Eco-School

July 2019

Year 4 Garden

The children enjoyed tidying and digging the garden areas before buying and planting a range of plants to make the place look colourful.  Their hard work definitely paid off!

Outdoor Learning 

Across East and West pupils have spent time outside the classroom working and extending their learning in fun ways.

Litter Picking

It is important that we look after our environment so the children went out in our local area picking up litter and leaving it a tidier place.

Eco Committee

Finally a big thank you and well done to the Eco Committee for coming along to the meetings and being active in suggesting ideas and getting involved in Eco activities, in particular, emptying the class compost bins every week.

June 2019

Recently some members of the Eco Committee went shopping to Wilko in Dunstable to spend a £50 voucher which had been very kindly donated by the manager to Vicky!  

Most of the money went on a lovely new wooden bench but we also bought some fruit bushes because at the last Eco Committee meeting the children decided they would like to grow more fruit - what a healthy and responsible choice!

March 2019

Friday 22nd March was World Water Day and at Richmond Hill West we had a colouring competition to mark the occasion, which was then judged by our School Council.

Across both sites assemblies were held informing the children of the importance of water in our world, we also thought about the different uses of water and the fun we can have with it in our everyday lives.

Eco-Schools Activities 2017-2018

Year 4's Gardening Project!

Year 4 are going to work hard in their gardening lessons to develop the area by the sandpit- this links well with their topic 'What a Load of Junk'. During this topic they are learning about recycling and caring for the environment. 

Keep looking back for progress pictures...

Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to help embed these principles into the heart of school life. To visit their website click here.

In 2008 Richmond Hill school begun their Eco-schools journey and by 2012 we had achieved the Green Flag award from Eco-schools.

This is our story...

We begun by composting our fruit and vegetable waste into a black compost bin in our neglected unused garden area and recycling paper, plastic, cartons, magazines, tin cans in red recycling bins in 2008 which we achieved the Eco-schools 'Bronze award'. 

Then in 2009 we employed Vicky. Vicky had always had 'green fingers' and had just graduated with a Diploma in Horticulture. She was keen to start transforming our unused garden into an eco-friendly gardening area for every child in the school's use.

We were lucky to receive lots of help developing the gardening area with generous donations of paving slabs, timber and (most importantly), labourers from WATES, Volker Highways and The Prince's Trust. 

In 2011 we achieved the 'Green Flag' from Eco-schools, after an assessor came in to see what work we do at Richmond Hill to help the environment. Most importantly, she saw the activities and involvement the pupils have in managing and maintaining our garden.

View our 'Green Flag' case study here.

Since achieving this award we have developed our own gardening curriculum with every class having a timetabled lesson with Vicky in the garden. 

Some of the activities the children are involved in are:

• watering
• planting
• picking produce
• weeding
• digging
• pickling produce
• composting
• sweeping
• building bug hotels
• making bird houses
• cooking
• and of course...eating!