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Inspired by Greta Thunberg’s work and remarkable address at the U.N summit, pupils from Year 7 and 8 decided to launch the Claremont Eco Store and what we believe is one, if not the first of its kind in a school. Working with charity onetreeplanted.org, the children used their profits to ‘plant’ trees in areas of the world most in need, and by February, over 225 new trees were donated to Kenya and Australia.
Meanwhile, pupils up and down the school worked alongside a determined band of young ‘Eco Warriors’, to drive numerous other initiatives to educate and empower the whole school community to play their part in safeguarding the environment.
Eco issues were addressed in Science, Art, Maths and even French, where a residential trip included a visit to the Nausicaa Sealife Centre in Boulogne and the chance to learn more about the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans. Older pupils researched the world of Fairtrade as part of their Geography curriculum before hosting their own all-school assembly. Global citizenship was highlighted during Fairtrade Fortnight, when the whole school took part in the 90kg Rice Challenge to show solidarity with rice farmers in Malawi.
Beach cleans at Hastings and litter picks around the school grounds became a regular part of ‘Warrior work’, and our ‘Switch off’ Week encouraged everyone to turn off unused electrical appliances at home as well as in school. Recycling of paper, card, plastic and batteries continued throughout the year and the school dining room became a focus of eco activity ahead of the ‘The Great British Spring Clean’. By Easter, the Newspaper Club produced a special Eco Edition of the school Magazine to recognise and celebrate the ongoing work of the Eco Warriors and school community.
At Claremont we have been on a journey to embed principles of sustainability in all that we do. The children’s efforts were finally recognised in July of this year, when the School received the much coveted, Green Flag Award. But this is just the beginning …
‘All we have to do is wake up and change’! Greta Thunberg
