Eco champions get eco-logical

December 2009

Eco-champions at Charles Edward Brooke have been working with staff and students from the Royal Geographical Society to devise ways of getting the school to reduce its carbon footprint. Girls from Years 10 and 11 took part in an after-school workshop with the Royal Geographical Society during the Autumn term where they analysed how staff and students get to school, the food served in the dining hall, the use of resources from paper to water in the school and the building itself.  During the spring term, they will take part in another workshop to put their findings together in a presentation to the school Governors.

Meanwhile through personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) lessons, Year 9 students have been addressing issues around climate change and learning what they can do to make a difference. As part of this, our girls got involved in the Change initiative of turn down, switch off, recycle and walk, and have been keeping track of their daily Change activities using their European Diaries.

As part of our first Flexible Learning Day in October 2009, some Year 9 students had the opportunity to express their ecological knowledge through the medium of art by joining Footprint Friends - www.footprintfriends.com and taking part in a foot painting exercise. Photographs of their feet painted in vibrant colours and designs have been added to the Footprint Friends website as part of the One Million Feet to Copenhagen initiative, an international campaign to raise awareness of climate change in the run up to the Carbon Footprint conference in Copenhagen held in December 2009.

Other Year 9 students expressed their knowledge of climate change through the medium of drama which projected them into England 2050 after the floods. The world they created was one of danger, deprivation and suspicion. Through this exercise students learnt that much of what we take for granted, for example water, food and shelter, are the very things that humanise us. Once these are taken away, it is more difficult to be generous with either goods or space. The school Police Liaison Officers joined the sessions and actively participated in the action. They found the drama work thought-provoking and complimented the students on their maturity and knowledge.