Eco Council Mission Statement 

Our beautiful world, community and school are all important to us. At St Richard's Catholic Primary School we are on a mission to make sure that we keep the environment around us clean and tidy. We care deeply for God’s creatures and want to ensure our school grounds are well kept, litter free and sustainable.  As a school, we also strive to be energy efficient, by turning lights off, making sure water is not wasted and that we don't waste resources, especially paper. 

We are inspired by the letter from Pope Francis - Laudato Si' Care for our Common Home.  Pope Francis has written a letter addressed to every single person on this planet asking us all to protect the Earth, our common home.  He talks about how the Earth is God's gift to us, that it is full of beauty and wonder, it belongs to everyone and sadly, it has never been so hurt or mistreated.  

How can we help? How can we look after our Common Home? Please watch the video below and let us know your thoughts.  Our Eco Council want to love our world and love our neighours.

The world cannot wait! We can help by...

- turning off lights

- reducing water waste

- recycling

- living more simply and not taking more than our fair share

Waste...

Our most recent whole school assembly was about reducing waste.

Not just things, but energy too!

Our Eco Council came up with a few good ideas that we are going to try to follow as a school.

Here's the list they came up with:

Meeting with Green Councillor Sarah Sharp

Monday 6th December, Eco Council met with Green Councillor Sharp to discuss how we can make Chichester a better place to live.  She also wanted to find out what our Eco Council have been up to and if we needed any help with future projects.  The children were very enthusiastic and keen to show her our Eco Board and all the things we have been doing to help our school environment.

Milo really enjoyed making Eco-friendly Christmas decorations and thinking about how to make his Christmas greener.

Scarlett enjoyed planting flowers in our school grounds to attract insects.

We discussed Fair Trade and the benefits of buying Fair-Trade.  From this conversation we thought about researching a project that would 'twin our toilets' with another country.

We also discussed food waste and the possibility of composting our fruit and vegetable in a raised compost bin.

Eco Council were also keen to discuss 'walk to school' weeks, recording wildlife in our school environment and having a green roof.

Sarah Sharp ended our meeting by asking the children what they love about Chichester, what they would like to see more of and what they would like to change.  She handed a sheet for every child in the school to fill in - children can think about these things and they will be sent to a planning committee in the Spring and displayed in the Assembly rooms in Chichester.  

Lydia said she loves going to the park with her mum and sister and would like to see more parks.  

Juliette said she would like to see more green roofs and and initiative that made every new build house plant a tree.

Scarlett wondered if there could be rules about where we can drive in Chichester and electric cars should be cheaper.

Milo would like to see more variety of sport in Chichester, such as basketball and ice skating.   

Global COP26 Summit - Glasgow

This November 2021, world leaders will gather in Scotland for COP26 - a much anticipated conference for climate for the climate crisis we are in - to decide the next steps that nations must take to protect our planet.

 
To show decision-makers that we stand united in our hopes for a cleaner, healthier world, we’re joining the Wave of Hope campaign led by Crack the Crises – a coalition of more than 70 organisations from across the UK. 

Eco Councillors are adding their own message of hope to a homemade ‘hand’ and will display it in our windows and Eco Board. We will take photos of these hands to be added into a gallery to be shown at the climate summit so that global leaders can see that we stand united. 

These hands represent a wave of hope and change, as more of us speak up and demand action for a better future. 

'Grow your own' and 'Terra-cycle'  Our aims for 2020-2021
 

Despite COVID challenges, Eco Councillors have continued with their mission to make a difference to our environment! After the lockdown in March 2020, we started growing our own fruits and vegetables to harvest for snack time.  We are currently growing peas, green beans, carrots, strawberries, radishes, beetroot, lettuce and pepper! Eco Councillors thought about the plastic used in supermarket produce and vowed to bring their snacks in re-usable pots and try and grow their own at home! We will post pictures of our green-fingered Eco Council gardens from home here!

Eco Councillors also became members of Terra-cycle - a nationwide recycling program for schools.  We chose to recycle used writing instruments this year and see what sort of response we would get.  Each classroom is equipped with a recycled cardboard box to collect used writing instruments. They will be taken to a local stationary in town and money will be donated to charity depending on how much is recycled.  

As always Eco Councillors are busy in their classroom bubbles making sure taps and lights are off when not in use, paper is being re-used and recycled in the correct way and we are steering clear of single-use plastic