Intent

Why are we teaching this?

Poverest Primary School is committed to becoming an environmentally friendly and sustainable school. We aim to enhance the progress already being made towards becoming a sustainable school by reducing the school’s ecological footprint and embedding sustainable practises in our everyday lives. At Poverest, we pledge to ensure that the children understand their roles and responsibilities in looking after the school environment whilst allowing them to have leadership on how they can lead more sustainable lifestyles in everyday life. By raising awareness throughout the school, we aim to encourage and engage both staff, parents and pupils to learn more about the impact that we have, so we can all gain the necessary knowledge to move forward and create a better future.

Implementation

How is this being taught?

As a whole school community, we are excited and committed to raising the profile of sustainability at Poverest by integrating the subject into the curriculum. With increased awareness of sustainable living, we believe that it will support and promote students’ moral, social and cultural development. Creating an environment where children at Poverest can have first-hand experiences and practical learning is crucial as it helps build a bank of knowledge and allows the children to develop an understanding of ways to tackle environmental issues and promote sustainable way of living. By having well-planned and resourced activities allows the children to immerse themselves into the learning, which then helps them to create a deeper understanding and relationship with the environment and how their choices and actions can support a more sustainable way to live.

At Poverest, we are increasing the understanding of sustainability by:

• Creating an Eco Council - providing children with a voice. This allows the children to discuss any concerns or ideas that they have, which then allows us as a collective to help make a change.

• All staff and children are involved in a team effort to recycle paper/card. Recycling bins are accessible in all rooms. Rules of what can be recycled are advised throughout the school. The Eco Warriors at Poverest are elected members from each class help to ensure the correct items are placed into the bins.

• Awareness days are delivered to the children educating them and improving their understanding of the topic.

• Compost areas – These are located in the upper and lower playgrounds to allow children to get rid of waste into the correct bins. Food waste bin is then transported the compost bin to be used in the school garden. Children are then made aware of the benefits and positive impacts that they can use outside the school.

• Gardening club – Forest School leader delivers the club creating awareness by allowing the children to grow fruit and vegetables.

• Local environment – As part of being a healthy school, we encourage families to walk, bike or scoot to school through the smart movers scheme 

What is the effect?

Children at Poverest will be highly aware of the impact of environmental changes and what they can do to help their future by voicing their opinions to their class Eco Warrior who can then take on responsibility and help create ownership of their ideas. We aim to create children who act as models of best practice within their local communities to help others reap similar benefits and create awareness to the whole school community and spread further awareness to the outside community.  With children at Poverest gaining an increased awareness towards sustainability allows them to improve habits and lifestyle choices which help to impact on their local and global environment.