Recycling & Sustainability

Our school is committed to the principles of sustainability and recycling.

There are eight 'doorways' to sustainability in the DCFS National Framework for Sustainable Schools and all schools have to have fulfilled the 'sustainable criteria' relating to them by 2020.

These 8 doorways concern the following areas:-

• Food & Drink, Energy & Water, Travel & Traffic, Purchasing & Waste,
• Buildings and Grounds, Inclusion & Participation, Local Well-Being and the Global Dimension.

Our school's practice in these areas can be seen in our use of recycled paper (eg tissues, toilet paper and photocopy paper). Each class has its own paper/plastics recycling bin which we use as part of the local authority's recycling scheme. We recycle our fruit onto the compost heap which then is used to fertilise our planting beds, thus improving the sustainabilityy of our school grounds. The produce from these beds is even used for our lunches in that we harvest many vegetables and salad plants for use in our school lunch provision.

Pupils and staff also organise Healthy Snack days when we sell our crops for a contribution towards the equipment we need to improve our Gardening Club activities and resources. Our lunches are provided by the LA (Metro Catering) which itself is committed to ensuring the best possible sourcing and provision of healthy food which will improve our pupils' understanding of and access to the best lifestyle possible.

The school's curriculum also addresses healthy & sustainable food, drink and living/community issues and these messages are reinforced through activities in our local community eg working with the local allotment society. Parents are regularly informed about these issues and our new Parent Council will play a key role in developing this understanding and involvement in the future.

The school's pupil council has also worked hard to raise awareness of energy conservation eg in designing light switch signs to avoid wasting electricity and thereby improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Please see our 'useful websites' page to view other information about this topic.