School Eco club

As some of you may know by now, I do a lot of volunteer( and a bit of paid ) work with an environmental and/or sustainability theme. One of the things I do is to help at the school which compostgirl attends, running an after school club with an environmental theme - ECO CLUB!

The wonderful and enthusiastic Yr 2 teacher and I started Eco club this time last year and it runs twice a month, with between 20-25 children in each session. We have had some other parent help and mr cw is always on hand , especially if any drains or carpentry or tree planting is involved....!

At each Eco club session we have done some work in the school grounds to improve our environment, such as tree planting, gardening or hedgehog house making. We have also had visits from wildlife experts and done some craft activities. Above all we have had FUN!

Our School is a member of Herefordshire Nature Trust so Eco Club is registered as an affiliated Watch group. We are also an RSPB Wildlife Explorers club so each child who joins is also an member of the RSPB. Since Eco Club started in Sept 2006 we have been really busy!

In our first term, this time last year, we -:


Made Christmas decorations from recycled materials .
Planted 60 trees along a bare length of chain link fence to make a wildlife hedge as part of the Woodland Trust "Trees for All" scheme























We learned about Hedgehogs from a British Hedgehog Preservation Society expert and met some very friendly hedgehogs!
Collected tins of cat food for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
Learned about Bats from a Bat Conservation Trust expert and made plans for installing Bat boxes at the school in Spring 2007.


Prepared and planted an Eco Club insect attracting bed


















Dug, composted and tidied our organic raised veg beds ready for winter.
Harvested our autumn veg and made up three veg boxes to auction at the Harvest Festival.
Then from the start of 2007 we have:-
Jan 07 we made recycled paper and used recycled paper to do various craft activities, We talked about where paper comes from and why it is important to recycle it AND buy recycled goods.


















Feb 07 we did the RSPB big garden birdwatch and made bird and bat boxes and bird feeders. We set up a new bird feeding area AND took delivery of a new paper recycling bank in the playground.






















March 07 we sorted out the veg plot, turned over the soil and put compost from our bins on the beds. We also put up our bird and bat boxes.



















April 07 we planted more trees from the Woodland Trust in the hedge, planted up our herb bed and insect attractant bed and then had a good look around the grounds at what effect all our eco efforts were having...a mini eco audit!

















May 07 we did pond dipping in the school pond.


June 07 we did a bug hunt in the school grounds and fixed the school greenhouse so we can use it to grow plants next year. We also put in a new water butt and used it to water our plants.

July 07 we had an Eco club outing and a picnic to Queenswood Country Park!