Day 2

School #4: St Mary's CE VC First School, Charminster

Much excitement for me on this journey as it's the first time I've used the new-ish bit of cycle track that goes from the north end of Dorchester up alongside the B3147 and A37. And it was smooooooth! Despite being on what I'm sure is the world's heaviest bike, I shot along it and reached the school in barely 10 minutes. Driving would hardly have been quicker.


St Mary's in Charminster is another one of those schools that feels like a family and where you always get a warm welcome. Mrs Brake has been running the Eco-Committee for several years now and never rests on her laurels. She and the children are always thinking of new thinks to do, and Mrs Brake is brilliant at letting the children make decisions and lead the rest of the school.

The Eco-Committee's official name is the Get Greener Than Kermit Gang....does that tell you something about how enthusiastic they are? It was love at first sight for them and Reg (note: in this photo the table is clean....)

School tour

First on the tour we looked at some of the children's displays. When it was Earth Day, the Eco-Committee set a quiz for the rest of the school. They put pictures of animals all round the school, and the other children had to guess how endangered they were. Everyone was shocked to find out how many of their favourite species - leopards, rhinos, gorillas and elephants - were critically endangered.

The classes then did their own work on their chosen animal species and made eco pledges about how they would look after the world. Reg approved!

On their Eco-noticeboard, the children showed me their work on food waste that they did with the Dorset Waste Partnership. One of the Eco-Committee girls had won first prize for her recipe for pasties using leftover veg.
Mrs Brake demanded a taste test.


You might be able to see a map on the board next to Reg. This is because the children have been doing lots of work on active transport with the local Sustrans officer.

The map shows a route, worked out by the children, that is a safe 5 minute walk from school. Instead of driving all the way to school, families who have to travel by car are encouraged to park a short distance away and walk the rest.

This reduces traffic at the school gate and gives the children some brain-boosting exercise!


Children are also encouraged to cycle and scoot to school. The school took part in the Big Pedal recently and this week had a 'Bling Your Bike' competition - see the school blog for photos of some serious bike bling!

This next bit is quite special!
The school have 12kW of solar panels on their roof, and this nifty monitor shows the school's energy balance.

The children knew all about it and explained  that the red on the graph is the electricity the school is using (see how it goes sharply up around 8am!) and the green is the amount they are making for themselves with their solar panels.

Some days when it's really sunny the school make more electricity than they can use! When that happens there's a yellow bit on the graph, showing that they are feeding electricity back into the grid.

This Key Stage 2 work, using the data from solar panels and their school energy consumption shows how well they understand energy!  

Everyone in school takes responsibility for conserving energy. They have a system for labelling light switches and plugs so everyone knows what to do:

Green - anyone can turn it off if not in use

Yellow - ask and adult before switching it off

Red - don't switch off

Simple, and super-effective!

The children's understanding of energy was most impressive....I'm sure DCC could recruit them as energy advisers!

Next we went outdoors to see how the gardening club have been making the school beautiful!

Mrs May and her gang of hardworking gardeners are responsible for these jazzy flowers by reception.

Next, to the field and a very special tree! This little oak tree (aka 'the Harry and Meghan tree') was grown from an acorn from Windsor Great Park to commemorate the Queen's 90th birthday. The children are very proud to have a royal connection!
It's got some growing to do before it's the size of its neighbours. Made me wonder what Charminster will be like when this is an adult tree?
Then the children took me to see the Forest School area. This made me a trifle nervous as I could see we were entering a slug-rich environment and couldn't guarantee Reg would behave himself....

Sure enough, the children found this log which was home to at least 3 different slug species and many, many woodlice!

If you're wondering why Reg isn't in this photo, it's because he's being restrained (kindly).

Workshop

Today's workshop was Bee Kind. As you'll have guessed from the terrible pun, it was all about the important role bees have pollinating plants, including so many crops we rely on and enjoy eating.

Some children were already really knowledgeable about the problems of pesticides and habitat loss that bees face.

We ate strawberries, remembering to say 'thank you bees' as we did. Mr Galloway just happened to walk in at that moment. That's one excellent sense of smell :)

Then the messy bit! We made bee-friendly seed bombs by mixing compost and seeds with flour and water paste.
Let's just say the clean-up took a while, but it was all for a good cause!

Eco Mission

Last of all there was an Eco Mission to choose!

The children wanted one to do with plastic; here's what they chose:

Do an assembly or show & tell all about ways people can avoid using plastic.

A difficult challenge, but an important one! The children thought they were up for it and I've no doubt they are!

 

Thank you Mrs Brake and all of the Greener than Kermit Gang for leaving me smiling at the end of Day 2 :)