saved the environment from a little bit of carbon which would have been used making new coats!
Tree planting project
Tree planting project
On December 2nd lots of families helped plant over a hundred trees on the school field! It was a very cold but, luckily, dry day and it was so much fun!
Mrs Langton and Mrs Page had a fire going in the Forest School Area and were serving hot chocolate to warm us all up!
Even Margot helped!
A lot of families adopted a tree, with the funds raised going towards our new Forest School Area. The trees look fantastic and we can't wait to watch them grow over the years. Thank you so much to everyone who came along, we definitely couldn't have done it without you!
Christmas Jumper recycle
We held a stall providing second hand Christmas jumpers! Lots of people donated jumpers for the Christmas Jumper day we held in December!
Second Hand book stall
On Friday 19th January Saturn Class held a Second Hand book stall as part of a PTA fundraiser! We had loads of amazing books in fantastic condition donated for the stall. The children loved having a look through the piles of books and lots of books were re-homed. 
Bag2School
On 29th April we arranged for Bag2School to come and collect second hand clothing from our school families and beyond. Bag2School collect the clothing then sort and distribute to other countries to sell in second hand shops and market stalls.
This prevents our clothes from going to landfill and helps the circular economy. At the same time we raised funds for St Peter’s as we were paid per kilo of clothing that we collected! You all managed to drop off 227 kilos of clothing!
As well as our ongoing eco committee projects, this year the children have been very busy in our Forest School! They have created a dipping pond and made bird feeders and bug hotels as well as lots of other exciting things. You can see what they've been up to in the link.
The children in Gardening Club have been busy planting vegetables and herbs. They have planted potatoes, tomatoes, beans, mint, thyme, rosemary, artichokes and lots more! They have also been busy tidying up our Willow arch. At the end of last term they were able to harvest what they'd planted in Spring! We had enough delicious produce to set up a small shop! All proceeds went back to buy equipment for Gardening club.
We have introduced some new Eco Routines in school!
Tidy Up Tuesdays - Litter picking equipment is supplied on the playing field and the children are encouraged to use it to pick up any litter they find while they're on their break! It's surprising how popular this! They do a great job of finding and tidying litter! Litter can cause a lot of damage and even death to wildlife.
Walk on Wednesdays - If it's practical and possible, families are encouraged to walk to school on Wednesdays. This helps us to reduce our carbon emissions as a school. Plus it's great exercise!!
We have become Friends of the Honey Bee!!
We will post all their newsletters here!
While you're on your summer holiday you could have a look at the media list below. We are very excited to get started on our new projects in September 2024!
Understanding climate change is the first step to creating change. But most of what we see in the media is scary and negative. However, people are coming together to act, nature is resilient, and great things are happening. It’s time we heard more about this! Check out the Healthy Summer Media List for books, videos, films, and podcasts that’ll help you to become more ‘climate confident’.
The Eco School's Healthy Summer Toolkit (media list):
We will keep you updated about our next Eco Missions!
Please find here a link to give you more information about what we're trying to achieve. Home - Eco Schools (eco-schools.org.uk)