It is evident that the school are encouraging sustainable development education throughout the year groups from primary 1 to 7. The have two eco councils that run on a Thursday afternoon which are named the eco hero’s and the garden council. It is also evident that the children are engaging with the eco education as there are many displays up on the walls.

The Garden Area :

This school has put a lot of time and effort into their garden area and there are also a council which maintain the area. There is also a timetable of when the area gets used and when there are free slots allowing each class to rotate and have turns of outdoor learning. There are many resources that are in the garden area allowing the children to explore and get messy! Resources include plant beds, recycling bins, compost, water area, bug garden, huts, bird boxes, fruit and veg patches and a mud kitchen. These are all great resources which can all be linked with areas of the curriculum such as science and health and wellbeing.

Litter picking :

For one of the council sessions, the eco hero’s got to take part in a whole school litter pick. Sandy, the community safety officer, came into the school and equipped the children with litter pickers, hi-vis jackets, gloves and bin bags. The children had the opportunity to go around the school and pick up litter and discuss why this is an issue. A follow up task involved the children of creating posters informing children of the school and members of the public why not to drop litter in the school grounds. These posters got displayed around the school and on the school gates.

Recycling:

In each classroom, the children in the classroom and the teacher all have the chance to recyncle. There are recycle bins in each classroom and there are also recycle bins In the school canteen. When asked, most children were able to tell the difference between bins and also were able to answer the question “why do we recycle?”. Most children seemed fairly confident about the subject.

Play Area :

In this school, the space for play is very basic. They have a large concrete ground play area and one child mentioned that “there is not much to do but run around”. However, when I had the chance to look at the playground during lunch time, I found many children playing around the trees on the grass area. The children were breaking branches with the trees and also exploring for bugs. There was lots of opportunities for outdoor learning during free flow play. Here is a mapping of the school grounds :

Through out the school there is many posters of the eco code. This has been created by the children and when asked about it they were able to explain the poster and where confident enough to speak about how their school was an eco school.