Eco-Schools

Assembly 1

All Saints Catholic School is aiming to become the first eco-school in the borough of Barking and Dagenham, this is of course won’t be possible to achieve without the help of our students as well as teachers, we have to work together to reach this major goal. The Eco Ambassadors of our school have committed to creating three minor goals within this one large target and are striving to achieve them alongside their peers. The three goals are relating to biodiversity, school grounds and energy, the three are elaborated on below.

Biodiversity -

To become an eco-school, the school will have to welcome in a large variety of plants and organisms into the school grounds, it will also help to keep our air fresh as the wild garden will have many different types of flowers and plants, all producing clean air. They will also create an ecosystem for the insects to live in.

In order for our school to increase its biodiversity, we will to designate an area of ground for a wildlife garden, this garden will have a variety of different plants planted in it, the garden will be accessible to insects, therefore increasing the biodiversity, the garden will be watered with rainwater, which there is plenty of in our country, and the soil will only be fertilised naturally, from the composter, this will ensure that all plants and insects are living organic lives, and are living just like they would be in a field.

School grounds -

Keeping playgrounds, corridors and classrooms clean will be a task almost impossible to accomplish without the help of our students, but it’s not the only thing that needs to be improved, although lots has already been done – for example, our school has bought a composter to recycle any food (that has been thrown away) for the garden to be fertilised with. Our school also has a pond for fishes to swim in, which has some plants around it to keep the water at the correct temperature, and to ensure shade for the fishes. The one last goal relating to school grounds is the mounting of birdboxes, they shall be mounted on walls, trees, and posts facing north, so sun doesn’t go into the birdbox, this will make the school eco-friendly pushing it a step forward to being the first eco school.

Energy –

Switching to green energy is a crucial step for our school if we want to become the first eco-school in the borough. Green energy is energy that comes from fully renewable sources such as wind, solar or tidal energy. These energy sources create 0% carbon emissions and will make the energy our school uses safe for the environment.

Our school is heading towards switching to solar energy generated by solar panels which will hopefully be on the roof soon. In addition, a step towards saving energy will be taken as lights will be turned on as rarely as possible, and natural light will be the way to go.

The above are crucial in the process of becoming an eco-school, but many steps have already been taken in the direction of saving energy; our school noticed that the motion detection system that switched the lights on would trigger at the motion outside the classroom – so after the eco ambassadors pitching for new lights – the school replaced all motion detectors with switches so that no energy is wasted when nobody is in need of it. The new – energy saving – screens in all classrooms are fitted with a reminder to be switched off when idle, and some teachers commit to turning the screens and lights off in other classrooms!

By Kacper G and Nicole K

Youth Climate Summit

On the 14^th of March 2022, the Eco-Warriors attended the first ever Youth Climate Summit. This was a very interesting experience as it was the first meeting that has ever taken place in the borough of Barking and Dagenham. During the meeting, we discovered that the borough alone is aiming to become the green capital of the capital by 2030, whereas the rest of the country is aiming for 2050. The borough of Barking and Dagenham has six main priorities in order to achieve the green capital of the capital, these six priorities include:

-Housing

-Transport

-Waste

-Nature

-Energy

-Industry

On the topic of housing, they want to make the homes more energy efficient so that no energy is being used unnecessarily. Moving down the list, the topic of transport covers that petrol and diesel is not a good way to fuel cars as it pollutes the air, which is harmful to the environment, so people would have to start using electric cars. Furthermore, the topic focusing on waste mentions that we should definitely recycle more in order to reduce waste, we would have to speak to family members to get them to recycle as well.

Moreover, on the topic of nature, we should plant more trees and not use as much tree wood due to the fact that trees make up 70% of our oxygen. In addition to this, the topic of energy is about the fact that the population should rely and use more green energy such as wind power or solar power, the reason being that non-renewables cause pollution and they are finite resources. However, renewables are environmentally friendly and they are infinite – meaning that they never run out. Finally, the last topic is industry, industrial manufacturers can develop more recourse efficient machinery that generates less effluent, waste and pollutants. 

However, the most important thing that each person can easily do is change the mindset of individuals if we want to stop climate change. Overall, in my opinion, I believe that the Youth Climate Summit was a great way to gather and discuss how we can achieve the green capital of the capital by 2030.

Following this trip, the Eco Ambassadors decided to take All Saints Catholic School another step forward to the goal of biodiversity and is one step closer to becoming the first eco-school in the borough. On Wednesday the 23^rd of March the Year 9 and 6^th Form Eco Ambassadors united their powers with Mr Harkin and ploughed right through an area of soil, making it fresh and healthy for a patch of wildflowers to grow, therefore increasing the biodiversity of our school. This brings us one step closer to our main goal of biodiversity. Planting wildflowers increases the biodiversity in our school as there is a larger number of different plants within the school grounds. The next step towards increasing the biodiversity of our school will be mounting bird feeders on trees and walls, to attract birds to our environment and guarantee them a safe place to eat in and keep eggs away from predators.

Nicole K 9M and Kacper G 9H

The Eco-Ambassadors have an exciting few months ahead of them, with gardens to make, bird houses to mount, and wildflowers to plant.
Let us explain…

We have come up with a demise plan to spend quality time in the school’s greenery; planting seeds, creating a biodiversity garden (St Francis Garden) with fruit and vegetables and mounting houses (for birds). The fruit and vegetables will be used in our food technology department, this will stop the need of purchasing these items, which also decreases the carbon footprint, because transport isn’t needed, as well as no plastic packaging, all while increasing the biodiversity of our school. On the topic of biodiversity, it’s the reason bird boxes are going up in the near future, biodiversity includes plants AS WELL AS wildlife, inviting birds to rest, eat and hopefully lay eggs within our grounds (in the bird houses of course) will raise the biodiversity bar way higher than any other school can dream of. Plants also play a large role in the biodiversity of the school, which is exactly why wildflowers are being planted everywhere where it is possible

If you’re wondering why we are doing all of this; it is to reach the school’s goal of becoming the first Eco-School in LBBD, to reach this we have to achieve the three main targets of; Energy, Biodiversity and school grounds (explained in blog 1).

Nicole K 9M and Kacper G 9H