Eco Committee / Eco Pwyllgor

Introducing our brand new Eco Code ...

Following a successful meeting, the Eco Committee have used ideas from pupils which were provided as part of a homework task during October half term, to design our new Eco Code.  This will be in place from now until the autumn term of 2025 and can be seen below.

Many thanks to Isla, Ethan, Willow, Isla and the Eco Committee for their contributions to the new code. 

Please see below our Action Plan for this year.  The Eco Committee has worked together to decide upon targets to work towards this year.  We used the Environmental Review and ideas from Platinum Schools Challenges which were shared by Catrin Hughes from Keep Wales Tidy (Eco Schools).

We are looking forward to making a start on the targets in January 2024. 

Following a visit from Catrin Hughes, Eco-Schools Co-ordinator for Keep Wales Tidy, we are pleased to share that we have been awarded Platinum Eco-Schools status for the 9^th time!

Below is information sent by Catrin following on from her visit on Wednesday of this week:

‘Many thanks to you and the Eco-Committee for your time during the recent visit. I am pleased to see that the Eco-Schools process is still running effectively at Mountain Lane Primary School and that you have continued to progress with new projects and ideas. It was a pleasure to speak with last year’s Eco-Committee and hear about the success of the projects to rehome Christmas jumpers, keep the community clean of litter, and the whole school’s engagement with the Earth Hour energy saving event. It was also wonderful to speak with this year’s Eco-Committee members and hear their ideas and enthusiasm for more planet positive action at Mountain Lane this coming year.

I am delighted to confirm that you have retained your Platinum Eco-Schools status and wish you every success with this year’s projects. Maintaining the Eco-Schools Platinum status is a fantastic achievement. The school, staff and pupils, should feel proud of their hard work and commitment.’

A big thank you to last year’s Eco Committee for all of their hard work, enthusiasm and commitment to the initiatives which were carried out; they were a pleasure to work with.  We look forward to working with the newly appointed committee to continue to make a positive contribution to the environment both locally and globally.

Our newly appointed Eco Committee Members are as follows:

Year 2 – Leo and Ella

Year 3 – Honey and Rosie

Year 4 – Ethan and Layla

Year 5 – Vinnie and Georgia

Year 6 – Finlay and Ethan

Action Plan Target 1: Lichen Survey

On Wednesday 20th March, members of the Eco Committee carried out a survey to find out about the growth of lichen in our local area.  The children surveyed trees on school grounds and also on The Common.  The children measured the girth of 4 trees and then had to look to see whether any lichen was growing on its trunk.  If lichen was present, the children had to identify the type of lichen and then estimate how much was growing on the tree using a key.  Our results are as follows:

Tree 1 - Girth 70 cm lichen present Melanelixia covering approximately one full page of A4 

Tree 2 - Girth 67 cm lichen present Flavoparmelia covering approximately half of a page of A4

Tree 3 - Girth 113 cm lichen present Leafy Xanthoria covering approximately half of a page of A4

Tree 4 - Girth 75.5 cm lichen present Leafy Xanthoria covering approximately one full page of A4

Our next task is to design a campaign to reduce car engine idling around school.

Many thanks to members of the Committee who took part in this survey and to Mrs. Hollis and Miss. Hibbert for accompanying the children on Wednesday. 

Eco Code 2021-2023

Please see below our Eco Code.  Our Eco Committee have worked hard to create the code using ideas from pupils who took part in a homework task.  Pupils were awarded a prize during recent assemblies if their ideas were used in the final code.  Da iawn!  We hope that you like it. 

21st April we carried out an Earth Hour in school to coincide with Earth Day.  We tried to use less electricity between 2.00 pm and 3.00 pm and calculated the savings you can see below.  Well done to all pupils and staff for taking part in this event. 

We have received a certificate from the Young People's Trust for the Environment to recognise the Eco Committee's efforts in carrying out our litter picks and for being 'Green Action Takers'. 

We have created a mini-landfill site that contains litter collected during our recent litter pick.  We have also buried an apple core and a biodegradable food waste bag.  We hope to unearth the contents in 12 months to see what has happened to the waste - will any of it have decomposed? 

19th May 2023 - this morning the Eco Committee have carried out their second litter pick.  We again picked litter on Knowle Lane, the Alleyway which runs parallel to the school field, and also on the Common.  We found lots of different types of litter which we again grouped into glass, metal cans, plastic and paper/cardboard.

We are pleased to announce that we found less litter this morning than we did on our previous pick, showing that our actions have perhaps encouraged people to be more aware of the need to dispose of their litter appropriately. 

The results can be seen below:

Glass - 0.45kg (previously 3.81kg)

Plastic - 0.53kg (previously 3.81kg)

Metal Cans - 0.42kg (previously 1.27kg)

Paper and Cardboard - 0.22kg (previously 0.63kg)

Members of the Eco Committee have taken part in a litter pick around school grounds.  We split into two groups and picked litter on Knowle Lane, the Alleyway which runs parallel to the school field and also on the Common.  We found lots of different types of litter which we have grouped into glass, metal cans, paper and cardboard and plastic.  Once we have weighed each type of litter we will use the data in school to create graphs, infographics and posters to try to dosciurage people from dropping litter. We hope that you enjy the photographs that we have taken.  

We have now weighed all of the litter collected and the results are as follows:

Glass - 3.81kg

Plastic - 3.81kg

Metal Cans - 1.27kg

Paper and Cardboard - 0.63kg

Year 6 pupils have created bar charts on graph paper and either bar charts or pie charts using Google Sheets to display the data. 

Blwyddyn 2 have been creating litter posters to support the work of the Eco Committee - Diolch. 

Please find below the results from our Christmas Jumper Swap.  We calculated how much we saved in Carbon Dioxide, water and money. 

Christmas Jumper Swap Savings

Christmas Jumper Swap - pupils have designed posters to advertise the jumper swap which is due to take place on Friday 2nd December.  If you have any spare jumpers at home, please can you either bring them into school or drop them off at Shaz's Shabby Chic in Buckley.

The winning posters, by Holly Class 13 AND Edith, Class 6, can be seen below - diolch.