Coleshill Church of England Infant School

As part of Biodiversity Year we have created a bug habitat area and the children are learning about minibeasts. We are encouraging bugs to live in our school garden. A ‘Big Tidy Up Saturday’ took place and mums, dads, staff and children cleared litter from the school garden and grounds. A ‘bug hotel’ was made, which we hope will soon have lots of minibeasts checking in.

We highlighted Earth Day by organising a Mufti day at school. Everyone took part, including pupils, staff and even our chair of governors! We took part in the ‘Wear something bright – turn off the light’ campaign. Everyone wore bright clothes and some had crazy-coloured hair. During assembly we talked about ways of reducing pollution and saving energy. Everyone agreed that we should use cars less, walk more or at least car-share. The younger pupils used fluorescent paints and crayons to make bright pictures to highlight Earth Hour.

The whole school took part in Fairtrade Fortnight. We started by having a special assembly about Fairtrade and asked parents if they would take part in this year’s ‘Big Swap’ to change to Fairtrade products. We had a display of everyday Fairtrade items such as tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar and bananas. The older children learnt how these items were produced, writing for instance about cocoa production and how bananas are grown. Some children wrote poems or drew pictures and Fairtrade logos for our display. On the last day we held a Fairtrade tea party. The children played international games in the playground before sitting down to a teaparty of Fairtrade hot chocolate, tea and cakes made with Fairtrade ingredients. …

Read all of Coleshill School’s Fairtrade Fortnight – Mission Update!

The children made pledges for the planet, writing one for each area on a leaf which went on our Roots & Shoots pledge tree. They coloured them green for the environment, brown for people and orange for animals. We had a special whole school circle time to discuss our pledges and talked about how we can all make a difference to our planet.

The Reception Class have been learning about animal habitats near and far.

We have been learning about recycling. A member of the county recycling team came to talk to us about waste education. We provide recycling facilities in our school grounds for all the village. We learnt the importance of reusing and reducing waste. We are all responsible for keeping our environment tidy and reducing energy consumption.

Our children have been learning about how to save water. We had an eco-assembly about water conservation. The children gave their own ideas about how they could save water at school and at home. We are going to make sure all the taps are switched off after use and a campaign was launched to persuade families to ditch bottled water and use tap water in reusable bottles. The children have made posters which are displayed around the school to spread the message about the importance of saving water. We had a collection to send money to a charity to help children in Africa have clean water.

The year 2 pupils undertook a project on Africa. They learnt about global warming and the effect it has had in many African countries. We had a campaign to collect old mobile phones and ink cartridges which we recycled and sent the money to an African charity which helps people to grow their own food.

We launched an energy saving campaign at school, involving all pupils. The children made posters and we wrote to parents asking them to support us in our campaign by switching off lights when a room is empty and switch off standby at home when appliances are not being used. Posters are placed around the school to remind everyone to save energy.

We did a whole school project on trees and produced a display of our studies.