Eco Council
Our Pledge
Why do we have an Eco Committee?
The Eco committee is an ideal opportunity for our pupils to get more involved in the way Longwick is run and help it to be environmentally friendly. This year, we are on a mission to reduce our waste, save energy and ensure all staff, parents and pupils are aware of their environmental impact and the ways they can make changes. The Eco Council benefits the whole school, pupils and teachers, because it provides opportunities for pupils to communicate their feelings as well as influence decisions that are made. Councillors develop skills such as confidence, communication and negotiation. It is the responsibility of each Councillor to ensure that they express both their own views and the views of all the other pupils they represent. As the future generation, it is crucial that our children at Longwick make a positive impact on our planet by starting right here, at home and at school.
Who can be a member of the School's Council/ Eco Committee?
Our Eco Council is made up of two pupils from each class from Year 1 – Year 6 who are voted for by their classmates.
What do we do?
Members of the Council take part in discussions and votes and also feed back any relevant information to their class and to the whole school. At times they are requested to ask their class for ideas or take class votes relating to discussions by the Council. Members meet with Mrs Walford every fortnight, to discuss their ideas and to monitor and review our eco projects and drives.
What have we done?
October 2023
This term we have listened to our 'pupil voice' across school to see what issues are important to Longwick. We have assembled our eco committee and begun to review what the school has done so far. Over the coming weeks, will be setting targets for the school in terms of reduction of waste (including our new recycling bins), reducing energy use (including colour coding light switches for usage) and aiming to reuse as much as possible (e.g. scrap paper and cardboard for art and DT projects).
We are a member of Eco Schools too!
Home - Eco Schools (eco-schools.org.uk)
In February, 2022, working collaboratively with Pipers Corner School, we had a visitor to the school; Phil Williams (Environmentalist in Residence @ Pipers Corner).
He is an environmentalist having started off his career in television as a presenter on BBC Education which took him all around the world. Whilst in the Amazon Rainforest, he became inspired to reach out to as many people as possible through his educational talks to educate and inform. Phil’s visit outlined the importance of Sustainability and Respect for the Environment and ALL people. Phil made us all think about how our everyday actions impact on the world and from that awareness encourage us to live more sustainably, especially for our future generations. Remember what we do and use today will have an impact on the world we are creating for future generations.
Our Eco Councillors were invited to lunch with him, where they discussed ideas of what they can do to raise the profile of the group and have a positive impact on our school community.
As a school, we have taken part in “Switch Off Fortnight” which aims to teach children about the importance of saving energy by switching off anything electrical when it is not being used. The Eco Council ensured that this was happening in school by going around the school and making sure that lights, monitors, whiteboards etc were switched off.