A lot has been going on at Wyburns recently to try and raise our Green Credentials.  Mr Stone has been very busy tracking down various grants to support us in our work and below is a summary of some of the exciting things that are going on at school.

Solar Energy
We have been awarded two separate grants that amount to £29,000 to install solar panels to the roof of the school. These panels will convert sunlight into electricity that will feed directly into our fuse board, thus creating a saving on our electricity bill. The children will be able to monitor a meter in the school that will show how much energy we are creating at any one time. The meter will also show how much of our ‘surplus’ energy we are able to sell back to the electricity company. This work should be completed over the February half term.

Breathing Spaces, a lottery funded organisation, has given us a grant of £6,000 in order to work on three main environmental areas; an allotment area, the pond area and the wooded area near to the sunken playground.

Allotment Area
With help from Groundwork South East we are planning to run a gardening club for the children for 20 weeks, commencing after the spring half-term break. The club will run on our ‘Clubs Afternoon’ and so won’t impact too much on the curriculum which is already being tightly squeezed. The allotment will be located just beside Mr Windle’s house and will be fenced off with a padlocked gate.

Pond Area
The hawthorn hedgerow that separates the sunken playground from the pond has now been coppiced and although it is not the most attractive sight at the moment, we know that the trees will quickly grow into a thicker and healthier hedgerow. The reason for the coppicing is two fold; a thicker hedge will provide a more secure barrier to the pond whilst, at the same time, allowing more light into the pond/meadow area. Additional light will encourage more wild plants to grow, will help the apple trees remain healthy and create a better habitat in which the pond will flourish. Once the apple trees are re-established the children will be able to collect the fruit for use in cookery lessons.

Wooded Area
We are so lucky that we have such a rich natural environment at Wyburns but one area we haven’t fully exploited is the wooded area on the corner of the sunken and infant playgrounds. The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers has agreed to do some much needed clearing in this area, levelling the ground using the wood chippings from the coppicing work. Once some space has been cleared in the wooded area we will be able to establish a ‘Forest School’ area. The Forestry Commission has given us a grant for staff training so that we can take full advantage of this outdoor area.

More Trees
The Woodland Trust has given us more trees to plant around the adventure playground and infant playground. As well as the obvious environmental contribution, the trees will, eventually, provide much needed shade for the infant playground.

Eco Council
To compliment Class Council and School Council, we are setting up an Eco Council where children will get the opportunity to give us their thoughts on ‘green’ issues. This will contribute to our bid to achieving an Eco School Green Flag award.

Green Monitors
Each class is in the process of appointing classroom monitors whose job will be to ensure that lights are turned off whenever rooms are unoccupied, paper waste is taken to the recycling bins and to ensure that taps are turned off and doors closed during playtimes and lunchtimes.

School Dinners
From January 2009 we have changed our catering contractors to Ashlyn Organics. School dinners will be cooked on the premises from fresh produce that is mainly organically grown or reared, or is supplied by local Essex farms. Not only will food be more tasty and nutritious, it will have travelled less ‘food miles’ to arrive on the children’s plates.

The next step is to talk to children and parents to do something about the number of crisps and chocolate bars that are consumed at break times. This one may need a lot of will-power and resolve to achieve.

Cookery Club
Two members of staff are about to attend a series of cookery workshops so that they can lead a cookery club in school. We will be looking for parent volunteers soon to assist us in this project, so watch this space.

The most important issue of all this work is that we are teaching the children that the environment does matter.  Our philosophy is that we don't actually own the planet, we only have it on a short term lease and we must ensure that what we leave behind for the next generations is at least as healthy as what we inherited.