In August 2023, the school retained its Eco School Green flag.

Abbot's Hall has proudly been an Eco School since 2009 when we gained our first Bronze award. We have since achieved the Silver award and the highest award 'Green Flag' status. The ten Eco topics are embedded into the school curriculum and daily life of the school.

Email notification of our Eco Award

Congratulations - You've been awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag!

12 Aug 2023, 23:42

Congratulations On Passing Your Eco-Schools Green Flag!

Congratulations!!!

Fantastic work Tessa!

We are very pleased to tell you that you and your Eco-Committee at Abbot's Hall Primary School have been successful in meeting the requirements for the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award.

We reviewed your application and noted the following:

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. This knowledge and attitude has provided your school with excellent foundations for the many successes that you’ve achieved this year.

Your Eco-Committee were elected democratically, which is a fair and mature approach – well done to selected members on their appointment!

It’s brilliant that young people were given the responsibility for recording meeting minutes. This will allow them to take ownership over the Eco-Schools programme and develop their listening, communication and teamwork skills.

The pupil quote provided is brilliant. 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. ‘I wanted to help save wildlife, like hedgehogs. Also I saw videos about turtle being killed by rubbish in the sea and I thought I could help do something’ was a great quote to read!

It was lovely to read all the comments on your Environmental Review and gain a real insight into the debate and discussion that took place whilst completing it. It’s clear your Eco-Committee are constantly considering what actions they can take to improve their local community and benefit our planet.

Your Action Plan shows that your Eco-Committee have carefully considered how they can involve their entire school in their planned Eco-Schools’ activities to achieve maximum impacts and raise awareness amongst their school community. We enjoyed reading about your plans for your focus areas on biodiversity, litter and waste.

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 provided practical and fun curriculum examples, which impressively build on the projects you have worked on in your Action Plan. This is a great way to add context to your Eco-Schools work, it means young people at your school are given the opportunity to learn about important environmental issues and then the chance to work on these issues – a great dual approach.

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 the Big School Bird Watch, relying on their expertise and passion to enrich and inform your Eco-Schools journey. No doubt this was a mutually beneficial experience for all, as these individuals and organisations must have also been inspired by your dedicated Eco-Committee.

We hope all staff members involved in your Eco-Schools work take immense amounts of pride from the parental quote uploaded. Your hard work and dedication has inspired young people and empowered them with the belief that they can positively impact our planet – this is something incredibly special. ‘He is very quick and has the confidence to correct us when we are not doing ‘as we should’ at home and likes to carry out his Eco duties when out and about. He has become much more aware of what we need to do to save our environment’ was a lovely quote to read!

Your greatest successes link clearly to the experience of your pupils. Litter-picking has been a huge success, well done! 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. We love this! We loved reading about your environmentally-themed day of learning with your ‘Big Help Out’, this is a great way to make eco-education a community event.

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, congratulations!

As always THANK YOU very much for your hard work, we are so proud of all our schools and the collective achievements they have made to protect our planet for future generations. We look forward to working with Abbot's Hall Primary School again next academic year to help you expand on your eco-actions and successes of this year.

Have a great summer break,

The Eco-Schools Team

The Eco Committee

As the name implies, our Eco Committee are committed to looking after the environment. This not only includes inside the school buildings, but also across the entire site and beyond.  The Eco Committee is made up of children from Years 1 - 6 who take responsibility for the running of the committee and its activities, including completing the Environmental Review, setting up the rota and carrying out daily litter picking, keeping minutes and reporting back to their peers on updates, and ensuring targeted recycling is maintained.

This year, our focus has been Global Citizenship, School Grounds and Water. During our Environmental Review we found that we have greatly improved our scores, because we have spent lots of effort improving our Biodiversity and maintaining a cleaner school by reducing our Litter. The Eco-Committee believe they can make a difference both locally, but also globally and this aspiration is shared throughout Abbot's Hall  The committee decided to choose Global Citizenship because they want to help beyond our local area. They have decided to focus on supporting a charity linked to the tropical Brazilian rainforest. The Water topic has already been started with an afternoon spent with Anglian Water when we began to understand the importance of ensuring there are no leaks anywhere on the school grounds and checking to see if we can make any reductions to our water usage.

Come back for updates to see what we are doing and how you can help us make a difference too.

Crisp Packet Recycling

Last year, our Eco-Committee worked hard to organise and store the crisp packets.  This continues to be a task which is enjoyed because it is a simple thing that anyone can do to play their part in looking after our environment.

Battery Recycling Resumes...

In March 2022, we were able to resume our collecting of used batteries for recycling.  The children in school worked so hard that by the end of April a call was made to collect the main storage bin. This was replaced with another one which we are continuing to fill so keep bringing in your used batteries for us to recycle!

As part of our Spring 1 - Senses topic, the Early Years children made their own binoculars our of recycled materials, which they used in our bird watching station.  The children took part in the annual Big Bird Watch and when the results were in found that they had seen far less birds this year. They asked if they could put out food to attract more birds so we made feeders to hang in the trees. The children thought carefully about where to hand the feeders, not having them too close together so that "more birds can get the food."

Switch off Fortnight is a national campaign that brings awareness to our use of energy by ensuring we are using energy responsibly. This means that everyone will be encouraged to make sure electrical equipment, of any kind, is turned off when not in use.  Switch off Fortnight will run from 16th November to the 27th November. 

Some of our Eco-School work from the past...

School Grounds: Bulb planting in the Forest Classroom.

'The Friends' Committee gave the school 500 woodland bulbs to plant in the Forest Classroom to improve the habitat and regenerate the woodland. The Gardening Club children carefully planted daffodils, bluebells and snowdrops and we all look forward  seeing them flower in the spring!

Healthy Living

Gardening club planted runner beans and courgettes in the Spring term. When they were big enough they were planted out into the Bottle greenhouse to protect them from getting eaten by the deers. The children watered the plants and when we returned to school in September we had a bumper crop of runner beans which had grown out of the greenhouse roof!  Gardening club children picked the beans and took them home to share them with their families.

School Grounds  

In June the whole school took part in Outdoor Learning Day. All the classes engaged in a variety of learning activities outside which included phonics, maths, reading, PE and art. The sun was shining all day and everyone enjoyed their 'Outdoor Learning'! 

Waste

The school has just launched an exciting initiative to recycle batteries. We have taken delivery of a huge battery collection container and each child has been given a small collecting box to take home. We are proud to be a school that supports recycling and the children are all keen to help fill the container.   

Waste

The Eco Committee members every day empty their class fruit peeling bins into our compost bins. The created compost is used by Gardening Club and placed onto the school vegetable plot. Foundation Stage children also place grass cuttings into the bins.

School Grounds and Litter

Forest Classroom clean up

The Gardening club spent a busy lunchtime in the Forest Classroom collecting litter and tidying the area. We found lots of PE equipment which had come over the fence and were able to clean it and return it back to the PE cupboard. We also collected litter which was either recycled, if appropriate, or put into the rubbish bins. 

Planting bulbs for Spring: School Grounds

It had been discussed at an Eco Committee meeting that the school would look better if we had more flowers growing. Gardening Club took this on board and planted spring bulbs in planters which were then placed outside the Year 2 classrooms on a unused stone area. Hopefully, when the bulbs grow they will look lovely!

Recycling

The Eco Committee sorted their classes paper recycling boxes to check they contained only paper. They took out any cardboard, plastic and tissues and then emptied the paper into the big paper recycling bin. 

Transport

At Abbots Hall we have a 'Walking Bus' which runs every day before and after school. The 'Bus' walks the children to Asda car park where children are then collected by their adult. This initiative encourages children to walk to school rather than use a car and helps to reduce the amount of vehicles which are being driven close to the school, making the journey home to and from school safer for all

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