St Richard's Catholic

Primary School

Eco Council

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

Laudato Si' animation for children | CAFOD

Pope Francis has written a letter addressed to every single person on this planet asking us all to protect the Earth, our Common Home.

Whole School Assembly - Pope Francis Laudato Si'

Our Eco Board

Pope Francis' A Prayer For Our Earth | CAFOD

Our Eco Prayer

St Richard's Eco Prayer

Waste

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:

•We need to shut the outside doors when it’s cold to keep the heat inside. (Library and Hall)

•Lights – they’re being left on. Eco warriors will help, but it's up to us all to turn them off if there's no one in the room.

•Computers and boards are being left on when no one is in the room. Turn them off.

•Use both sides of a piece of paper. Use scrap paper if you’re drawing for fun.

•Stop snapping plastic rulers.

•Fruit. If you’re going to take it, eat it.

•Use one paper towel to dry your hands.

•Lids need to be put on the whiteboard pens and glues.

•Let’s use the pens until they run out. Don’t be tempted to throw away a decent pen because you want a new one.

•Pencils – don’t drop them, as the graphite inside shatters.

•The school uses a lot of paper for photocopying. Can we cut down? Could we work from the board, or use textbooks?

•Do we really need to laminate?

•Petrol. We need to walk if the journey is less than a mile.

• Investigate:

Do the iPads use energy when they’re fully charged?

• Can we cut down on food waste during lunchtimes?

The Big Bottle Top Collection! Together with Eco Warriors and Mini Vinnies - each class will have a recycled plastic bottle to collect as many bottle tops as they can! The bottle tops will be made into school furniture and the money raised from the bottle tops will go to Chestnut Tree House - Win Win!

Recycling bottle tops for charity - Chestnut Tree Hospice

COP26 - messages of hope to World Leaders

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.