More and more schools are taking their first steps to help save the environment. Here at Temple Grafton School we are taking part in the Eco Schools campaign and last year we were very proud to recieve our Green Flag - the top award for eco schools.

We believe that it is not only neccessary to reduce the environmental impact and carbon footprint of the school, but that it is very important to pass these ideas on to the next generation. The children all learn the four R's:

Reduce - Reduce the amount of waste that we throw away

Re-use - Re-use things, for example drawing on both sides of the paper

Recycle - Instead of throwing things away, recycle them yourself or take them to a recycling center

Respect - We must respect the environment and the planet

One of the larger steps we have taken is the construction of our Sensory Garden, where the children learn about growing their own food, sustainability, lowering food miles etc.

Obviously in addition to the environmental issues, the children are learning about plant life, biodiversity and gardening. You can see pictures of our sensory garden and of the children getting involved by clicking here.

Schools inevitably have some food wasted at the end of a busy lunchtime. Rather than throw this all away, we recycle all of our leftover fruit and vegetables into compost, along with garden waste and shredded paper.

Recently, children from year 5 went to an 'Eco-Day' at Alcester Grammar School. They participated in three workshops: Nature reserve games and eco tasks; Solar spinning plates looking at sustainable energy; and wonderful waste. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day and learned a lot about helping the environment.

Thanks to Grundon waste disposal, we have been able to dramatically reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill. We now have a large bin specifically for recyling. In this we put paper towels, waste paper, plastics, milk cartons and card, all of which goes to a recycling plant to be made into new things. Every classroom has seperate waste, recycle and compost bins and the children have been taught what can be put into each bin.

We also have several plans for the future. The next project will be to reduce the amount of energy we consume as a school. We have had an energy audit performed on the school. Once we recieve the results of this we will work together with the children to decide how best to concentrate our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint.