ECO information

School Eco Mission statement

At Ryelands Primary School we recognise that the environment is important to our pupils, their families, our staff and our community. We recognise our responsibility to manage our environmental impacts carefully and to use our position to raise environmental awareness and promote environmental responsibility. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods, with regular review points.

To view our Environmental Policy click here

• Composting

  At Ryelands we compost all school food waste into a Ridan composter.

  What is a Ridan Composter?

  Ridan are an innovative eco company designing and building better solutions for recycling food waste into compost. Food waste is an environmental problem. They design and manufacture a range of eco-friendly composting machines suitable for food waste recycling at home and commercial catering.

  Composting is a natural process which converts the potentially harmful gases produced by rotting food and bio-degradable matter into a nutrient rich substance which is healthy for the earth, waterways and atmosphere.

  Although natural, the conditions have to be just right for composting to occur, which is where the Ridan range of eco-friendly, composting machines steps in to help.

  To find out more information on the Ridan Composting system click here

  

  

   

• Environmental Action Plan

  Introduction

  This action plan should be treated as a ‘live’ document, with actions adjusted and added to as necessary and progress updates added on a regular basis. We suggest the action plan be reviewed on a quarterly basis as a minimum.

  Responsibility for each action should be assigned to the most relevant person.

  For this to have an impact, it will be critical to introduce an effective mechanism for this review process. You mentioned the plans to form an eco-committee, involving pupils, staff, governors and parents. Perhaps they could be assigned responsibility for overseeing the action plan. It could also be used to inform and guide eco-club activity, and vice versa.

  To view the schools environmental action plan click here

• Eco Club
• Green Flag Award

  

  Congratulations on passing your Eco-Schools Green Flag!

  Fantastic work!

  We are very pleased to tell you that you and your Eco-Committee at Ryelands Primary School have been successful in meeting the requirements for the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award.

  We reviewed your application and noted the following:

  It is evident that young people in your school are aware of environmental issues and passionate about protecting our planet – your Eco-Committee, totalling 11 members, and 3 adults, clearly demonstrates this. We are sure that having 3 adults to help and guide you is also very encouraging. We can see that you have held 35 meetings this year. Thank you for uploading your meeting timetable. We noticed that it was very organised and detailed. It was neat, professional, and we loved reading it. Please pass on our compliments to the Eco-Committee member responsible, they did a fantastic job! We also noticed that you strongly agreed that participating in the Eco-Schools programme increased environmental awareness in your school. It is great to see that your Green Team took charge of completing the Eco-Schools Environmental Review, wholeheartedly embracing the task. We’re sure you will agree that, at the beginning, it was a great way to self-reflect as a school. As a result, you were aware that you were doing fantastically well in the Waste topic and that you needed to be more mindful of the Marine topic. We took great pleasure in reading that you found it interesting to find out about the cleaning products used in your school and that one WAS environmentally friendly! It’s great that you have encouraged your site manager to look into this. This shows that both staff and pupils have a positive attitude to the Eco-Schools’ ethos. It was fantastic to see that your Eco-Council is passionate about expanding their Eco-School’s efforts. Your Action Plan contains many ideas for each of the topics selected. Clearly a lot of consideration was given to how you would meaningfully embrace the Eco-Schools’ ethic and involve your entire school community in your activities. We especially appreciate that thought was given to how clearly you set your goals. We are impressed with how much time and effort you have put into the action plan, including the ideas to create and maintain bird feeders, to liase with SLT to finalise plans for a pond within the school grounds and also to improve children’s knowledge of growing fruits and vegetables, providing skills for life. In addition, we liked the idea to give young people in your setting an understanding of the wildlife that lives within your school grounds.In addition to all the other wonderful ideas you had in your Action Plan, we want to thank all your Green Team members for their time and effort. You have provided three wonderful examples of environmental education as part of your application. From the additional evidence uploaded, it’s clear that sustainability themes are widely covered in your school’s learning through your lessons. We especially liked that your nursery children learnt all about Biodiversity as part of their ‘Change and Growth’ topic and that your Y2 group learnt all about how to stay healthy. In addition we loved that your Y3s, as part of their science and DT learning, gained knowledge about how to grow a variety of different vegetables. Your photos of your composter and eggs were also impressive. Lessons like this will provide children with the knowledge they need to successfully (and confidently) support the Eco-School’s ethos in the future. A real highlight of your application is the Informing and Involving section. We really liked how you informed the wider community, including parents, via your Eco-Club display board, assemblies, Facebook, school newsletter and the school website, once it has been set up. We also noticed that you are making great use of social media to share your endeavours, sharing 3 posts over the academic year. The multi-faceted approach of hands-on learning, student leadership, integration with the curriculum, and celebrating success is one our team is delighted to see. We especially liked the fact that your Eco-Committee planned an ‘Earth Week’ within your school. All of the endeavours noted above are some of the aims of the Eco-Schools’ programme, to continue working towards our ethos, and there can be no greater outcome from your Eco-Schools’ work! Great job! Finally, your Eco-Code is a great reflection of your activities and aspirations, the acrostic poem using the word ‘RYLANDS’ especially sums up your year of activity. The acrostic poem and your Green Team have empowered their entire school and wider community with their beliefs. Congratulations on your Eco-Schools Green Flag with Merit. We encourage everyone involved to take great pride from their wonderful achievements – your year of activity has been inspiring.

  The Eco-Schools Team