Last year, the St Peter’s Eco Council had a huge amount of success at achieving their aims.
The council devised an action plan based on each Eco- Schools topic, and pupils led the way throughout the year to make St Peter’s a greener school.
The first topic, waste, helped pupils identify key areas for improvement. Throughout the year, reps were responsible for establishing food waste recycling in dining rooms and the boarding houses, as well having 2-8 council reps visit the lunch hall to ensure everyone was using the correct bins to separate the compostable Vegware packaging and food waste from landfill waste. Reps were also responsible for bringing the Terracycle boxes to council meetings to empty, arrange deliveries, count bags and teach the 2-8 Eco-Council about the Terracycle Scheme! A total of 14 bags were sent to Terracycle, and a recycling collection at 2-8 showed real enthusiasm within the younger years. This year, the council is aiming to continue this, implementing ideas such as St Peter’s compost generated from food waste and raising awareness of which bins to use at mealtimes.
Another focus, litter, saw 12 pupils taking part in the Great British Spring Clean, 60 pupils completed a one hour litter pick and 6 travelled to Bridlington for a beach clean! These events were popular, and the club hope to continue these in the coming year.
Global citizenship was also very successful, with 159 respondents to a FairTrade audit across 13-18. There was also a huge interest in a FairTrade lunch, with products being advertised on the school menu. 50% of pupils expressed a desire for St Peter’s to use more FairTrade products.
Across the school grounds, more conversations were had on sustainable development of the site. Pupils were interested in plans and felt reassured that the environment had been considered in future plans for the school, including rain gardens and wild planting to help drainage and biodiversity, and suggestions for water butts, green roofs and a reduction in car use were made. More tree planting was a key focus, and a member of Eco Club, Beth, planted a tree on Rise Lawn to mark the coronation. Bird boxes and bird feeders were repaired and kept topped up, with the Music School box being home to a family of tits and Geography’s inadvertently becoming home to a squirrel! An extra £120 of funding has already been provided this year, by Friends of St Peter’s, to go towards bird and squirrel food.
Finally, energy was a topic explored heavily by Eco Council. Improvements made last year include the auto shut off of all PCs after 8pm, posters to remind people to turn lights off and for reducing water usage in bathrooms. There is still work to be done on raising awareness of our energy consumption, and Eco Club are excited to pass the baton on.
There is a fantastic new noticeboard in the Monkey Cage to encourage new members to join, which has already seen a number of new pupils join events such as the beach clean and litter picking.
New members are always encouraged, and should contact Mrs Hall at [email protected] if they are interested.
