Eco Work
At Stillness Infant School, our environmental work is a vital part of life in school and helps our children in realising their role as global citizens. This important work helps to develop a child’s natural curiosity and shape their excitement of our natural world whilst beginning to highlight the issues that our planet and all inhabitants are facing.
We are a Green Flag Eco-School and have been for over 18 years with our eco-work firmly embedded in both our curriculum and around the school. Many global issues, such as climate change, air pollution, animal habitats and the importance of pollinators and plants for life on Earth are part of school life. We have a dedicated Eco-Leader who works across the school with both children and staff alike to create, run and encourage many activities and projects.
- Our Year 2 children are the school recyclers, emptying the class recycling bins twice a week.
- Within school, we recycle our paper, cardboard, plastic, glass/metal, flexible plastic and old pens.
- Our Eco-council consists of twelve children from both Year 1 and Year 2.
- We actively encourage walking or scootering to school, have scooter and bike parks and support initiatives such as Walk to School Week and Road Safety Week.
- We undertake walking trips around our local area for many of our topics.
- Many of our school trips use public transport.
- Reception children have scooter training every year.
- Year 2 children have ‘Scooterbility’ training every year.
- Our weekly lunchtime Eco-Club for Year 2 covers six environmental topics across the year.
- Our ‘Nature Explorers’ activities investigate seasonal changes, trees, plants, birds and minibeasts on walking trips to local parks and nature reserves.
- Year groups explore the natural world through topics such as ‘It’s a Bug’s Life’ and ‘The Rainforest’ in Year 2, ‘Marvellous Minibeasts’ in Reception, ‘Go Wild’ and ‘Nature Detectives’ in Year 1 and ‘Get Set, Grow!’ and ‘Splash!’ in Nursery.
- Fairtrade Fortnight is celebrated across the school with cooking, assembly and class work.
- We have been a finalist in RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival bug hotel/scarecrow competition for the past nine years. Each year Y2 children visit the show to see their creations displayed alongside other school entries.
- We have ‘Meat Free Mondays’ every week as part of our school meals offer.
- The Daily Mile and Mindfulness are important parts of our school week
- We highlight special awareness days through dress up days, assemblies and class work.
- We hold a World Book Day book swap and second hand uniform sales throughout the year.
- Across the year, we raise vital funds for charities such as Macmillan, Children In Need and Comic Relief with dress up days and activities.
- We regularly support Lewisham Foodbank and VSL through donations each term.
- Our highly successful After school Science Club for Year 1 and 2 covers eco-issues such as climate change, energy, seasonal changes, habitats and planting.
- Regular Instagram posts are used to showcase our eco-work and raise awareness of national and global issues/events such as COP26.
We hold the following awards for our Eco Work;
- Eco-Schools Green Flag – for our embedded environmental work across ten topics.
- Tfl STARS Gold – for our sustainable school travel plan.
- Healthy Schools London Bronze – for our health and well-being work across the school.
- RHS Gardening For Schools Level 1 – for our planting and gardening work.
- Woodland Trust Green Tree Schools Award Bronze – for our work helping the environment.