Global Citizens and Sustainability

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Dr Jane Goodhall

Intent

The intent of our Global citizen work at Broadheath Primary School is to inspire our pupils interest in the world around them, to nurture a respect for all, build a sense of belonging to a common humanity and help learners become responsible and active Global Citizens.

We aim to teach the concept that all people of the world are members of a whole worldwide community and we are responsible for protecting the Earth.

The Eco Committee

Our enthusiastic school ‘Eco Committee’ are passionate about caring about the environment and helping everyone in our school to take action as much as possible.

Our aim this year is to ‘make a difference’ to our school and the wider community. This year, our three focus areas are:

Litter

Biodiversity

Energy

What we have achieved so far

Recycling bins in our classrooms, corridors and staff room
Our waste is now collected by a carbon neutral company who help us to waste less and recycle more, and therefore divert waste from landfill.
Created posters on litter and recycling and the impact it is having around our school grounds.

Had regular Litter-Picks around our school site.
Created natural habitats for birds and insects around our school site eg. a wildflower area, bird feeders, a Bug Hotel.

Our gardening team have created a gardening area with raised beds, where we can grow our own fruit and vegetables over the year.
Cleared all the fallen leaves from our school site in the autumn and stored them to create leaf mould for our growing beds.
Replaced all of our lighting in school with more energy efficient LED lights, some of which are now on sensors so are only on when someone walks in.

All windows have now been replaced and are double glazed in order to conserve energy.
Each year school have an energy certificate given to them. Due to the changes that we have made, we have moved up a grade D to a C.

Delivered an ‘Earth Day’ assembly to all key stages highlighting its importance and discussing plastic pollution and how we can tackle this as a school.

Plans for 2024/25:

Hold a ‘Plant a Tree Day’ where everyone comes dressed in tree colours and the money raised is used to buy trees for the school grounds.
Hold a ‘Power Down Day’ where classes run using the least amount of electricity that they can. Monitor how much is used in comparison to a ‘normal’ day.
Each class to have two ‘Power Down Champions’ who are responsible for turning off classroom lights etc.
To ensure sustainability is taught within our year group curriculums.

Dunham Sustainability Group

It’s recognised that access to nature provides multiple physical, mental and social well-being benefits for children and young people, as well as nurturing an appreciation for the natural environment. Working with Dunham, we want to play our part in helping our children who might have limited access to nature or a National Trust place connect with nature in a positive and healthy way.

As part of this project, we are completing an Eco Walk programme. Every half term, 14 children visit the same six sites across the Dunham estate for the day. Over the course of the year (six visits), the children develop a record of how each site changes according to the seasons, and cumulatively, over time, their records will be used to investigate the impact that climate change is having on the locations that they are studying. On every visit we complete all of the following activities:

Record the temperature and weather conditions.
Count the number, gender, and colour of deer that they can see from set points in the park, as well as the various stages of antler growth.
Record habitat changes in areas of standing deadwood.
Complete minibeast identification and use transects to count and record different species in an area of ground deadwood.
Pond dip to record species that are found at different times in the year.
Record how three distinct species of tree change throughout the year and use transects to record what is found underneath the trees during different seasons

Red House Farm Group

Through a link with our local farm, we are part of an exciting initiative providing pupils with a first-hand experience of life on an organic farm. Over the duration of this project, the pupils have observed the changes that occur across the year, planted crops, built bug hotels, investigated drainage, gained a deeper understanding of where our meat comes from and even moved herds of sheep!

“I have learned you are never too small to make a difference.”

Greta Thunburg