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Our Eco Defenders are: P1/1 P1/2 P1/3 P2/4 P2/5 P2/6 P3/10 P3/11 Alex Paterson P3/12 Shawnisay
Mrs Gardyne and Mrs Barker help too! | ||||
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We received a huge cheque from Hallam Land Management for £1500 to help us make a wildlife garden in our playing field. This will be our project this term. At the bottom of this page you can listen to podcasts about our meetings. We think recording our ideas is much better than writing them down because we don't need any paper and lots of people can find out what we are doing. We are delighted to say that we have been awarded a Silver Award from Eco Schools Scotland! We have all worked really hard to get this. Our next target is to go for the Green Flag. If we manage to do all of the things then we will actually get a green flag to fly outside the school. We think that this would be really exciting!
We have a very hard working group of people in our school called the Eco Defenders. They work with Mrs Gardyne to try to think about ways we could reduce, reuse and recycle.
We are thinking of buying a Rolypig composter. It looks great fun. Click here to see what it looks like. There is a good cartoon on the site. Let us know what you think about it in the guestbook.
We have made some targets for this term to help us try our best and we have displayed them on our Eco Defender notice board outside room 5.
Our targets are: to recycle more things in school to start a compost heap to wear our Eco-defender badges to use paper on both sides before recycling to have more litter bins and for all of our children to put rubbish in them.
We wrote an environmental statement for our school in February 2007. (Then we updated it in March 2007 to add a bit about our decision not to release balloons!)
* We will try to make compost and use it in our vegetable patch. * We will use both sides of paper then recycle it. * We will try to reduce the amount of paper we use. *We will reduce the emount of energy we use by walking to school, switching off lights, switching computers off at night and closing doors. * We will put litter in the bin. *We will always look for ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.
March 2007 Our Eco-defenders have hit the headlines! At one of our meetings we were talking about a balloon release that might be happening at school in the summer. Emily and her mum know lots about this and they were able to tell us about what happens to the balloons and how they can kill animals when they land in the sea. We thought about this a lot and decided that since we were trying to look after our planet we didn't want this to happen. We asked the PTA if they would change their plan and they were happy to do this. We feel really good that we can help to look after our planet. Mrs Barker wrote a letter to the newspaper and we got lots of replies. A photographer arrived to take our photograph and we have been in lots of newspapers this week...Mrs Gardyne thinks we are fantastic eco defenders!
Here are some of the things people have said about our decision. Statements of Support following Prestonpans Infant & Nursery School's pledge not to release balloons
''The motto for the protection of our environment has to be every little helps, and setting good examples is so important - well done Prestonpans '' Robin Harper MSP
"I applaud the actions of the PTA of Prestonpans Infant & Nursery School in cancelling their planned balloon race after learning the effect it could have on the environment and their decision to ensure that balloons are never released in future. I sincerely hope other such planned events follow the good example of Prestonpans Infant & Nursery School." Anne Moffat MP
"We wholeheartedly support Prestonpans Infant & Nursery School in their efforts to discourage the practice of balloon releases/races and encourage the taking up of environmentally friendly alternatives" Nickol Stewardson, The Forth Estuary Forum
"We welcome the excellent example sent by Prestonpans Infant & Nursery school and urge others to follow suit. When they burst above the sea, balloons can enter the water, be mistaken for jellyfish and eaten by leatherback turtles and other sea creatures, potentially choking them or limiting their intake of proper food. If you hear about anyone planning a balloon release, please get in touch with us and we will send our Don't Let Go pack that gives event organisers plenty of information and other fun ideas, such as balloon popping raffles, rather than releasing them into the environment." Calum Duncan, Marine Conservation Society
"Congratulations to our enterprising children of Prestonpans! I fully support you in having fun without damaging the environment, and I'm sure many other will follow." Abbie Marland, Scottish Green Party "I'm delighted to hear that Prestonpans Infant & Nursery School is considering the impact of its activities on wildlife and the environment, and taking action as a result. I hope you will be able to build on this, and continue to raise awareness of such among issues among staff, pupils, parents and the local community." Osbert Lancaster, Centre for Human Ecology "Don't raise money by killing marine wildlife - East Lothian Council are fully supportive of the decision by Prestonpans Infant & Nursery School not to hold a Balloon Release. The potential harm to the environment coupled with the contribution to litter, for the 6 month period taken for balloons to break down, means this practice does not sit well with an organisation charged with protecting the local environment. The Firth of Forth has been designated as a Special Protection Area because it is internationally important for its coastal birds. Many of these species could eat balloons, mistaking them for jellyfish or other food. The Firth of Forth also has a strong population of marine mammals, including six species of whale and four species of dolphin. Leatherback turtles and basking shark have also been seen in the Forth, and sightings are becoming more common as sea temperatures increase.
Help keep our coastline safe for wildlife. Do not release balloons." Stuart Macpherson, Biodiversity Officer, East Lothian Council
AS AT 5.3.2007
Click here to take a look at the Scottish Eco Schools website. Click here to look at a website about recycling. Click here to see the rapping recycling robot. | |||||
