Eco Club

At South Green Junior School, we are proud to have a vibrant Eco Club which is committed to making positive changes to our school and environment. 

Over the past few years, our school has explored different issues around climate change and Eco Club have worked hard to raise awareness of living sustainably and the need to protect our environment. 

Some of our achievements are:  

• Constructing a bug hotel (Buggington Palace) to help create a habitat for the local insects.  
• Purchasing and decorating a hedgehog home for our spiky friends. 
• Creating environmental awareness posters. 
• Creating seed bomb crackers as Christmas presents for family and friends. 
• Taking part in the RSPB Wild challenges. For example, we made a 'toad hole' to help attract toads to our school.  
• Writing a letter to the council about preserving our local environment rather than building houses.  
• Achieving Blue Peter Green badges. 
• Recycling our used pens and writing utensils using Terracycle.  
• Creating bird feeders for our feathered friends. 

At South Green Junior School, we believe that nurturing environmental awareness in our children is important. As the world continues to grapple with pressing environmental issues, such as climate change, pollution and the loss of biodiversity (to name a few), it is more important than ever for us to teach the future generation about sustainability and the importance of protecting our planet. By instilling environmental awareness from a young age, we can help our children become informed and passionate about the environment.  

In July 2023, a group of pupils was selected to attend the Mayflower Environment Morning at Mayflower High School. Pupils worked with other local schools and secondary pupils to explore a variety of climate issues. They made bird feeders, explored the uses of seaweed and sampled seaweed and cricket cakes! 

In classes, the children held a mini climate summit where they took on the role of world leaders. They thought about some of the main issues regarding climate change and ways they could overcome these.   

The children also took part in the global activity #PromiseToThePlanet. They each created a leaf and on one side, they wrote individual promises about things they could do to help the environment and on the other side they wrote down actions they would like to see world leaders taking. This symbolises that we all need to be part of the change and that we need to all work together.   

 This year, we have decided to apply for the Eco Schools award. The first step of this involved the children taking an environmental survey of the school and then creating an action plan based on this. We have decided to focus on energy, litter and waste. 

See our action plan below: 

/docs/Eco_club/South_Green_Action_Plan_2023_-_2024.docx

• Designing 'Energy Eater' signs to stick onto appliances to remind pupils and staff to turn them off when not in use.  
• Energy Review conducted with Essex County Council. 
• Recycling bins introduced and a new system set up to combat paper and plastic waste.  
• Research conducted into the effects of single use plastic and a whole school assembly written and delivered by Eco Club on this theme. 
• Used pens sorted and recycled via Terracycle. 
• Individual sauce sachets replaced by plastic sauce dispenser pumps. 
• Litter picking. 
• Sustainable travel talk. 

The Eco Committee are currently in the process of setting up an eco refill business. More details to follow so watch this space. 

*We are collecting clean 500ml plastic bottles or 250ml plastic bottles. If you have any spare, please consider donating them to us. You can drop them off at reception, letting them know they are for Eco Club. Thank you!