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