St Ives is Going Green

Liza Askew / 27 September 2019 / Categories: In the press

Planting a Pledge Tree for a Greener Future

This week St Ives School in Haslemere started its journey to become an international Green Flag Award Eco-School.  Its mission is to raise its understanding of the environmental issues facing the world and how the school can contribute, both as a whole and as individuals, to a more sustainable future.

The programme St Ives is following is run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.  Internationally, the programme is the largest educational programme in the world.  It is present in nearly 70 countries with millions of children participating.  St Ives is now part of this global community working to create environmental change for its pupils and future generations.

During this week’s whole school assembly, the children were introduced to St Ives’ ‘Big Green Master Plan’ and learnt what the school needs to achieve to become a Green Flag Award Eco-School.  They were also introduced to the ‘Pledge Tree’ where pupils and staff alike are encouraged to make an ‘eco’ pledge, write it on leaf and stick it on the pledge tree.  The idea is that the tree ‘grows’ throughout the year as more pledges are made.  The pupils were then asked to work on an environmental review of the school and elect two eco monitors per year group who will be responsible for ensuring their programme remains on track throughout the year.  Pupils were also introduced to Ecobricks and are now being encouraged to recycle all their non-recyclable plastic to make an Ecobrick.  The goal is to create enough Ecobricks to be able to build a structure at St Ives that can be used in the future.    

Mrs Kay Goldsworthy, Head Teacher at St Ives, said “We are so excited to be working towards a Green Flag Award and are fully committed to educating all our children about the environmental issues facing our world and helping them understand that we are all responsible for making our future more sustainable.  We have a fascinating programme of activities planned throughout the year involving the whole St Ives community and we can’t wait to get started!”.