Lincolnshire Young Environmentalist Awards 2019
Lincolnshire Young
Environmentalist Awards
2019
During the past few years, we have been
working hard to improve our environment
and use it to enhance and enrich our
curriculum.
Here are a few of the things we are doing,
some reasons why we are doing them and
examples of how we are using them in the
classroom.
Solar Panels
Solar Panels
Our new solar panels were fitted in the February
half term thanks to Fenland Green Power
Cooperative.
As well as helping us save money on our electricity
bills, they are also helping us reduce our carbon
footprint and therefore greenhouse gases which will
benefit our environment.
We have a display in the school hall
which records how much energy the
panels are producing and how much
money we are saving so everyone in
school can be involved.
Our year 5 & 6 children have started monitoring the power
we’re generating and how much money we’re saving on
Wednesday afternoons. They are also recording weather
conditions so we can compare with previous years.
This information, they will share with the rest of the school as
part of our Friday assemblies.
We will soon be using this data in our maths lessons.
Next term, our whole school topic is ‘energy’ and we will be
learning about the damaging affect fossil fuels have on our
environment and how renewable power sources like solar
panels can help.
Our School Field
Our School Field
We’re very fortunate to have a field on our school grounds. Here is our school field and spinney. We have been working really hard recently to develop this area so that we can learn more about our environment and
the wildlife which inhabits it.
Attracting Wildlife
Here are some examples of what we are doing to encourage local wildlife into our school:
Improving the hedgerow on the field Woodland trust donated some trees
which we have begun to plant around the perimeter of the field.
There are still some to be planted. We have another 105 trees being
delivered in November.
Attracting Wildlife
We’ve created various log piles around our school field to encourage mini
beasts. We have little bug hotels dotted about
too. These will be great for our Minibeast
topic.
Attracting Wildlife
Our Wild Garden is attracting lots of butterflies and bees. We were donated free packets of wild flower seed from Kew
gardens.
Attracting Wildlife
Bird boxes and bird tables
We love birds at Deeping St Nicholas but wanted to attract
more. As a result, we have added bird boxes, bird baths and
bird feeders around the field and in the spinney.
Attracting Wildlife
In EYFS/Y1 and Y2 , because of the children’s interest in seeing the birds,
they decided to kick start this academic year with a topic all about them.
Attracting Wildlife
With a little help from our parents we introduced a new bird hide
this year. Our most recent spots have been the Robin and the
Cuckoo.
Year 3 & 4 have recently been out using the bird hide as part of
their statistics unit in maths. They have been collecting data about
the different species of birds which visit our school and the most
popular.
Our Outdoor Classroom
We use this as an extra classroom and bring our learning
outside as much as possible.
We also have Owls visit.
EYFS and year 1 recently investigated the owl pellets
they found to discover what owls eat.
EWWW!
Gardening Club
We have a gardening club which runs on Monday lunchtimes. Children
from EYFS-Year 6 attend. It is very popular.
They are currently growing onions, aubergines, carrots and lettuce and
are about to plant some pumpkin seeds.
Gardening club are also growing courgettes for Farm Kitchen to use in
the children’s lunches. We have 4 troughs on the school playground so all
children can be involved in their growing process.
Gardening Club
Raised beds
We grow our own vegetables here. The vegetables
we grow are used in cookery lessons both in the
classroom and in cookery club. So far we have
grown courgettes, onions, tomatoes, leeks and
potatoes and beans and peas. These have been
used to make lemon and courgette cakes,
courgette fritters, French onion soup and bacon
and leek quiche. Any leftovers have been sold to
parents to raise money to replenish seed.
Our children last summer planting the
raised beds.
Composting
Composters
We use our fruit peelings and grass cuttings to
recreate compost. We collect the fruit peelings
we use at playtimes and everyone is involved.
This compost is then used on our raised beds.
Sensory Beds
This is for quiet reflect. Our sensory beds currently
contain lots of different smells and textured plants.
Some examples of these are lavender, curry plants,
mint and thyme.
Spinney
This is our spinney or wooded area. We all use this area
lots. Year 2, last week, created fairy ladders as part of
their literacy topic. Year 3 & 4 collected sticks to build
3D shape models and EYFS and Year 1 have been using
their mud kitchen and making musical instruments out
of recycled materials.
Recycling
We try to use recycled materials as much as we can at school if
we can. We collect these at lunchtimes (lunchbox waste) and
have asked our parents to bring in recycled materials from home
which we can reuse in school too. EYFS love to use these
materials in their junk modelling. We have recently looked at the
damaging effects of plastic waste on our environment and
working with our school council are thinking about what else we
can do as a school to help.
Recycling
Some examples of using recycled materials- EYFS musical
instruments
Some examples of using materials from our environment –
woodland weaving
Recycling
Walkers Crisps This year we have been recycling crisp packets for Walkers. In
return we can earn money for the school. The crisp packets we send are shredded, turned into plastic
pellets and then they are used to make things like watering cans, park benches, plant pots and cool bags.
Future Projects
The Eden project in
Cornwall
Our next project is a
plastic bottle greenhouse
inspired by the Eden Project in
Cornwall.
What we’re
aiming for!
We’ve just started collecting plastic bottles for this project. We
will be involving children and their families in the design,
construction and use.
THANK
YOU!