In our school we decided to be super green by having a Green Week instead of a Green Day. During Green Week each year group did different activities.
St Cleopas student enjoys day out in Dr Frain's themed garden © St Cleopas Primary School
Reception painted a blue recycling bin and learned about recycling. After having a lovely day out to Dr Frain’s themed garden, year 3 picked up litter in our community. Year 4 recycled clothes, year 5 made little scarecrows and year 6 designed and made model eco-homes.
Savings of £79
Year 5’s Georgia Bird, nine, said, ‘Green Week was good because we saved a lot of money in the school. We turned all the electricity off from 1pm to 2pm every day.’ All energy was turned off - including lights, computers, photocopiers and projectors. The school was plunged into darkness which was great fun for the children.
‘Year 6 made a big sign for the hall and every day they read the electricity meter and wrote down the numbers. We used 660 units less than the week before.’
The school actually saved £79.23 by turning off the electricity for an hour a day. Georgia said, ‘Saving energy saves the world. If the world has too much heat then it’s just going to crumble.’
Riding to school
To be more eco-friendly each class had a day where they would bring their bikes in to school to keep more cars off the road. Michael Whitby, eight, is in year three at St Cleopas. He said, ‘Green Week was fun, we got to ride on our bicycles which was quite good. We had a rota on which day classes should bring their bikes, so year 3 was on Thursday. We rode around the playground on our bikes it was good.’
Eco friendly students use bikes during Green Week © St Cleopas Primary School
Michael continued, ‘It makes you stronger to ride on a bike – I did it yesterday on the Prom. Cars use fuel which pollutes the earth and bikes don’t use fuel. Also, we did the Big Tidy Up on the big grass area by the church. Basically we had to pick up litter and put it in bags. We had special Big Tidy Up bags and we filled about one and a half. We did find a lot of cans and bottles. We thought it was a good thing to do as we helped the environment.’
Year 1 learnt about composting and even painted their own compost bin for us to display. Year 4 brought in some old clothes that they re-styled for the big fashion show in assembly. After a lot going on in the school this week all the classes had a chance to show off what they have done over the week in Friday’s assembly.
Little garden designers enjoy trip
After having a lovely day out to Dr Frain’s themed garden, year 2 designed and constructed their own gardens. Jessica Rourke, seven, also from the Dingle is in year 2, she said, ‘I enjoyed Green Week very much. Making my garden was fun but messy! We were making gardens for Green Week. First went to Dr Frain’s garden and there were lots of different parts of the garden.’
‘There were different flowers from different cultures. When we went back to school the next day we made little gardens just like Dr Frain’s – with all different parts. We built our gardens on cardboard with two and three dimensional shapes. He had a little fountain and I put that in my garden, he had a bridge too.’
Students build a garden like Dr Frain's © St Cleopas Primary School
Gardening club
To help us with our plants, year 5 made little scarecrows out of recycled materials to scare off the birds that eat our plants. The school gardener built some raised beds - St Cleopas has started a gardening club and we are going to grow lots of potatoes.
Thea Cave, five, is in reception at St Cleopas school and said, ‘I enjoyed planting the plants. I was planting leaves and the leaves keep growing into lots and lots and lots of leaves. There’s about a hundred now. A lot of my plants have been eaten by the bees so they can grow.’
All Green Day award winners from 2009
Liz Rushton, primary teacher from Moor Allerton Primary School, Leeds
Pippa Davies, assistant head from Guiseley School, Leeds
Tamara Hallam, student from Guiseley School, Leeds
