First Federation Trust
This school year we have a new group of ECO members who are excited for the challenge of keeping our school as ECO friendly as possible. Currently, our ECO members patrol the school most lunchtimes, ensuring all lights are switched off, the bins are being used properly and keeping an eye on our pen recycling.
We are looking forward to the warmer months where we plan to make use of our outdoor spaces, learn more about sustainability and keep our school grounds and surrounding areas clean and tidy.
In exciting news, Gatehouse Primary Academy has been awarded to be a 'Friend of The Honey Bee' from the British Beekeepers Association. We look forward to working with the British Beekeepers Association to give our pupils a detailed understanding of the importance of Honey Bees in our ECO-system.
Eco Group litter pick of school grounds
Minutes 2020/21
How to make your own beeswax wrap - 19.04.21
A two minute video from Katherine (KS2), Young People's Ambassador, Dawlish Against Plastic
How to make your own Eco friendly wrapping paper - 24.03.21
Katherine - Young people's ambassador for Dawlish Against Plastic - 2 minute video on how to make your own Eco friendly wrapping paper.
What a load of rubbish!
On Tuesday 12th February, the Eco Group took part in a beach clean at Beach Cove and Coryton Cove. We were met by Vanessa Riley from Dawlish Against Plastic who assisted us. We found old cans, bottle caps, fishermen nets and lots more. We compared which beach had the most rubbish and were surprised by the amount of rubbish found in such a short period of time. We found it quite tricky to leave the beach as we kept trying to find more rubbish but we are hoping to do another beach clean in the future. We will be presenting an assembly to our school to show everyone the rubbish removed from the beach. We had a great afternoon and we know there is a little less rubbish in the sea due to our help. We would like to thank the parent helpers for their fantastic support on our beach clean.
The Eco Group meet weekly to discuss how we can promote caring for our environment. The children bring ideas raise in their classes and also report news back to their classes. The Eco Group is child led and the children decide what the focus should be, facilitated by a teacher.
Eco Schools Bronze award
We are delighted to share our fantastic news that we have now earned our Eco Schools bronze award. To earn this award, our school had to meet the criteria set by Eco Schools which included setting up an Eco Committee, undertaking an environmental review and producing an action plan following on from the environmental review.
Our school has taken part in initiatives such as Waste Week, Switch off Fortnight and applying for a grant to enable us to compost our fruit and vegetable waste. The children have also been learning about looking after our precious plant throughout their lesson which has included writing to the Prime Minister to ban single use plastic.
We are really proud of our achievement and now looking forward to earning our Silver Award, and finally the Green Award. Well done to everyone at our school!