God has entrusted the world to us and we are stewards of His creation.  This means that we should be taking responsibility for looking after our world.  We have a number of ways that we do this at St Gregory’s but we are always encouraging our school community to look for other opportunities to care even better for our world and then spread the news to others.  When each of us makes a little difference, together the impact is huge!

Here at St Gregory's we have been getting students, teachers and parents involved in recycling at school and at home.  Recycling is good for the environment, educational and can be a lot of fun. For a greener future we have to educate our children at school and at home  about the importance of recycling and the reasons behind it and that our actions make a difference. If we start the habit of recycling now, our children will carry this on within their life time. 

After many years of fundraising, in July 2022 our Eco Hub was finally complete.  The Eco Hub is an outdoor classroom that helps us learn about God’s wonderful creation and how we can look after it better by living more sustainably.  It’s also really good for our wellbeing to spend more time outside learning.

St Gregory's Eco Hub

"Recycling turns things into other things, Which is like MAGIC"
 

Recycling  / Helping the Planet

At school we recycle paper, plastic, food waste, pens, batteries, clothes and fabrics, electronics waste (printer ink cartridges, computers, monitors).

• Use the front and back of copy paper for class assignments, then recycle it.
• Encourage students to use recycled materials in their art projects, from water bottles to paper and card, boxes etc.
• Encourage students and their families to walk or cycle to school more often.  We as a school take part in “The Big Pedal” each year
• Encourage lift share among parents and staff
• Keep a scrap paper box in every classroom and in the School offices
• Keep a printer ink recycle bin in the staff room
• Run a "Planet Protectors" club for all children
• Reuse supplies where possible, use old newspaper and magazines for Art
• Upload work on our "Learning at Home" webpage rather than printing and sending home
• Provide Editable PDF forms for parents
• Have posters throughout the school reminding children about recycling 
• We are a peerless school and parents communicate using electronic means

Eco Bites

Even though we do our best to eat the food we are given, there is always some waste.  Any food waste produced from our meals in school is taken away and composted down by a local company which also decreases food miles.  Any waste that we are able to use in our Eco-Hub compost bins is transferred there to reduce food miles and some is even fed to our pet worms in the wormeries.At St Gregory’s we are looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint and here is an easy switch that you might like to make. Everyday cleaning products in single use plastic trigger plastic bottles uses carbon and even if recycled, the process to do this uses more carbon. As we know, some plastics are dumped in the sea and others are burnt in incinerators or tipped into landfill.

So what can you do to lower your carbon footprint?

Well, this small cardboard box contains small sachets of cleaning products which can be dissolved in an empty trigger bottle and diluted with water. The box contains five different products and costs £10 from a company called Iron & Velvet with no postage and packing charge. The products smell wonderful and clean beautifully! They also come with individual labels for you to use on your old trigger bottles. Imagine if we all made the switch how much plastic we would avoid! Cleaning products are-kitchen anti-bacterial cleaner, bathroom cleaner, floor cleaner, oven cleaner and glass cleaner.

The Big Plastic Count
This year, the government is starting to decide on legal targets for reducing plastic waste. But at the moment, there’s nowhere near enough information about how much plastic waste leaves UK households, or what happens to it.  This is where the BIG PLASTIC COUNT begins.  More information HERE.

Organic food composting 
Even though we do our best to eat the food we are given, there is always some waste.  Any food waste produced from our meals in school is taken away and composted down by a local company which also decreases food miles.

Meat-free Mondays

This has been a hugely successful venture - one which our parents love. Parents can bring any uniform that no longer fits their child into school where they can donate it and simply swap it for free for a larger size.  Any parent can come and take items their child needs.  Our ‘vintage uniform shop’ is all the rage!

Grow our own veg/fruit 
Our EYFS love growing their own veg and fruit. In addition to learning topics where we learn specifically about growing, we also have growing areas within out outdoor spaces. At every opportunity we talk about and discuss where food comes from and the part we play in this.

Planet protectors 
We have a "Planet Protector" club after school for children termly.  
Our Planet Protectors met once a week during the Autumn Term to discuss environmental issues and to find out about different events and initiatives aimed at raising awareness. We had lots of fun creating banners, taking part in climate change marches in the playground and making posters to display around the school to teach people ways they can help our planet.

Uniform Swap Shop/ Uniform Donation  
This has been a hugely successful venture one which our parents love. Parents can bring in any uniform that no longer fits their child into school were they can donate.  Any parent can come and take items their child needs.  Our ‘vintage uniform shop’ is all the rage!

Clothes recycling
Here at school we have clothes bins outside of the main reception area where you can bring any unwanted clothing or footwear.  This is then collected monthly.

Sensors 
The school has installed sensors on all lights in the school to automatically turn them off when the area is vacated.  This is really important to save electricity.

Recycling Pens

We now recycle pens in the school reception area.  In this programme, all writing instruments (except for wooden pencils and chalk) are accepted : any brand of pen, felt tip, highlighter, marker, correction fluid pot, correction tape, mechanical pencil and eraser pen (cap included) regardless of their composition (plastic, metal).  Once collected, the writing instruments are cleaned and separated by material type. The fibres and plastics are recycled into raw formats that manufacturers use to make new products.