Learning about Environmental Issues

In all that we do, we try to make ourselves greener. Through our curriculum and in Collective Worship, we aim to raise awareness about environmental issues. The school had solar panels installed in Summer 2021 and we have an ECO team who try to reduce energy waste. All that we do, complements the work of the Sway Greening Campaign in our wider community. ECO SWAY, a volunteer group, made up of residents and councillors, aims to raise awareness about environmental issues in Sway through the Sway Greening Campaign. 

New Forest Climate Change Assembly

This year, we have have learnt all about New Forest habitats - (peat, marshes, heathland and woodland) and the importance of visiting them responsibly and working with nature to help climate change. New Forest Park Authority led an assembly in Spring 2022 sharing ideas about how we can all make a difference in our local area. 

Sway Carnival 2022 Logo Competition

This year, children have taken part in Sway Carnival Logo Competition to design a logo in line with the theme 'Our Beautiful Planet'. Well done to Isla Wharton, winner of the competition. Raising awareness of the need to look after our Beautiful Planet, the logo will displayed and used in all Carnival published material.

Recycling

Our School Council meet regularly and they are currently focusing on how they can help the environment through recycling. In Autumn 2021, the School Council organised a Clothes Recycling Event. Drawing attention to the need to reduce waste, they asked children to bring in unwanted/outgrown clothes so that someone else could benefit from them. Nearly 600 items were donated and found new homes therefore reducing waste.

In the past, we have asked everyone to bring in crisp packets and earned money for the school at the same time as sending them on to be extruded into plastic pellets! 

Eco-Warriors

Our KS1 Eco-Warriors ensure that in our school energy is not being wasted unnecessarily. Each day, different children in KS1 make sure that lights and whiteboards are not being left on when classrooms are empty. They have also been checking that each class has a recycling bin and that it is being used correctly. They are making sure that if the heating is on, windows are not being left open. Finally, they are also reminding everyone about the importance of not wasting food.

Our school eco team have taken part in the New Forest Schools Energy Project.  They discovered where our energy comes from and the importance of reducing how much we use. They monitored the temperature in classrooms and reminded us all to switch off lights that are not needed.  They discovered that making sure we close windows and doors at playtimes and turning off lights at the end of the day can save the school £335! 

Eco-Innovators - Low Emission Vehicles

In order to tackle climate change and air quality, the UK wants every new car and van to be effectively zero emission by 2040. To support this, many more public chargepoints will be needed to meet the demand from electric vehicle (EV) users. These chargepoint designs will need to use space efficiently, complement existing streetscapes and be user-friendly. 

We therefore created designs for on-street electric vehicle chargepoints which could be used to reduce daily fossil fuel consumption and therefore reduce the negative impact of emissions on climate change and air pollution.