Our Eco Council is made up of two children from each class in Year 1 and Year 2. These children are elected to the role by their class peers. The children in Eco Council are responsible for raising awareness of environmental issues and to explore ways in which the school and the wider school community can become increasingly environmentally friendly.

Our School Environment

In March, Eco-Council children went litter picking in the Rainbow Garden. They did this as part of the Great Big School Clean. They collected a whole black bag full of rubbish! Well done and thank you for helping to keep our school clean and tidy.

Also in March, Eco Council are continuing to do a fantastic job of counting all the batteries we have been collecting. They all had a guess at how many were in the bucket before counting them - some children were very close to the actual number which is 559!  Well done Eco Council and thank you!

During February, Eco Council have been collecting for The Big Battery Hunt. They gathered the batteries from the battery collection boxes and helped Mrs Docwra and Mrs Easty to count them. So far 233 batteries have been collected! Please keep sending in your used batteries and Eco Council will get them recycled.

In January, Eco Council took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch on Friday. They went out to the playground with clipboards and counted all the birds they could see. Amongst these were pigeons, starlings, robins, blue tits, blackbirds, sparrows, magpies and a wren! Afterwards, the children counted up all their results and entered them on to the RSPB website. 

Also in January, Eco council went out to pick up litter along Blagdon Road. They did an incredible job and collected 3 bags of litter! On the way back to school they could see what a difference they had made as the pavements looked so much cleaner! Well done Eco council and thank you for making a difference to our local community.

You may remember a little while ago that B&Q kindly donated some plants which the Eco Council children have planted around the school. In December, the children thought this was such a kind thing for the manager of B&Q to do so they all wrote beautiful thank you cards and hand delivered them! 

In November, the Eco Council went to B&Q today to buy some new plants for our school. They chose some lovely plants that will survive through the winter and enjoyed seeing all the Christmas trees that were on display! As the children went towards the checkout so that Mrs Docwra could pay for the plants, the lovely manager at B&Q stopped them to ask what school they were from. The children proudly replied Burlington and the manager surprised us all by saying that the plants were going to be donated to us! The children all agreed that it was such a kind and generous thing to do and they all want to write thank you letters for the wonderful staff at B&Q. 

Plogging

Eco Council regularly go on ‘plogging’ outings into the local environment, with the focus of these trips being on collecting rubbish that has been left in inappropriate places. Once collected, the rubbish is brought back to the school and sorted into the glass, plastic and tin cans before these are sent for recycling. At Burlington we are part of a ‘plogging’ school community. All schools log the number of recyclable objects that they have collected and this information is entered onto a site which collates data relating to the hard work and dedication of the children.

If you would like to know more about ‘plogging’, please visit: 

Plog-olution web page

Other Responsibilities

The Eco Council take on a number of responsibilities through the school year. For example, the school have an annual WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Week. During this week, Eco Council children take assemblies to introduce and then draw the week to an end. Eco Council support the children across the school in identifying endangered animals and then deciding upon one animal that the school will adopt. At Burlington we currently adopt a penguin, a sea turtle and a dolphin. Our most recent adoption was a bumble bee. During the week, each Year 2 class carries out a close study of the challenges that a certain endangered animal faces. Each child writes a report reflecting these challenges and this is then shared with the children through a whole school assembly. This approach ensures that children across the school are aware of the challenges faces the natural world and the steps that can be taken to make positive change.

Eco-Schools Award

There are 3 Eco-Schools award levels – Bronze, Silver and Green Flag. We are very proud to hold the Silver Award. This award focussed on strengthening pupil leadership and whole school involvement.

This academic year we are working towards the Green Flag. We will be completing in-depth work on at least 3 of the Eco-Schools 9 topics, one of which must be energy. We will choose the topics dependent on the results of our Environmental Review that we will be carrying out soon.

If you would like to find out more about Eco-Schools log on to:

Eco-Schools web page