Eco Council

Our school eco council is a pupil run body comprising of two class representatives from each Year group. They are assisted by Miss Crawford, Year 6 teacher.  We aim to promote an understanding of what constitutes an environmentally friendly school.

As part of this process we have instigated composting of fruit waste and taken part in 'switch-off fortnight' in order to improve energy wastage.  We also encourage recycling within our school and are a collection centre for batteries. 

Our Eco Council

Year 2023-24

We recently went on a litter pick around the school.

Green Flag!

Congratulations to the Eco-Council who received their Green Flag!

Fruit Bins 

The Eco-Council have introduced fruit bins in each classroom. Pupils should eat as much of their fruit as possible and put the skins in the bucket. The waste is then recycled properly using special food recycling bins.

Earth Day

The Eco-Council led a fantastic yet informative assembly to celebrate Earth Day on how we can do our bit to take care of the planet. Thank you to Yvonne Lecky from the council who came in to remind pupils how to recycle properly! 

Check out our plastic promise!

Our Eco Council organised a litter pick outside the school grounds. Look how much rubbish we picked up. Good job team!

The Eco Council fixed our school bug hotel and put up some bird feeders. This will increase biodiversity to our school grounds, attract more birds and provide them homes. 

Year 2 are playing their part in being eco friendly. They are reducing plastic by not using plastic straws in their milk cartons at break. Well done Year 2 !

Great work everyone, thank you for the help with collecting stamps. They will go towards raising money to train hearing dogs.

The eco-council need your help! Please see the poster below for more details. Bring stamps to your class teacher. Thank you :) 

Hedgehog Alert!

While the eco-council were carrying out the hedgehog survey in association with Ulster Wildlife we spotted a hedgehog in the grass! How cool!

NI Water

NI water came to our school to teach us about where our water comes from and the dangers of single use plastics. We received a refill bottle to help us reduce our plastic usage. Thank you!

Litter Pick 

The eco council joined forces with the school council to do a littler pick around our school grounds. We are doing our bit to save the environment! 

Ulster Wildlife

Ulster Wildlife came to visit Year 6 to tell them about hedgehogs in Northern Ireland and show them how to carry out a hedgehog survey in May/June to check if we have hedgehogs on our school grounds.

Thank you to Yvonne Lecky from the council who came to talk to KS2 pupils about recycling. We can’t wait to do our bit for the environment.

Have a look at our bug hotels!

Clean Air Day

Eco-School are working with Strabane District Council to run a Clean Air day.  They have presented a Powerpoint to other classes in the school, created Clean Air Superheroes and planted trees.

Waste Week at Edwards

Edwards Eco-Warriors Recycle Christmas Cards and Stamps

Our Eco Code

Everybody Come with Me, let's save some energy.

Caring for our place, to make a better space.

Our cool school follows the eco rule.

Cycling is the plan, let's do it when we can.

Our recycling plan is to reduce, reduce, recycle as much as we can.

Don't be litter bug and give our planet a big hug.

Earth might not be here to stay, so don't let it rot away!

 Informing others

We performed our Eco Code Rap in assembly and gave a PowerPoint presentation on Biodiversity.

Congratulations

to our

Eco-schools council

We got our Green Flag

Bin It!

Eco-council do spot checks to ensure our grounds are clean and green!

Save the Red Squirrel!

Michael Stinson from Red Squirrel United visited years 5 and 6 and spent time with the Eco-Council. He was invited to help us understand the dangers facing red squirrels and how we can help them.

Switch Off Fortnight.

During November Eco-Council will conduct unannounced checks throughout the school during breaks to check if all power has been turned off.  Each classroom/resource area will be accordingly traffic lighted.  We will take electricity reading before and after 'switch off fortnight' to see if there has been a difference in energy usage.

Litter Bugs

Eco-Council conduct regular 'Litter bug' checks around the school grounds.  Happily, Edwards is almost always a litter free zone!

Composters

Every day, Eco-Council members collect, measure and compost fruit and vegetable waste. 

Our Eco-council are recycling Christmas cards for the Woodland Trust.  We have also collected stamps to go to the Leprosy Mission.  The whole school is recycling bottle tops to go towards being recycled to make wheelchairs.

A big Well Done to our Eco-council who recycled 23kg of Christmas cards for the Woodland Trust.

Minibeast habitat

Eco-school pupils and Year 6 have been busy updating our wildlife area using donated wooden pallets and natural resources.

Year 6 discovered a dead hedgehog on our school grounds and brought this to the attention of our Eco-Council.  We had already been planning to create a hedgehog habitat and this prompted us to immediate action.  We designed a habitat, prioritising the importance of using recycled material, making it safe, strong, waterproof and functional.  We chose a quiet place in our grounds and used natural material to help camouflage it.

Cash for Clobber

Eco-School have undertaken our annual Cash for Clobber campaign once again.  A great opportunity to recycle used clothes and raise cash for school!

Wild About Wildflowers

Eco-Council have identified the need for a Wildflower garden to attract insects.  Our seeds have just sprouted.

Use Less Stuff Day

To involve the whole school in a day of eco-action the Eco-Committee decided to hold a 'Use Less Stuff Day'.  To inform the school we held an assembly telling everyone of our plans.  Pupils from Years 3, 4, 5 and 7 designed posters to advertise the day. 

We measured the oil, water and electricity that we used on the two days previous to our Eco day and also weighed the packaging we used from lunchboxes.  This meant that on Eco day we could see if our 'Using less Stuff' had paid off. 

Each class had an eco themed lesson (some of them outdoors as you can see from our pictures below),  Year 7's are pictured brainstorming where paper was wasted in the room and how they could reduce their paper usage.  Year 2 enjoyed numeracy outside and had a sound walk.  Year 6 and the Eco Committee created a graph (at the end of the week) to show how many plastic containers we recycled all week.  Year 6 also experimented with flying the kites they had created.

We also called this day 'Thick Jumper Day' as each person wore a think jumper to school and we turned the heating down.

Winners of the Poster Competition to advertise "Use Less Stuff' Day.  Congratulations and thank you for your hard work and creative ideas!

We collected an amazing 205kg for Cash for Clobber.  Thank you to everyone who supported this venture!   

Litter checks by the Eco-Council - you never know what you will find!