In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis invites us all to: ‘work with generosity and tenderness in protecting this world which God has entrusted to us.’

 “Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue;
it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.”
Pope Francis, Laudato Si’

What do our Eco Warriors do?

Eco-Warriors are pupils in Year 5 who have an active role in school.  Our Eco Warriors meet regularly with Mrs Smith to discuss ways of improving our school to make it more environmentally friendly. The Eco Warriors have opportunities to share their ideas as well as influence decisions that are made and then feedback important information to the classes. Each week, the Eco Warriors are in charge of planting, weeding and litter picking around the school.

They actively promote:-

Recycling:

• Paper
• Card
• Plastic
• Food

Saving energy:

• Switching off lights
• Switching off ICT equipment, rather than leaving it on standby
• Closing doors to keep heat in

Conserving energy:

• Water taps are turned off
• Taking care of our equipment so that it lasts well
• Using resources in a way that minimises waste

Care for the environment

• Encourage walking rather that using cars to travel to school.
• Using litter bins to keep our school and local area clean
• Designing our school grounds to be rich habitats for wildlife

NOVEMBER 2024 -

National Tree Week

What is it?

National Tree Week is something we are excited to celebrate as we love our Woodland area, full of mixed British trees. National Tree Week is all about embracing the beauty of trees and giving thanks for all they give us and our wildlife.

What can you do?

• Plant a tree or sapling in your school grounds
• Go on a tree hunt in your local area / school grounds to see which types of tree are in your area
• See how many tree facts your group can find out
• Find out how much our trees help us and the animals around us
• Find a tree and tell it how amazing it is!!
• Collect and forage fallen leaves and twigs and create beautiful pieces of art from our trees
• Leaf Poems

What are the Eco Warriors doing?

We have successfully applied to the Woodland trust to donate over 120 trees to our school.  Over the next few months, the classes (with the help of the Eco Warriors) will be planting in our school grounds. 

Eco Warriors National Tree Week Assembly

Over the past few weeks, our Eco Warriors have been preparing an assembly to share information about National Tree week with the whole school. 

Eco Warrior Prayer

All powerful God, you created all things, 

and you are present throughout the universe and in every creature,

You embrace with your tender love all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,

so that we may have the strength and courage

to protect all life and the beauty of our world,

preserving it from pollution and destruction.

Fill us with your peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one,

And caring for the Earth, our common home.

Teach us to discover the worth of every creature on this earth,

Let us protect those at risk and in danger,

Encourage us as we seek justice, love and peace.

Stay with us each day, with the power of your grace.

Through Christ our Lord

Amen

Level 1 - We had to starting our school's gardening journey and getting growing.

Level 2 - Our gardening began to supports wellbeing, use pupils' ideas and we developed new growing skills.

Level 3 -  We had to learn about planet-friendly gardening, growing a range of plants and keeping our plants healthy.

Level 4 - We had to link gardening to the curriculum and garden to support wildlife.

Level 5 -  We have been gardening with our community, gardening through the seasons and planning for the future.

Sunflower Competition

On the 26th March the Eco Warriors and Mrs Smith went on a trip to The Laudato Si' Centre at Wardley Hall.   We took part in many activities and we learnt more about how to care for our common home.  The instructors taught us how to create a fire safely, whittle sticks to a point and how to create crosses out of sticks.  We even played some games in the forest.  Later, we went into the walled garden and watered a variety of plants as they explained how to look after them.   We really enjoyed our time at the centre and we have brought back some wonderful ideas that we can do at our school.

Great Spring Clean

We also took part in the ‘Great Spring Clean’. We got into small teams and collected all of the litter from our school and the surrounding area. We couldn’t believe how much litter there actually was. In just a few weeks we collected three bin bags of rubbish!