Last year:

SPRING 2023:

The Big Battery Hunt! 

The Big Battery Hunt is a nationwide programme to help educate and inspire young people to recycle more used batteries. There are some amazing prizes to be won including £3,500 towards garden and outdoor equipment, a Nintendo Switch and a trophy for the winning school. Plus, certificates for participating pupils! We are really excited to be taking part for the second year running and ask that if you have any old or unused batteries please bring them into school with your child. Each class has a small box to store batteries, but for larger quantities please use the recycling bin in the main office. The competition is running until June 2023. 

Don't forget we also recycle ink cartridges, textiles and pens so please do bring these hard to recycle items into the school if you have any. These bins are all located in the main office.

Autumn 2022:

Last friday, we had a visit from Mrs Chapman from Worthing Boys Club. She came to talk to us about Terracyle, the company that takes our schools pens, crisp packet and ink cartridges away to be recycled. She explained how the company takes our waste products and turns them into new materials rather than going to landfill. She also explained that Worthing Boys Club has a donation station where even more materials can be recycled. We were shocked that so many everyday products that we throw in the bin could actually be recycled, from old make up, to mobile phones and even washing up gloves! We decided to see if we could all fill a bag up to each take to the donation centre over the next month.  

Thank you Mrs Chapman for coming in and inspiring us to all reduce our waste at home.  

 

 

 

Eco council went to a special event this week called Eco-Summit which is run by the E.Y.E Project. This stands for 'Eco Young and Engaged' and is run by teenagers in Worthing who are passionate about climate change. We got to participate in a morning of workshops and talks all about sustainable projects that are happening across Worthing and the world! The aim was to inspire this year’s Eco Councillors to make big changes that will benefit our environment. We met with Sussex Surplus, who gave the children ideas of how to use up waste food products and Transition Town Worthing, who discussed with the children what we are doing as a school to be more environmentally friendly. 

  

As part of the day, all the schools were encouraged to bring as much soft plastic packaging, such as crisp packets, as they could gather. The school who brought the most along would win a special prize. I set our Eco Councillors the challenge to collect as much as they could over the holidays and we won the prize! We were awarded a special E.Y.E Project t-shirt, which we decided to display on the Eco Council corridor display.   

  

The children had a wonderful day and have lots of ideas to discuss at our next meeting.   

 

 

 

 

 

Eco Council - saves 78kg of pens from going into landfill!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our pen recycling at school. Through collecting pens in our recycling bin from both in and out of school, we have managed to save a total of 78Kg of pens from going to landfill.  This has also raised £78.00 for the school.  Keep saving your non-working pens over the summer and add them to the bin next term.  Thank you to Worthing Boys' Club for supporting us with this scheme.

Eco Council Recycling Bins

 

Thank you to everyone who has been collecting and adding old pens and ink cartridges to our recycling bins at the entrance to the school.  We are pleased to say that we have now added a third bin for collecting used batteries for recycling.   Each class will also have a small box for collecting batteries which the class Eco Councillor will empty in to the bin in the foyer at regular intervals. Alternatively, they can also be added straight in to the bin in the foyer.  Thank you for supporting us with our recycling initiatives.

 

Walk to School Week May 2022

 Well done to all the pupils who joined in with the Walk to School Week last week, despite the rather wet end to the week.  We hope you enjoyed all the benefits that walking to school brings. 

Overall, 79.62% of pupils walked to school over the week which is a fantastic achievement.  Macaw class had the most children walking with an average of 89.37% of children walking to school during the week.  They were closely followed by Toucan Class with 88.75% of children walking to school. Well done to year 4! Congratulations to everybody who took part and as we enjoy the summer weather, why not make a pledge to keep walking to school?

Year 5 'Let's Make a Difference' topic for Summer 2022

This term, Year 5 are focusing on the environment as part of their Let's Make a Difference' topic.  Last Friday Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, visited our Year 5 children following them writing letters to him expressing their concern over the poor air quality around the outside of our school.  This was in response to our work with the Charity Sustrans in the Autumn Term.  Tim spoke to them about what the Government are doing locally and nationally to help improve air quality and it was a great opportunity for him to answer questions from the children about this important subject.

Walk to School Week 16th - 20th May

We are looking forward once again to taking part in the 'Walk to School Week' from 16th – 20th May.

This nationwide event is organised by the walking charity ‘Living Streets’. The theme of this year’s event is ‘#Power Up’ and will engage pupils through video game style design, encouraging all our children to travel to school in a sustainable way by walking, scooting, cycling or 'Park and Stride' every day of the week.

Each day will see a level unlocked and a new mission to complete, through which pupils will discover the incredible benefits of walking for individuals, communities and the planet.

Last year over 88% of pupils walked to school over the week. Let’s see if we can make that even higher this year.

A letter giving more information has been sent to all families by email. A copy can also be found on the website under Parent Information/general school letters.

Competition Winner - April 2022

During the Autumn Term, we did a lot of work with the charity Sustrans. They are the charity that promote walking and cycling to school. They work with local authority partners to improve the area around schools by reducing traffic speed and volume and making safer spaces for active travel.

In Autumn 2021, Sustrans were commissioned to work with schools in West Sussex on a short-term project to open up discussion about active and sustainable travel to school and run activities and sessions to enable more children to walk and cycle. The project culminated in a banner design competition for school-gate banners. The competition’s theme was road safety outside schools

Our Eco Council and Art Council entered this competition with the winning banner being used by West Sussex County Council outside all the primary schools in West Sussex. Four of our pupils were short listed but we are very excited to announce that Rhiannon in Year 6 won the competition and her banner can now be seen outside our school as well as other primary schools across West Sussex. Her banner focused on the positive benefits to the community of walking to school and not parking outside the school. The banner impressed the panel with its clarity of design, use of colours and the simplicity of the message. Huge congratulations to Rhiannon on this amazing achievement.

 

Thank you from Eco Council - Jan 2022

Thank you to everyone who has been helping us with our recycling at school - pens, ink cartridges and textiles. As you may remember, the school benefits financially from the textiles and ink cartridges collected and we have started to receive money for both of these.

For the recycled textiles, we have received £51.80 and for the ink cartridges, £25.30. This is £77.10 in total.  The Eco Council will be discussing the best way to use this money.

Thank you to everyone for supporting these initiatives and please keep collecting and recycling to help us raise more funds.

Sustrans Air Quality Testing 

Last Thursday, we had a return visit from Paul Turner from the charity 'Sustrans' with the results of the air quality testing carried out before Half Term.  On his last visit, Paul and Eco Council put up three nitrous dioxide diffusion tubes - one in a classroom, one on the field and one just outside the main entrance.  

The results showed were concerning as the amount of nitrous dioxide in the air is above the WHO recommended levels both on the field and outside the main entrance.  Children in Year 5 then had a workshop with Paul and wrote letters to Tim Loughton MP explaining the results found and making suggestions for possible solutions to the problem such as reducing speed limits and adding more cycle lanes to encourage more people to use sustainable transport.  They are hoping to get a response from him.

   

New Recycling container

You may have noticed that today we took delivery of a textile recycling container in our front car park. This is part of our school recycling commitment which our Eco Council and Mrs Miller are leading on.

This recycling facility is for the whole school community to use and the school will benefit financially from the textiles that are collected (weight = income).

As you will appreciate, initiatives such as this come with Terms and Conditions. The key points for us are what can and can not be placed in the container. This information will be listed below.

Please feel free to use the facility at the beginning and end of the school day. The container will be emptied every fortnight. Please do not leave textiles on the ground (if the container is full) as the company will not receive wet goods.

Thank you in advance for supporting this project. 

Quality and Material Accepted

Astra Recycling will continually monitor the quality of all the collected material on a regular basis from the external bin collections.

We accept the following wearable items:

• All men's, ladies and children's clothing
• Paired Shoes
• Handbags, bags, ties and belts
• Bed clothes, towels, soft toys

Astra Recycling cannot accept the following items:

• Duvets both synthetic and feathered
• Pillows & cushions
• Carpets & Rugs
• Soiled or wet clothing
• Workwear e.g. (overalls/tabards)
• Shredded or mutilated textile material
• Textile off cuts, yarns or threaded material

 

Sustrans Bike Day 

Year 1 braved the weather on Wednesday and had lots of fun taking part in a bike skills day run by the charity Sustrans.  This was a great opportunity for them to improve and develop their cycling skills and gain confidence on a bike.  Some children rode without stabilizers for the first time.

    

 

Sustrans Air Quality Day

On Thursday 14th October, we had a visit from Paul Turner from the charity 'Sustrans' which encourages children to use sustainable transport to travel to school.  He led an assembly for KS2 children, as well as a short workshop for each junior school class.  He was telling us about the quality of the air around us and the impact the use of cars has on the air we breathe. The children had the opportunity to look for lichen in our outside environment through microscopes which can indicate the quality of the air around us.  Eco Council helped him to set up some diffusion tubes in different places which will collect air over the next few weeks and then be sent back to the charity to assess what the air is like in different areas of our school.  We look forward to hearing the results.

  

Recycling at Broadwater 

There are two new bins in the foyer to the school.  One is for recycling pens - ball points, felt pens, marker pens, highlighters - any sort of pen but no pencils please. 

These will be recycled as part of the TerraCycle scheme, through Worthing Boys' Club and raise money for the school.  The more we recycle, the more funds the school receives.  

We collect any old and used pens and they go to Worthing Boys' Club who have found a source within the Terracycle community who is willing to donate money raised for recycled pens direct to our school. This involves collecting pens, passing them to her and when the weight is enough, she will send them off.  Twice a year, money then gets donated to our school.  So, the more pens we recycle, the more money we raise.  Each class has a box to collect recycled pens so please save your old ones, send them in with your child to and help raise money for the school.

The second bin is for recycling ink cartridges.  This can be any make of ink cartridge but not toner or laser cartridges.  These will be recycled through the 'Recycle 4 Charity' scheme and again will raise money for our school.

Please collect all your pens and ink cartridges and drop them off in the bins in the foyer so that we help the environment and raise money for the school too.  Please share this with your family and friends and encourage them to recycle too.