Our Eco Focus for the summer term 2024 was ‘What is ’Rewilding’ and why should we be rewilding our planet?’

Mrs Mitchell and the Eco Council led KS1 and KS2 assemblies and we learnt that:

• Rewilding is a good way to show CARE for our environment.
• An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (the biodiversity) in a particular area.
• Biodiversity is every living thing on Earth; bacteria, fungi, plants, insects, animals, humans.
• An ecosystem has a chain of interactions between living organisms and their environment.
• Each organism needs the others to survive.
• Rewilding works to nurture a balance between people and the rest of nature so that both can thrive together.

How can we help at school?

• We will plant native hedging and sow wildflower seeds in our prepared rewilding area.
• We have sunk a shallow tray to collect rainwater to attract wildlife
• It will be closed it off to people.
• We hope to protect and extend it each year.

How can we help at home?

• You can let part of your garden grow wild.
• You can learn more about rewilding by reading books like ‘Mia’s Meadow’ or ‘The Art of Rewilding.’
• You can visit a rewilding website to learn more.
• https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/
• https://www.operationfuturehope.org/

Finally, I would like to say thank you to the amazing Eco Council this year. You are true eco warriors! And as always, thank you to all the children, parents and teachers who have helped The Willows to be eco-friendly in 2024!

Spring 1 2024

What is Climate Change and what can we do to help?

At The Willows we already:

• Participated in an assembly led by Trafford council about the importance of recycling how they recycle our waste.
• Give eco warrior certificates to those who demonstrate how to help look after the environment.
• Recycle soft and hard plastic, tins, paper, batteries, printer ink cartridges, milk carton lids, pens, glasses and contact lenses at our Recycling Station in the corridor.
• Use reusable water bottles and reuse hand soap bottles.
• Encourage everyone to walk to school and have held ‘Silly Socks and Happy Shoes’ days to promote this.                          
• Replaced most of our lighting to LED and installed hand dryers.
• Make bug hotels to encourage wildlife, hold gardening clubs and grow produce to share with the community.
• Compost our fruit waste, have made and use a leaf mould composter.
• Encourage everyone to eat more plant based food and hold meat free Mondays in the school canteen.

Through this focus we will:

• Learn about what Climate Change is through a whole school assembly and find out what simple things we can all do to help slow down global warming.
• Continue to build a collection of books about the environment for each class to access during ERIC time.
• Inform parents of our current focus and projects through the school newsletter and website.
• Link our environmental beliefs to our school values; Responsibility, Care, Challenge and in particular, Self-Belief that we can make a difference to global issues such as climate change.
• Continue to monitor our new curriculum and ways we can link environmental issues to our learning.

Autumn 2 2023

‘The Best Eco Books’ as recommended by The Willows Eco Council

At The Willows we already:

• Enjoy reading and borrowing books with an environmental theme from the school library       
• Listen to stories in some Eco Assemblies
• ‘Upcycle’ (recycle/reuse/resell) second hand books at The Willows Summer Fair
• List books on our Sonar curriculum documents (subject overviews) for each subject for each year group, many of which have environmental themes.
• Enjoy ERIC (Everyone Reading In Class) each day throughout school
• Have new books that link to out new Literacy curriculum, some of which are linked to respecting the environment

Through this focus we will:

• Learn about new book releases and old favourites in our Eco Assembly where each Eco Council member will recommend a book to the school. This will be passed on via the school newsletter, school website and the Eco Board
• Begin to make collections of Eco books for KS1 and KS2 with the hope that each box will visit a classroom for a few weeks to enhance ERIC time. Possibly ask for donations or support from the PTA
• Encourage everyone to recycle or donate books they no longer need, for example to the free local bookshop in Sale.
• Encourage all members of our school community to buy second hand books if possible in order to reduce our carbon footprint
• Promote and highlight books around school that link to the current half termly eco focus, such as climate change, biodiversity, clean air, global citizenship, waste, healthy living, litter, saving energy and transport

Autumn 1 2023

Global Citizenship: Developing an awareness and sense of responsibility for the world as a whole.

At The Willows we already

• Promote Respect and Responsibility through Our School Values.
• Learn about the world in our broad curriculum, especially in Geography.
• We also look at events in History that we can learn from to make ourselves better citizens today.
• Celebrate the similarities and differences between each other as part of our PSHE learning.
• Celebrate Black History Month. This year the whole school participated in a singing assembly.
• Collected donated football kits and equipment for the charity Kitaid.
• Held an ‘Own Clothes Day’ and raised over £400 to help UgandAid build a rainwater harvesting plant in Uganda.
• Participated in a ‘Diversity Day,’ learning about different cultures.
• Learn about a new language every half term. So far these have included Spanish and Sign Language.

Through this theme we will

• Continue to welcome new members into our school community and enjoy getting to know them and learning about languages, cultures, interests and lifestyles that are different to our own.
• Revise what we know about Global Citizenship in an assembly and learn about the Memusi Charity who work directly with communities & schools in Kenya to provide access to quality education.
• Hold an ‘Own Clothes Day’ on Fri 3rd Nov and wear red, green and black (as in the Kenyan flag) to raise money for the Memusi Foundation.
• Promote the principle that all people should have equal opportunity, using the example of the Memusi Foundation who "believe that Education is the primary route out of poverty for every child.”
• Year 6 will write letters to children at the Memusi School, Magadi, Kenya about themselves and The Willows and the Kenyan children will reply, telling them all about their life In Kenya.
• To find out more about this charity https://www.memusifoundation.org.uk/

Summer 1 2023

Local Wildlife and Biodiversity: Brilliant Bees!

                                                              At The Willows we already:

* Create log and stick piles in a corner of the field so that small mammals can create dens.

* Look after our school grounds by picking up litter.

* Grow plants and learn how to look after them in Miss Pickering’s Community Growing Project.

* Learn about insects in our Science curriculum.

* Have planting areas that encourage biodiversity.

* Have a meadow where the grass is not cut to provide cover and food sources for small mammals.

* Have lots of trees on our school grounds for shelter and to help wildlife and to improve air quality.

* Make bug hotels and feed the birds.

Through this focus we will:

•     In key stage assemblies we will learn about brilliant bees and how we can help them to flourish.

•     We will learn what threatens bees and how to look after bees in our local community.

•     The Eco Council will run a brilliant bee art competition.

•     After the extension has been built, the Eco Council will monitor and maintain the ‘wild’ corner

•     Next year we will cordon off, plant and create a rewilding area at the edge of the field, including a shallow water feature, hedges and wildflowers.

•     Eco Warrior certificates will be awarded to anyone who demonstrates and shares knowledge, awareness and care for bees in our local community.

Spring 2 2023 

Nature: Everything Counts! How we can make our local environment more biodiverse.

At The Willows we already:

• Know many ways to help the environment, including wasting less, eating less meat and more local produce, using less plastic, reusing and recycling, using cars less and walking more.

• Have plants on our school grounds for shelter and to help wildlife and to improve air quality.

• Grow plants and learn how to look after them in Miss Pickering’s Community Growing Project.

• Learn about plants and animals in our Science curriculum.

• Have learnt about Biodiversity in previous Eco Assemblies; that every living thing has a place on our planet and plays an essential role in sustaining life on Earth.

• Have learnt about climate change in Eco assemblies and how plants help to slow this.

• Have received hedging plants from RHS from the ‘Queen’s Green Canopy’ charity.

Through this focus we will:

• In key stage assemblies we will learn about why biodiversity is important and how we can make our local environment more biodiverse.

• After the extension has been finished we will create a rewilding area at the edge of the field using the hedging donated by the ‘Plant a Tree for the Queen’s Green Canopy Jubilee’.

• Miss Pickering’s Gardening club continue to grow a variety of plants and will enter some local gardening competitions in the summer.

• We plan to create a moss patch in school as it absorbs more carbon dioxide than other plants.

• Eco Warrior certificates will be awarded to anyone who demonstrates knowledge, respect, awareness and care for plants and animals.

• In June (during National Geography week), Mrs Marenghi and Mrs Mitchell are going to plan a whole school fieldwork day with an Eco focus to learn more about our local environment.

Spring 1 2023

Global Citizenship: Developing an awareness and understanding of the wider world and our place in it.

At The Willows we already:

• Promote Respect through Our School Values.

• Learn about the world in our broad curriculum, especially in Geography. We also look at events in History that we can learn from to make ourselves better citizens today.

• Celebrate the similarities and differences between each other as part of our PSHE learning.

• Constantly review and update our policies to ensure inclusion and equality.

• Held an ‘Own Clothes Day’ on which we wore red, yellow and black and raised over £400 to help UgandAid build a rainwater harvesting plant in Uganda.

• In recognition of our school’s diversity, the School Council organised a ‘Diversity Day’ where we all came to school dressed in the colours of a country/flag important to our own personal diversity and we spent the day learning about different cultures.

Through this focus we will:

• Continue to welcome new members into our school community, enjoy getting to know them and learn about new languages, cultures, interests and lifestyles.

• Revise what we know about Global Citizenship through a whole school assembly and reflect upon how fortunate we are in the UK to have so many opportunities.

• The School Council will hold further Diversity Days to promote kindness and to celebrate difference.

• Collect donations of football kit for Kitaid to send to developing countries so that participation in sport is not held back by lack of access to kit and equipment. www.kitaid.net

Autumn 2 2022

What is Eco? Learning about how to be eco-friendly how we can live without harming the environment

At The Willows we already:

• Have a School Council that teaches us about our 4 school values; Care, Responsibility, Self-belief and Challenge

• Have a half termly eco focus. Past themes include climate change, biodiversity, clean air, global citizenship, waste, healthy living, litter, saving energy and transport

• Recycle printer cartridges, pens, batteries, used stamps and milk carton lids. Also, paper, hard and soft plastic, glass and tins used in school

• Follow the Eco Schools programme and are celebrating earning the Green Flag Award  

• Each class has their own plant to watch grow and help learn about looking after plants

• Grow plants and learn how to look after them in Miss Pickering’s Community Growing Project.

• Encourage everyone to walk, scoot or ride to school to remind us about the importance of reducing pollution and increasing road safety around school.

• Spread the word through our school website and newsletter to help our families and the wider community to become more environmentally aware

• Pick up litter in school and around the community

Through this focus we will:

• Learn about how to be eco-friendly through a whole school assembly

• Continue to reinforce our 4 school values though caring for our environment

• Reveal the Eco Sculpture made by Eco Art Club to highlight how much rubbish humans produce

• Revise the Eco Schools Programme and its ten topics

• The Eco Council will share easy ideas for what we can all to do be kinder to our planet

Autumn 1 2022

Recycling: What we can do at school and at home to reduce waste that goes to landfill

At The Willows we already:

• Reuse water bottles                                                                

• Compost food waste                                               

• Collect unwanted clothing/textiles with ‘Bag to School’ & upcycle uniform and Christmas jumpers

• Learn about which materials objects are made from in our Science lessons        

• Set up a recycling centre for all members of our community to use

• Recycle paper, milk carton lids, batteries, crisp packets, bread bags and pens

• Buy and sell second hand toys and books at Summer and Winter Fairs 

Through this focus we will:

• Learn about what recycling is, how and what to recycle and why we need to recycle in a whole school assembly

• The Eco Council will revise what we can recycle at school and revamp the recycling station

• We will send an email out to all members of the Willows community with information of what can be recycled at school

• Encourage staff and children to recycle more at school

• The Willows Eco Council will regularly monitor and maintain the recycling station

Summer 2 2022

Transport: Walk to school for cleaner air and safer roads. Reducing the number of cars that come close to our school will improve the quality of the air we breathe, making the environment better for us and for wildlife. It will also make our roads safer for pedestrians.

At The Willows we already:

• Encourage everyone to walk, scoot or ride to school if they can.

• Ask people not to park close to the school.

• Held a walk to school day to promote healthy living and clean air.

• Provide a purpose built shelter at school for pupils to store their bikes and scooters.    

Through this focus we will:

• Learn about air pollution in eco assembly and how we can make our air cleaner.

• In order to raise awareness of the benefits of walking to school we will held a ‘Happy Shoesday’ on Tuesday 21st June where everyone came to school in ‘silly socks and happy shoes’ to remind us about the importance of reducing pollution and increasing road safety around school.

• The Eco Council will encourage parents to walk rather than drive down Victoria Road when dropping off or picking up children.

• The Eco Council will introduce our new ‘child traffic cones’ to remind people in cars to drive and park safely on the roads near our school.

Summer 1 2022

Local Wildlife and Biodiversity: Save the hedgehog! What we can do to help

At The Willows we already:

• Create log piles & leave a corner of the field to grow wild so that small mammals can create dens.

• Look after our school grounds by picking up litter.

• Grow plants and learn how to look after them in Miss Pickering’s Community Growing Project.

• Learn about animals in our Science curriculum.

• Some children monitor hedgehogs and small mammals on night cams and we share these videos with their classes on seesaw.

• Have planting areas that encourage biodiversity, make bug hotels and feed the birds.

• Have a meadow where the grass is not cut to provide cover and food sources for small mammals.

• Have lots of trees on our school grounds for shelter and to help wildlife and to improve air quality.

Through this focus we will:

• Learn about how amazing hedgehogs are and how we can help them to flourish (key stage assemblies).

• Learn why hedgehog numbers are dwindling and why. What things are dangerous and how can we ensure hedgehog’s safety in our local community.

• Run a hedgehog art competition.

• Monitor and maintain the ‘wild’ corner of the field.

• Cordon off, plant and create a rewilding area at the edge of the field, including a shallow water feature, hedges and wildflowers.

• Award Eco Warrior certificates to anyone who demonstrates and shares knowledge, awareness and care for hedgehogs in our local community.

Spring 2 2022 Focus 

Amazing Trees: Why are they important and what do we know about them?

At The Willows we already:

• Name our school and our classes after trees.

• Look after our school grounds by picking up litter.

• Have lots of trees on our school grounds for shelter and to help wildlife and to improve air quality.

• Grow plants and learn how to look after them in Miss Pickering’s Community Growing Project.

• Learn about plants and trees in our Science curriculum.

• Learn about trees from around the world, such as the rainforests, in our Geography curriculum.

• Learn about climate change in Eco assemblies and how trees help to slow this.

• Planted new trees at the front of school and in Henry’s garden.

Through this focus we will:

• In assembly we will learn about how amazing trees are and how they can help to save our planet.

• We will have a quiz to help us learn to identify the trees our classes are named after.

• The Eco Council and Miss Peek will create a new ‘Outdoor Learning Area’ in the Foxes’ Den.

• In the autumn we will plant a special jubilee tree as part of the ‘Queen’s Green Canopy’ to celebrate her platinum jubilee. https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/schools-and-communities/queens-green-canopy/

• The Eco Council will give each class their own plant to care for and to watch grow.

• Eco Warrior certificates will be awarded to anyone who demonstrates knowledge, awareness and care for trees and the environment.

Spring 1 2022 Focus

Responsibility: Who is Responsible for Looking after Planet Earth?

At The Willows we already:

• Have an Eco Council to spread awareness of the importance of being environmentally friendly

• Follow the Eco Schools programme and are working towards our Green Flag Award

• Have a new Eco focus each month to educate and inform people in our school community about different aspects of looking after the environment.

• Have a School Council that teaches us about our 4 school values; Care, Responsibility, Self-belief and Challenge

• Spread the word through our school website and newsletter to help our families and the wider community to become more environmentally aware.

Through this focus we will:

• In key stage assemblies we will learn about the work of David Attenborough and about the 4 imperatives he says will help to save our planet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-91umZ7cQE&t=1s

• The Eco Council will give easy tips we can all try in order to be more environmentally friendly

• Eco Councillors will continue to sort our recycling and remind people to bring their crisp packets, pens, bread bags, milk bottle tops batteries and printer ink cartridges to the school for recycling.

Autumn 2 2021 Focus

Saving Energy: Switch Off Fortnight 8th-21st November 2021.

At The Willows we already

• Have energy efficient lights all through school 

• Have some motion-sensor taps and lights that switch off automatically after use

• Our new doors are fitted with draught strips to keep warmth in.

• Children can wear a special Willows hoodie so that we don’t need to turn the heating up

• In the newer part of school the heating is underfloor and is energy efficient

• Learn about different kinds of energy in our Science lessons                                                  

Through this focus we will:

• Introduce ‘Switch on Fortnight’ in assembly to learn about how we can all save energy

• Give the opportunity to children and families to complete an energy saving challenge at home. The class with the most challenge sheets returned will win an eco-prize.

• Eco Councillors will do an energy audit before and after Switch Off Fortnight to monitor our energy use and will act as energy monitors to check lights and other electrical devices are switched off when not in use. They will also make posters to remind us to save energy ⇒

• Share energy saving tips with children and families– see poster below

Autumn 1 2021 Focus

Eco Schools Award: A summary of our progress and plans for the future.

At The Willows we already

• Have a half termly eco focus. Past themes include climate change, biodiversity, clean air, global citizenship
• Collect unwanted clothing with ‘Bag to School’ and upcycle uniform and Christmas jumpers
• Compost food waste
• Walk to school as much as possible
• Recycle paper, milk carton lids, batteries, crisp packets, bread bags and pens
• Buy and sell second hand toys and books at Summer and Winter Fairs
• Pick up litter in school and around the community
• Focus on our own physical and mental health on Wellness Wednesdays each half term

Through this focus we have:

• Reflected on what we have achieved in the past two years
• Learnt about the new Eco Schools Programme and what we can do to earn our Green Flag https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/primary-pathway/
• Introduced our new Eco Council members and find out what they do
• Refreshed our recycling and waste procedures (with extra bins, adding home printer ink cartridges to what we recycle, running a litter picking after school club and recruiting new paper bin monitors)
• Introduced new eco projects that are happening at The Willows this year including….

…a LEAF programme run by Miss Peek and the Eco council that will work towards earning the school a LEAF award in June. Its aim is to promote outdoor learning and hands-on experiences, which result in people getting more involved in, and a better understanding of, the natural world and ….

… a wellbeing project run by Miss Pickering. This will involve learning about growing plants and producing and sharing the experience with members of the local community.

Summer 2 2021 Focus

Our Eco Focus for the second half of the summer term 2021 is Global Citizenship: Developing an awareness and understanding of the wider world and our place in it. A global citizen is someone who believes it is not about which country you live in or what religion or politics you believe in. It is about your responsibility and rights as a member of humanity and the world as a whole.

Equality is one of the most important aspects of Global Citizenship – that everyone on our planet should be treated equally and with the same respect. Equality and respect are rights for everyone regardless of age, skin colour, gender, wealth or geography.

At The Willows we already:

• Promote Respect through Our School Values.
• Learn about the world in our broad curriculum, especially in Geography. We also look at events in History that we can learn from to make ourselves better citizens today.
• Celebrate the similarities and differences between each other as part of our PSHE learning through Jigsaw.
• Constantly review and update our policies to ensure inclusion and equality.

Through this focus we have:

• Learnt about Global Citizenship through a whole school assembly and explored the concepts of equality and respect. The assembly presentation is available below.
• Met (virtually) Isabelle Goto, a fundraiser for UgandAid.
• Held an ‘Own Clothes Day’ on which we wore, yellow and black to raise money to help UgandAid build a rainwater harvesting plant in Uganda.
• Promoted the principle that all people should be treated with equal respect and have equal opportunity, using the example of access to clean water that UgandAid is campaigning for.
• Raised £359.70 for UgandAid. Well done Willows Eco Warriors!

Summer 1 2021 Focus

Our Eco Focus for the first half of the summer term 2021 is ‘There is no Away’: Our planet’s waste crisis and what we can do to help. We thought about what the verb ‘to waste’ really means (To use carelessly or extravagantly, or for no reason) and how we can help the environment by following our

Top Eco Tip -  Only use what you need!

At The Willows we already:

• Recycle plastic bread bags, plastic bottles, plastic screw top drinks/milk lids, pens, crisp packets, batteries, paper and postage stamps.

• Support and promote recycling programmes run by Terracycle.

• Do our best to follow our ‘Single Use Plastic Policy’ as written by The Willows Eco Council 2019-20.

• Our caretaker, Isy, refills plastic soap dispensers, rather than buying new ones.

To educate ourselves further we have also:

• Liased with the office about more possible ways school can reduce waste, for example, reducing whole school use of glue and paper by not sticking worksheets in books, doing an online register instead of paper, and trialling hand dryers to cut down on paper towels, etc.

• Learnt about waste, including plastic, through a whole school assembly and what we can do to help. The assembly presentation is available below.

• The Eco Council have been on a litter pick up all around the school grounds.

• Tried to spread the word about the danger of disposable masks to our environment. Before you throw a mask away…CUT THE STRINGS so that they don’t get caught on our already vulnerable wildlife.

The Willows World Wildlife Eco Poster Competition

Can you create an eye-catching poster to raise awareness of a special animal? Decide which animal you would like to feature. Then do some research: Where does it live? What does it eat? Does it need help to survive? How does it help the planet? What makes it special? Is it endangered? Why should people save it? What can we do?

Competition Rules:

1. Your poster should educate others and raise awareness of a particular animal.

2. It should be titled, ‘Save the ……..’

3. Your poster should be A4 and can be created on a computer or written by hand. You can use photographs or drawings.

4. Either email it to ecowillows@gmail.com or hand it to your teacher who will put it in Mrs Mitchell’s tray.

5. The closing date is Wednesday 21^st April 2021. The results will be announced in the next Eco assembly in the first half of the summer term. There will be prizes for an overall winner and runners up.

7. All posters will be displayed in a book on the Eco table, which can be found in the main corridor.

Our Eco Focus for Spring 2021: World Wildlife Awareness: Learning about animals around the world and sharing our knowledge to raise awareness and respect for a range of different species. This term we have:

• Learnt about wildlife charity and campaigner, Margot Raggett, in a whole school assembly. (See link below) 
• Discovered how we can help to raise awareness of the plight of different animals.

• Been given the opportunity to participate in a poster competition to show off our wildlife knowledge of some of the amazing creatures who share our planet. (See below for details)
•  Learnt about charities that support nature conservation, including WWF, Born Free and Remembering Wildlife.
•  Understood how we can help to protect animals by spreading the word about banning poaching and the trade of ivory/rhino horn and about ways we can teach people to live alongside animals in harmony.
• Found out about careers in conservation, animal health/science/research, wildlife photography, charities, social media, etc.

Website of the month – https://rememberingwildlife.com/

December 2020 Focus

Our Eco focus for December 2020: How to have a Happy Eco Christmas. Click on the link below to see our December Eco assembly and get some great tips from our amazing Eco Council!

Mrs Mitchell and the Eco Council would like to say thank you to all the teachers, children and parents who have supported us this year. It is because of you all that we have achieved the Silver Eco Schools Award! Well done everybody!

November 2020 Focus

Our Eco focus for November is Transport: making sustainable travel choices. 

In our Eco assembly this month we learnt about air pollution, where it comes from and how it harms us.

At The Willows we encourage everyone to walk, scoot or ride to school if they can. We raised awareness of the benefits of walking to school by holding a ‘Happy Shoesday’ on Tuesday 17^th November where everyone came to school in ‘silly socks and happy shoes.’

We also ask people not to park close to the school. We have applied to become a ‘school streets’ school to encourage people to not park on Victoria Road on a more permanent basis. The council are trialling it in Urmston and may roll the scheme out to us and other schools in Trafford if this pilot scheme is successful. See http://schoolstreets.org.uk/  for more information.

October 2020 Focus

Our Eco focus for October is Litter: Reducing the amount of litter in our local area.’ At The Willows we already

•             Use two large bins on the playground

•             Have a paper recycling bin and general waste bin in each classroom.

•             Put most organic food waste in compost bins.

•             Learnt about the danger of plastic waste to marine life in our ‘Plastic in the Ocean’ eco focus and LKS2 Assembly.

Some of our Willows Eco Warriors have already taken part in a litter pick-up. Amazing!

In the future we plan to

•             Hold an Eco Assembly at the start of October to inform the whole school about the dangers of dropping litter.

•             Do regular litter pick-ups around school, particularly around the edges of the field where rubbish blows in.

•             Hold a poster competition to raise awareness of the dangers of litter to wildlife and to persuade people not to drop litter.

•             Provide EYFS and KS1 with new compost caddies and put another compost bin near to the main playground.

•             Encourage Willows families to take a rubbish bag to their favourite outside place in our local environment and safely collect litter.

If any members of our Willows Community take part in any Litter pick ups, please send us a photo ecowillows@gmail.com

If you are interested in learning more, visit our website of the month https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/ 

EXCITING NEWS! 

On behalf of the Eco Council I am proud to announce the launch of The Willows Biodiversity Photo Competition.  I would like to invite all Willows eco warriors and members of the Willows community to think about biodiversity, the ‘variety of life’  around us. It is an opportunity to share how you connect with nature. For more information see the attached document.

May/June Focus

Our focus for May and June is 'Biodiversity: Caring for plants, animals and insects. Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. To find out more about Global Biodiversity, watch https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/z9pd2hv  or this from WWF, narrated by David Attenborough, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Ua_zWDH6U

Our Eco council believe that every living thing in this world has a purpose and should be respected, that we as humans have a responsibility to look after all living things on Earth. But in order to respect, we need to understand. Learning about different species of trees, birds or insects and how they survive, reproduce and benefit other living things can be awe-inspiring. This knowledge leads to respect.

Here at The Willows, as well as learning about the natural world in our curriculum, we have planted bee friendly plants, made bug hotels, made bird feeders and fed the birds and we have 'wild' areas around our field to attract wildlife. And school closure has not stopped our Willows children and families helping the wildlife around them. They have gone for walks and appreciated the wonders of nature, picked up litter, fed the birds and created bird spotting books, built bug hotels, planted seeds, looked after their garden, watched hedgehogs on a night cam and built a nature pond. We are also running a biodiversity competition to encourage our community to do even more for local nature.

If you would like to do more, the following link to the RSPB website gives lots of great ideas to help you connect with nature.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/fun-and-learning/for-families/family-wild-challenge/

Encouraging Biodiversity at The Willows

During March we made our own bird feeders out of plastic bottles. Then we looked for a suitable place to hang them around school. We decided on a quiet corner of the field where children playing wouldn't disturb the birds. We also decided to pile up all the fallen branches to create a den for small wild animals.

Preparing our new Planters!

March was a busy month for Eco warriors! After receiving our new planters, we worked hard to fill them. We used gravel, cardboard, dry leaves, soil harvested from the school grounds and compost harvested from our compost bins. They are almost ready for planting and sowing seeds!

March/April Focus

Our focus for March and April is ‘Healthy Living: Healthy Minds and Healthy Bodies.’ People are part of the environment. It is important for both us and our world to be healthy. How can we promote choices that are good for us and good for the environment? At The Willows we are very proud of all the physical activity we already do and we also take part in 'Wellness Wednesday' every first Wednesday of each half term where we learn about the importance of mental, emotional, social and physical health.

We will also extend this by encouraging children to make healthy food choices by referring to new posters and key information in the lunch hall, setting up and maintaining new planters to grow fruit and vegetables in school and learning about Mindfulness, how to practise it & how it can it can help our minds stay happy and healthy.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a special way of thinking that can help us with our problems. Using mindfulness can help us enjoy our lives more, in a calm and relaxed way. Mindfulness is thinking about what we are doing right now, at this very moment and not worrying about the past and the future, just being in the present.

Website of the month https://www.headspace.com/blog/2019/01/25/headspace-for-kids-meditations/

February Focus

Our focus for February is Plastic Pollution in our Oceans: What can we can do?  We have brainstormed ideas for ways we can reduce single use plastic at The Willows and in our homes by learning the ‘5 Rs’

Refuse: Say no to plastic bags, straws, takeaway cups, balloons. Do you really need these?

Reduce: Cut down on the amount of ‘stuff’ you use. Don’t impulse buy. Simplify your life! Reduce the general waste you create.

Reuse: Bags, bottles, plastic food tubs can be used over and over again. If things break, try to repair them instead of throwing them away and buying new.

Recycle: What you can’t refuse, reduce or reuse; recycle. Some plastic is easy to recycle, but other plastic is harder. Check out www.terracycle.co.uk for local drop off points for items you can’t put in your recycling bin.

Rot: Compost all organic waste.

website of the month    www.oceanicsociety.org

January Focus

Our focus for January was Learning about Climate Change and what we can do. We have learnt about Climate Change through a whole school assembly and some of the Year 5 and 6 children made posters to highlight the issues.

We are continuing our campaign to reduce waste by promoting what we recycle in school; bottle tops (milk and screw top drink lids only), pens, batteries, stamps and snack packets (no sweet or cereal bar packets). We have extended this to bread bags (only sliced loaf bags, NOT those from pitta, brioche, baguette, rolls or bagels)

Information about current themes are displayed in the Eco Book and on the Eco Board, both in the main corridor at school.

Website of the month    www.campaigncc.org

December Focus

Our focus for December was A More Sustainable Christmas where we learnt about ways we can be more sustainable, for example, choosing seasonal, local food, supporting local independent shops, recycling trees, using LED lights, rethinking presents; homemade or up-cycled gifts and using cards, wrap and crackers without glitter and plastic.

Website of the month  www.plasticsfree.co.uk

November Focus

Our focus for November was Waste: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle, where we learnt about which materials objects and packaging are made from and how we can recycle them. We improved our composting system and we set up a recycling centre for all members of our community to use and we now recycle our milk cartons, bottle tops, pens, batteries, stamps and snack packets.

Please feel free to bring in your screw top drink lids and milk carton lids, which go to the Pathfinder Guide dog charity, any writing implements (except pencils) which are taken to Rymans for recycling, used postage stamps (these go to Wythenshawe hospital) and any crisp or snack packets (recycled by www.terracycle.co.uk)

Website of the month www.terracycle.co.uk

November 2019: The Willows Eco-Council has a new lease of life!

Mrs Mitchell took over as Eco Co-ordinator in November and along with a very dedicated Eco-Council, has helped The Willows to achieve the  Eco Schools Bronze Award. First we completed an Environmental Review and then formulated an Action Plan (you can see a copy of both documents in our Eco-Council book and on our Eco-Board in the main corridor). There are four levels to achieve; Bronze, Silver, Gold and Green Flag. To get all the way to the Green Flag Award we must work through all ‘7 Steps’ based on ’10 topics.’