Welcome to our Eco Page!
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.
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' is now embarking on further projects to achieve the coveted Green Flag award.
Click the document at the bottom of the page to view our action plan.
'The Big Tidy Up'
We started the year by taking part in the Big Tidy Up organised by the Keep Britain Tidy group. Members of the school's Green Team were horrified when they noticed some fly tipping along the lane that leads to school and decided to take action. The children were shocked that people could spoil this beautiful lane so on Thursday 11th September a small group of pupils (and a womble) set about clearing this rubbish up. The children were keen to prevent further fly tipping so invited the local press along in the hope that pictures of children clearing the rubbish may embarrasss those involved and make them think twice before mindlessly dumping their rubbish in the countryside! (The Green Team appeared in an article in the following week's Courier.) Edward Bushnell also designed a poster for the site explaining that children from Colliers Green had cleaned the area and requested that people take their rubbish home in future.
To help remind everyone to keep our environment litter free please purchase a womble trolley token from school.
Recycling
At Colliers Green Primary School we pride ourselves on our recycling initiatives. Our garden waste is composted and we make use of a wormery to recycle the children’s fruit and vegetable waste. Paper is recycled and children are encouraged to ‘reduce and reuse’ e.g. by using both sides of the paper and making use of scrap paper where appropriate. We also promote a number of recycling schemes that we would like you to help us with.
Stamps
Please tear off the used stamps from your post and put them in the albatross box in the hall corridor. We will then forward these to the RSPB who sell the stamps to help fund their work to save the albatross. For further information please visit www.rspb.org.uk
Ink cartridges
We have signed up for an innovative recycling programme called ‘Recycool ‘which turns PDA handsets and used printer cartridges into cash for the school.
You can support our Recycool initiative by donating your own empty printer cartridges and PDAs. We have a collection box for these items in the office. As well as raising funds for the school collecting these items also helps the environment. Handsets and cartridges contain toxic substances which, if they are dumped in landfill, can leak into the surrounding soil and pollute the earth.
Getting your workplace involved in the programme can generate even more funds for the school as well as benefiting the business - log on to www.recycool.org to find out how. To sign up, all your employer has to do is to quote our account number VEN0312824) on the website or call 08451 30 20 50. ((Please note: Recycool does not accept Epson inkjet cartridges).
We are also recycling mobile phones through ‘fones4schools’. New families to the school will have received an information pack about fones4school but if anybody would like further information about this scheme please see Mrs Moorhouse.
Throwing an old mobile phone away is not a good idea. Mobiles contain cadmium, a dangerous and highly toxic substance. Once dumped in landfill sites, the phone casing corrodes and the cadmium leaches into the soil. Recycling your phone can also help developing countries. Many developing nations do not have a comprehensive landline infrastructure and mobile phones are often the only way of communicating. Fones4schools guarantee that every phone collected will be recycled or sent to developing countries, to help improve communication.
Another reason for recycling your phone is that the school earns £300 for every 200 phones collected. We have already banked 105 phones so please help us reach our target and protect the environment by handing in any unwanted phones to the office. For further information please visit www.fones4schools.co.uk
The Big Tidy Up
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As you can see from the photos, our womble also visited Class 2 in the orchard to check out the harvest!
The grand opening of the pond dipping platform May 2008
In May we were honoured to welcome Fergus Garrett from Great Dixter to Colliers Green Primary School to officially open our pond area. Pupils sang and played musical instruments to celebrate the occasion and the PTFA supplied delicious refreshments. As well as making a thought provoking speech, Fergus Garrett donated a bucket of sludge from his pond at Great Dixter to our school pond. We are looking forward to finding out what additional wildlife we may now discover in our pond!
We are continuing our work to create a wildflower meadow near the pond. In October we are hoping to harvest the meadow using traditional techniques and tools with the help of the Kent High Weald Project Team. Watch this space for further details.
Get the nature bug and explore this link.
www.naturegrid.org.uk/explorer
Our Links page will also take you to the 'Nature Detectives' website where you will find loads of fun activites for summer holidays!