Eco Update

Lockdown is certainly not holding back our Eco Schools Sixth Form hobby or our Fryer Eco Club for Year 7 and 8! Both these popular activities have flourished with the enthusiasm of our eco warriors unquoshed. Jo Toovey, who leads the younger group commented, “We are not letting Covid dampen our Leighton Park spirit or values. We are determined to continue our drive to improve the sustainability inside our community and out. This virus will not hold us back. ”

Whilst Oliver Staines, Head of Geography and of the School’s Sustainability Committee agreed, “One of the few benefits of our current situation is the way that it has allowed many of us to reflect and reset, change our view of nature and think about making living more sustainably the ‘new normal’ – which is why it seems more important than ever to continue our enthusiasm and drive to make Leighton Park a leader in environmental education and action.”

The Fryer Eco Club have begun the Spring Term with a school-wide survey looking at how everyone at Leighton Park normally travels to the site. This will help identify our community carbon footprint and enable us to develop a plan for the future. Entries are continuing to come in and we look forward to revealing the results later in the term.

There was a huge sense of accomplishment for the Sixth Former when Izzy, Hannah, Ruth, Roisin and Emma managed to bring all the necessary steps together to achieve the Eco Schools Bronze Award by Christmas. The group are now aiming to  secure the next level (Silver) by Easter, by which point we will be 80% of the way to the school’s first full Green Flag Award. Oliver explained, “This will involve a full curriculum audit of how sustainable themes are manifested in taught lessons across subjects and year groups. We will also be monitoring and evaluating progress on the areas we have chosen to focus on – Waste, Healthy living and Biodiversity – and continuing communication and involvement within the school community and beyond.”

Some of the exciting eco initiatives taking place are a possible collaboration with the University of Oxford on a research project exploring how secondary schools can respond to the climate crisis and the idea of setting up a food waste fermentation scheme at Leighton Park driven by one of our keen Sixth Formers. Planet matters meal days will return once we are able to be in School again. These will be once per fortnight initially to build support and understanding within the school community that the goal is reducing our carbon footprint rather than turning everyone vegan! The ‘Sculpture garden’ by the Art Dept is being cleared over the February Long Leave to allow Art teacher, Ella Langer and her year 8 CAS group to turn this into a more sustainable garden and art space. Sustainability Prefect, Hannah’s main goal upon return to School is to work with the Fryer Eco Club to organise the distribution, utilisation and collection of boxes in each main School building and Boarding House for ‘Terra Cycle’ – initially focusing on crisp packets and plastic pens. And finally there is a planned CAS exhibition of all these interesting projects which will delivered either virtually or physically to raise awareness in an aesthetically appealing way.