Colliers Green is an 'eco- school'. This means that we look after our school environment as well as doing what we can to care for the whole world environment through our efforts to reduce energy consumption within school and through our many and varied waste management projects.
Our school Eco-code
Encourage everyone to use energy and water efficiently.
Consider what we can do to combat climate change and reduce our carbon footprint.
Only throw things away when absolutely necessary.Re-use and recycle to reduce waste.
Share lifts to school and spread the environmental message to promote a sustainable lifestyle for all.
Care for our school grounds and all its wildlife.
Help everyone to keep healthy by promoting sensible diets.
Organise fun activities to encourage exercise.
Oppose environmental damage and injustice in the world.
Look after planet Earth.
We achieved an Eco-School Silver Award for our work towards a sustainable lifestyle in May 2008 and the Eco- Action Group or 'Green Team' are delighted to announce that in June 2009 we were awarded the prestigious Green Flag Award which 'symbolises excellence in the field of environmental activity.'
Thank you to everyone who has helped us achieve this award by supporting and helping us with:
- energy and water saving campaigns
- the car share scheme
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our many and varied sporting activities
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keeping our school grounds litter free
- our healthy eating policies
- recycling initiatives
- improving our school grounds for the benefit of wildlife
- and numerous other projects!
Click the document at the bottom of the page to view our action plan.
Latest News
Apple Harvest 2009
This year we repeated our apple juice project following a bumper crop of apples from our school orchard and generous donations of apples from many of our families.
A big thank you to all our apple pickers from Class 2, Mrs Moorhouse's Thursday group and the wonderful mums who spent time gathering apples from local orchards in the rain.
Some of the different varieties of apples grown in our orchard are shown here with Mrs Moorhouse's Thursday group.
On 8th October Mrs Moorhouse's Thursday group visited Biddenden Vineyard to watch our apples being pressed. Before touring the site we were treated to some Biddenden apple juice and sampled apple crisps. We then watched as our apples were washed in the pit and put through the press.
We tried our apple juice fresh from the press. It was delicious! Our apple juice was then pasteurised, giving it a shelf life of up to 2 years. We did have 840 bottles to sell, but most of this was snapped up at our very successful Autumn Fayre. This will make an excellent Christmas present for family and friends, if it lasts that long!
Plastic is not fantastic!
Every year in the UK we use about 10 billion plastic bags- that is about 167 per person. Many of these bags are thrown away after just one use. Most of these bags will end up in landfill sites where they will take many years to decay, whilst others will litter our seas, waterways and countryside where they can cause harm to wildlife.We were therefore delighted that many of you entered our competition to design a 'Bag for Life'.
The closing date has now passed for this competition.The judges were impressed by the quality of the designs submitted and the winning entries have now been printed onto bags ready for sale.
The winning design was created by Edward with his 'Cool to be Green' zebra and we have also used Roddy's great slogan 'Choose to re-reuse'. Many of your designs featured oak trees and we have therefore used oak leaves on the reverse of the bag together with our school name.
We hope that the bag will make an attractive Christmas present for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbours etc!
Make sure you hurry to get your Bag for Life whilst stocks last!
If you go down to the woods today......be sure to collect some pine cones.
If you missed out on the opportunity to buy some pine cone bird feeders at our fayre in November why not make your own? Simply collect the largest cones that you can find when you are out for a walk in the woods and then fill them with scrummy bird pudding. Don't wory if the cones are closed, they will open out if you leave them in a warm, dry sunny place. (Or you can place them in a warm oven to speed the process up.) Once they are open you can fill them with a mixture of softened lard to which bird seed has been added.This is a messy job but the birds will be very grateful!
Green Britain Day
On Friday 10th July pupils joined with millions of people across the country in their efforts to make Britain a greener place. Pupils made simple, achievable Green Footprint Pledges in their attempts to take action towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
Here are some of their pledges :
I promise to...
- Turn off the lights when I leave the room.
- Play outside when it is nice.
- Always switch my computer off after use.
- Turn the water off when I'm brushing my teeth.
- Remember to take a bag with me when I go shopping.
- Make a compost heap in my garden.
What will you do?
How Low can You Go?
On Friday 19th June, Colliers Green Primary School took part in , 'How Low Can You Go Day?' We started the day with some limbo dancing but the aim of the day was to reduce our energy consumption.
Meter readings were taken before the event to measure our average energy consumption and we attempted to reduce this by up to 50% by turning off all unnecessary appliances. This included the staffroom kettle! The day raised awareness about how everyone can save energy and we are proud to announce that we reduced our energy consumption by 56% on the day.
Mr Pratt, our School Improvement Partner, comes prepared for his meeting with Mrs Nash on 'How Low Can You Go Day?', armed with a torch and a flask!
Nature's Bounty
Children at Colliers Green Primary School have been putting the many different plants that grow in and around our school grounds to good use by creating beautifully scented bath bombs and refreshing summer drinks. Follow the recipes below (or try experimenting) to make your own natural products.
Lavender bath bombs
(Recipe taken from BBC -Grow Your Own Drugs programme)
Method
1.Heat the oven to 180C. Once it has reached that temperature, turn it off and place the lavender, hanging upside down, in the oven to dry for 2 hours. When dry, remove the flowers from the stalks and set aside.
2.For the next stage you need to make sure that the bowl that you are using, and your hands, are completely dry or the bomb will start fizzing!
Mix the citric acid and the bicarbonate of soda together in a glass bowl. Add 10 drops of the lavender oil and 1 tsp of the dried lavender flowers along with your chosen plant based oil. Mix everything together with a metal spoon.
3.Squash the mixture into a mould (we used plastic party beakers) or use biscuit cutters to create interesting shapes. If using a biscuit cutter place it on top of some baking paper and put the mixture inside it. Place any rose bud decorations on top and then press down with the back of a spoon. The oil now needs to evaporate so the bomb can set as a dry, hard block. Leave overnight to dry out.
Store your finished bath bomb in tin foil to keep out moisture and wrap in pretty paper as a gift for someone special.
Bath bombs made by Colliers Green pupils.
Elderflower Champagne Cordial
This summer drink is best made in May or early June while the elderflowers look like beautiful creamy white lace. Don't use flowers that have started to turn brown.
Ingredients
25 elderflower heads (no green)
4 oranges
1.5 kg (3lbs) sugar
2 litres (4 pints) water
1 lemon
50g (2oz) citric acid - available from chemists
Method
1. Boil the water and leave to cool.
2. Pour the cooled water over the elderflower heads, sugar, citric acid and the finely sliced oranges and lemons.
3. Leave for 48 hours and then strain through a sieve lined with muslin and pour into thoroughly clean bottles.
4. Store in the fridge and dilute to use.
Children from Class 2 enjoy drinking the elderflower cordial that they made.
Solar power and water hippos come to Colliers Green!
Solar power
To remind us all about trying to travel to school in a more sustainable way, the Green Team have chosen this new solar powered water fountain in the form of a tricycle to provide an additional attraction in our herb garden. The solar panel, next to the tricycle, powers the pump that circulates the water through each of the terracotta bowls. We hope you enjoy this new water feature and continue to travel to school in the most environmentally friendly way possible by walking, cycling or car sharing.
Put the 'green' in Colliers Green and travel with a friend!
Solar power is one of the cleanest forms of renewable energy available and we hope that in the near future we may be able to harness more of the sun's energy to heat our school.
Water Hippos
These are not a new introduction to our school pond but a low cost water saving device to help conserve water in toilet cisterns! Every time a toilet is flushed the Hippo saves approximately 3 litres of water. We have recently installed these in all our toilets in school to help save water. If you would like to save water in your own home find out more by visiting www.hippo-the -watersaver.co.uk
Recycling Reminders
A big thank you for all your recycling efforts over the last few months. Here are a few reminders of some of the things Colliers Green Primary School are recycling.
Stamps – We are still collecting stamps for the RSPB albatross appeal. For further information please visit www.rspb.org.uk. Tear off the used stamps from your post and put them in the albatross box in the corridor.
Ink cartridges-We have changed our recycling company to CashForCartridges.co.uk as we can obtain a better price for our ink cartridges from here and we do not need to pay a collection charge. Please note:- They are unable to recycle toner cartridges and if any cartridges not on their list are included in the collection box we will be billed for their disposal. Please visit their website for up to date information on the cartridges that can be recycled or check the list in the office. It helps if everyone does their own checking;otherwise it is a very time consuming activity! Many thanks for your help and support with this.We have a collection box for suitable cartridges in the office.
We can now start the scheme again to earn green leaves to spend next year so watch this space to find out how you can help.
Remember that small actions can add up to saving lots of energy and help fight climate change.
Well done to the children who made snakes. I'm sure you will agree that they are all ssssuper!
The Green Team
In February 09 Colliers Green signed the Kent Schools Action on Climate Change Pledge. This means that we are aiming to reduce our carbon emissions in line with targets set by Kent County Council and raise awareness within our school of climate change. The energy that is required to heat and light our buildings comes mainly from the burning of fossil fuels and this releases CO2 gas into the atmosphere. CO2 is one of the harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. To help us meet our targets we need you to save energy.Thank you to those of you who entered our poster competition to encourage everyone to save energy by switching off lights, turning heating controls down, shutting doors, reducing food waste etc.The winners of the competition were Jessica, Lydia, Hannah and Verity and their posters will be appearing around school soon. On Saturday 28th March at 8.30pm millions of people around the world turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour- as part of WWFs global effort to show that it is possible to take action on climate change. We also took part in Earth Hour although we weren't at school by turning off our lights at home for one hour on that evening. Dinners were eaten by candlelight, blind tasting sessions to guess the food or drink were carried out and lots of you had fun playing hide and seek in the dark and telling horror stories.
Visit wwf.org.uk/earthhour/schools for further information Fairtrade Fortnight 23rd February-6th March On Friday 6th March we went bananas!
Fairtrade aims to strenghten the position of small farmers and workers by enabling them to earn a fair price for their produce. A stable price is agreed to cover the costs of sustainable production and a premium is paid to producer organisations to invest in community projects. Farmers decide how they want to spend this premium. In the Windward Islands farmers use the premium to improve the way they farm, to build community centres and buy equipment for schools.
To celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight children took part in a treasure hunt around the school grounds to find a number of different Fairtrade items.The children learned to recognise the Fairtrade logo and discovered that there are a huge variety of Fairtade items available including fresh produce, tea, coffee, chocolate,flowers, sports equipment, clothing and cleaning materials.
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The children then joined with others from all over the world to try and set a new record for simultaneous banana eating over a 24 hour period. By munching our way through over a 100 Fairtrade bananas we supported producers in developing countries and helped smash the world record by contributing to the 380,000 bananas that were eaten during this time.
Look out for other Fairtrade products and help farmers from around the world support their families, strengthen their communities and protect the environment. For further information visit www.fairtrade.org.uk or www.traidcraft.co.uk
Wildlife Garden Award
On the evening of 21st October we were thrilled when the school was presented with the Wild about Gardens Community 2008 award by the mayor of Tunbridge Wells. This award was given in recognition of all the hard work undertaken by the whole school to make our grounds as wildlife friendly as possible.
Green Team News
On Tuesday 21st October we had our first meeting for the newly appointed Green Team . The main focus of this meeting was to consider how pupils could travel to school in a more environmentally friendly way. The narrow lanes which lead to our rural school makes it unsafe for most children to walk or cycle to school so it was decided to encourage a car share scheme. This scheme will be launched in the Spring term with the slogan, 'Put the green in Colliers Green-travel with a friend!' A green travel trophy will be awarded each week to the class that travels to school in the most environmentally friendly way. Thanks to Mrs Dracott for helping us with this.