Whole School Eco Council

The Eco Councils from the Pre-Prep and Prep Departments try to meet together at least once a term to share ideas and discuss our Eco-actions. At our latest meeting we all discussed and agreed on an electricity free day for the Summer Term.

It was agreed that the School Office could be exempt from this on the grounds of health and safety. We also discussed looking at putting sensors on taps and light switches to ensure that we save both water and electricity.

We all agreed that we felt that there was a much greater spirit of Eco consciousness throughout the school as a result of the Eco Councils’ dedication to reminding people about unnecessary wastage.

“We now direct more food waste from landfill for reuse at Handcross Park,” says Sharon Gyles

The catering department has taken on the idea of being an Eco school very seriously and now composts all food waste. Sharon Gyles, Front of House Supervisor, explained that all the kitchen waste including cooked food is now put into a green Johanna Composter, which converts it into compost that can then be spread onto the garden to make it more productive. The catering staff now recycles considerably more packaging waste thus reducing the need to send as much to landfill.

May 2011: Recently, the Pre-Prep and the Lower School held a very interesting mini Eco Council meeting. The Pre-Prep children talked about water saving devices and we looked at a bag to go inside loo cisterns and how that would save water. We then talked about other water saving devices and the importance of saving water. The Lower School children talked about the initiative in the Prep school, which will start after half term, to cut down on food waste. The Pre-Prep children were shocked to hear how much food was wasted every day and said that they would join in with the Prep school and talk to their friends about not wasting food at mealtimes. The smaller format of the meeting allowed for all the children to be able to contribute their ideas and both Mrs Cufley and I were very impressed with the enthusiasm and interest show by the children.  NB