In Year 5, children can apply to become Eco-buddies who take on extra eco jobs. Children across the year groups are part of the Eco-council who help to develop and monitor the action plan for the year.

We are extremely lucky at Corsham Primary to have wonderful outside areas. At Pound Pill the children can enjoy the company of Pumpkin and Percy, our pigs, as well as looking after our chickens!

At Broadwood, gardening club members enjoy growing fruit and vegetables and cooking with them as well as creating willow fencing.

We are always busy with our Eco projects at Corsham Primary, here are some of our ongoing projects:

Eco Week

Once a year, the whole school takes part in Eco Week. Different year groups cover different topics such as litter and school grounds or water and energy. This year we have invited a visitor from Water Aid to inspire and get us talking about this issue.

Healthy eating

We eat healthy tuck (fruit or plain biscuits). We cook healthy meals using food grown in the school grounds and have healthy free school meals in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. We promote knowledge of how food is grown and produced.

Parking

We are very conscious of the environment and try to walk to school as much as possible. Parking is restricted, and we promote the use of bikes and scooters (stands are provided).

Woodland area

At Broadwood we have a wonderful woodland area which was planned by our children and constructed by volunteers from the local military base.

Outdoor learning/Forest schools

At Corsham Primary, we appreciate the potential for learning outside and the benefit this brings in the short and long term to the wellbeing of our children. We endeavour to teach outside as much as possible. The children have enjoyed taking part in forest schools sessions which are organised in the grounds at both sites.

Eco-councillors  

Eco-councillors are selected from Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, voted for by class members. We have regular meetings and carry out environmental reviews of the school. We have promoted litter picking, wildlife areas and recycling and often lead assemblies to share our vision for the school.

Eco-buddies

Our Eco-buddies work hard watering plants, caring for the animals, general gardening duties, conserving energy, ensuring recycling is happening around the school and litter picking.

Links with other schools

We are very excited to have established links with our fellow multi-academy trust schools, and we have been to visit our partnership schools to look at their outdoor provision in order to try and make improvements to ours.

Reducing energy consumption

Our target this year was to reduce our consumption of electricity. The Eco-buddies are doing a great job of checking lights are turned off when classrooms are not in use. Computers are switched off at night. Interactive whiteboards are switched off when not in use by teachers.

Eco-code

In every classroom you will find an Eco-code stating what we are committed to and a class poster stating who our class energy monitors are. We have completed pupil conferences to ask children about their understanding of the Eco-code.

Viridor school composting award for best composting scheme

Pound Pill achieved the Viridor School Composting Award for Best Composting Scheme. Mrs King and the wonderful gardening club work very hard on the school grounds. The pigs and chickens have helped us to produce brilliant compost too.

Transcoco Community Project

Transcoco is a local community group that aims to develop local solutions to local sustainability issues, helping to address global challenges such as climate change. In 2014, Corsham Primary with Transcoco planted community orchards on both sites. These are now used regularly by our children and members of the public. Trans Community Corsham called parents/carers of children at Corsham Primary School to volunteer to help maintain, attend meetings and discuss the development of the Broadwood and Pound Pill orchards. They aim to promote the use of these lovely spaces both at school and in the wider community.

Corsham in Bloom

The Gardening Clubs have worked hard to achieve outstanding “It’s your neighbourhood” Awards as part of the South West in Bloom competition. Horticulture is embedded into our curriculum and our children are hugely involved. In the local Corsham in Bloom competition, both Pound Pill and Broadwood received gold awards. Broadwood also won the overall award.

Rotary’s ‘Purple4Polio’ Project

Some Key Stage 2 children have been involved in planting purple crocuses as part of the Rotary’s ‘Purple4Polio’ project. The Rotary club donated 1200 crocus bulbs to the school to celebrate the eradication of polio from nearly every country in the world. The children were excited to be part of such a large and important project, celebrating the fantastic work that has been done. They were really interested to learn the significance of the colour purple that represents the coloured dots that are put on the fingers of children in some countries to identify who has received the vaccination.

Gardening Club

The Eco-buddies and children participate in Gardening Club during lunchtimes. They care for the animals, and they help to maintain the plants growing inside and out of the poly tunnel. They learn how our food is produced.