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The High School Leckhampton The High School Leckhampton

Eco-Committee

 

Here at The High School Leckhampton we are committed to ensuring that we look after our environment and build a sustainable future for all. To demonstrate our commitment, The High School Leckhampton has signed up to the Let’s Go Zero campaign, pledging to be zero carbon by 2030, and established an Eco-Committee: a team of enthusiastic student and staff volunteers who are dedicated to making our school as environmentally friendly as possible.

   

Our Eco-Committee works to raise awareness about protecting the environment and drive sustainable initiatives involving our whole school community as part of the Eco-Schools programme. We meet frequently to review our progress as an Eco-School and plan activities, visits, and campaigns as part of our action plan. Since its establishment, the Eco-Committee has planted trees and constructed insect hotels, hosted fundraising events and litter picks, promoted campaigns to cut carbon, reduce plastic waste and improve air quality, designed energy-saving and recycling information posters, attended a Climate Change Symposium, participated in research into climate change education and delivered workshops to teachers, and carried out conservation work up on Leckhampton Hill. In May 2023 the Eco-Committee received a letter from Sir David Attenborough thanking us for the work we have done and will continue to do. In February 2024 we received a letter from Buckingham Palace following our Eco-School Enrichment Day where staff and students learned from visitors representing over 20 different organisations about the causes of, and solutions to, climate change.

        

          

      

To involve our school community, The High School Leckhampton hosts a Green Group meeting each term. This is a voluntary opportunity for staff, governors, students and parents to meet once a term and discuss our school's approach to environmental sustainability, including reducing carbon emissions and developing a climate action plan to achieve our goals. These meetings are productive and well-attended and have included representatives from the Balcarras Trust and Cheltenham Borough Council. The Eco-Committee also delivers three assemblies across the academic year to inform the student body of our achievements and our next steps as guided by the Eco-Schools programme.

The Eco-Schools Green Flag accreditation acknowledges, rewards and celebrates the ecological achievements of young people. It has seven steps which should be carried out every academic year in order to recognise our status as an Eco-School:

  1. Form an Eco-Committee
  2. Complete an Environmental Review linked to ten Eco-Schools Topics
  3. Set out an Action Plan linked to three of the ten Eco-Schools Topics
  4. Identify Curriculum Links to Environmental Education
  5. Inform and Involve the School and Wider Community
  6. Monitor and Evaluate our Actions
  7. Create an Eco-Code

The ten Eco-Schools Topics are:

  • BIODIVERSITY: Maintaining a high level of plant, insect and animal life locally and globally.
  • ENERGY: Reducing energy use and investigating greener energy sources.
  • GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP: Taking an active role in your community and making our planet more peaceful, sustainable and fair.
  • HEALTHY LIVING: Addressing your, and our planet’s health.
  •  LITTER: Reducing litter, which harms wildlife and costs millions to clear each year.
  • MARINE: Protecting and conserving water-based ecosystems.
  • SCHOOL GROUNDS: Improving school grounds for students, staff, plants, insects and animals.
  • TRANSPORT: Promoting and encouraging sustainable transport.
  • WASTE: Refusing, reducing, reusing, repairing, recycling.
  • WATER: Valuing and preserving our most important natural resource.

Students at The High School Leckhampton care deeply about the environment, and our Eco-Committee members wear their badges with pride. Parents are supportive of our projects, and our efforts are recognised by the local community. Staff have received training on how to talk about climate change, manage eco anxiety, and consider the environment in every aspect of their working role. We are all working together for a more sustainable future as an Eco-School.

For more information about the Eco-Schools programme please go to the website https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/.

For more information about the Let’s Go Zero campaign please go to the website https://letsgozero.org/.

If you would like to find out more about the Eco-Committee at The High School Leckhampton please contact Miss Kennedy, our Eco-Coordinator, at kbk@hsl.gloucs.sch.uk

The High School Leckhampton Eco-Code created by Delphine Jones in 9CH:

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