Colindale Primary School is an Eco School and has been since 2016.
We have been awarded the Green Flag four times, this year with Merit, for all our work towards becoming a sustainable, environmentally, and eco-friendly community and taking positive action to protect and preserve our planet. Our green flag flies above our school and we are very proud of it!
This is part of the assessors’ feedback regarding this year’s Green Flag award:
It’s very impressive that you have formed such a large Eco-Committee. It shows that young people in your school are aware of environmental issues and committed to being active and creating positive change. Your Eco-Committee were elected democratically, which is a fair and mature approach – well done to selected members on their appointment! They’re clearly a passionate and impressive young person and we’re delighted that they have been given an opportunity to make a difference through the Eco-Schools programme, what a fantastic ambassador for your school and our programme. We enjoyed reading about your plans for your focus areas on Healthy Living, Energy and Transport. We love the variety of activities that you and your Eco-Committee have included in the Action Plan. This will no doubt support multi-disciplinary skills and shows how integrated environmentalism is in your school. You have used environmental issues to enrich learning and increase engagement with learning in your school and this is something to be very proud of. You have worked with a variety of different individuals and organisations including Walk to school month, relying on their expertise and passion to enrich and inform your Eco-Schools journey. Well done with your success on transport! This is what the best forms of climate action are about – impactful but achievable things that create a positive experience and prompt more action. We love this! Your Eco-Code is very punchy, clear and easy to digest for those that see it. It’s a direct call to action. Thank you so much for submitting such a terrific application. We have loved reading about your journey and are incredibly impressed by all you have achieved. We have no hesitation in awarding you an Eco-Schools Green Flag with Merit,”
Every year we have a new group of children who are voted by their peers to represent them as their Eco Ambassador, on the Eco-Committee.
Linked to Rights Respecting Articles: 3, 4, 6, 24
2023-2024 Eco Ambassadors
1A – Eva
2A – Hudayr
3D – Bobby Jo
4G– Trevin
5J – Callan
6B – Robbie
1CH – Alex
2m – Hamza
3G – Mubasher
4H – Mariam
5M – Akhmed
6N – Fabeha
1T – Sama
2T – Laith
3N – Rebecca
4P – Sofia
5T – Alia
6R – Amir
Eco Actions
October: Walk to School Month/WOW-Walk to School Challenge
Every October is International Walk to School Month – an opportunity for children to join hundreds of thousands of pupils across the globe celebrating the walk to school.
Colindale Primary School takes part in it every year with great success by having a Walk to School Challenge. Every child is encouraged to travel sustainably such as walking, cycling or scooting at least 3 times per week for a month. At the end of October, the children with at least 9 sustainable journeys receive a WOW badge. The Eco Ambassadors note the journeys of all the children in their class every day, to keep a record. To save on paper and ink, this year we kept a digital record. The class with the most sustainable journeys wins the Eco trophy.
1T and 4G are the winners of the Eco trophy this year.
Walk to School challenge was a huge success as we made more than 7,000 sustainable journeys and 550 children won a WOW badge for their contribution to promote active transportation, improve road safety, reduce traffic congestion and tackle climate change!
Switch off day
In November, we celebrate our annual Switch Off Day as part of the national energy campaign, Switch Off Fortnight, which is organised by The Pod in partnership with the Energy Saving Trust Foundation. This year we are also supporting Cut your Carbon Eco Schools campaign and CNN Call to Earth celebration. On that day we save as much electricity as possible by switching off lights, not using computers, laptops or smart boards and learning new ways to tackle climate change, raise awareness and protect our planet.
Our efforts have paid off as our energy consumption decreased on that day by 18%. The children also took part in a competition by designing posters on how to save electricity, what to recycle in our blue bins, what carbon footprint is and how we can cut our carbon.
Here are some of the entries:
Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel Challenge
Every Spring we take part in Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel which “inspires pupils to make active journeys to school, improve air quality in their neighbourhood and discover how these changes benefit their world.” Each class keeps a record with the children’ s sustainable journeys and the class with the most wins the Eco Trophy and badges! We will continue to keep an interactive online record to save paper and engage the pupils.
This year our school is 17th out of 916 large primary schools nationally and 4th out of 180 schools in London! The children made 5,817 sustainable journeys to school, almost 1,000 more than last year!
Recycling
In Colindale Primary School we are trying to reduce waste by recycling. We recycle paper, single use water bottles, milk bottles, batteries, writing instruments and toners.
We will soon re-launch our textile recycling!
And the list of actions goes on! Stay updated by reading the school newsletters
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