First Eco Day for EC students
ELIZABETH COLLEGE Upper and Junior School students celebrated their first Eco Day yesterday with a series of fun and interactive environmental activities.
Students at the Upper School were encouraged to cycle to school and to bring a plant-based lunch with no single use plastics, while they also took part in lessons on how positive changes to the quality of the environment were experienced during lockdown.
In addition, Year 11 students participated in a variety of online courses on the environment, as part of the Charterhouse School Sustainability Conference.
Students also participated in an eco quiz with the chance to win a goody bag filled with environmentally friendly items, such as a reusable water bottle.
Year 8 student, Adam Giles, who is part of the student eco team, said it had been an enjoyable day to dedicate to a serious issue.
‘Being part of this day has really opened my eyes about what’s happening,’ he said.
‘One of the new things I learnt was how much CO2 it takes to fly from here to Gatwick – it’s seven tonnes – and that really brought it back to me that we should spend more time in Guernsey.’
During class, students had the chance to share photos of pollinators in their habitats from their gardens at home.
Each class looked at different topics, such as in geography where they looked at carbon footprints and in design technology where they researched award-winning sustainable designs
Eco lead at Elizabeth College Sharka Lee said it had been a fantastic day to both learn about climate change, about what is happening and what can be done, as well as celebrate the successes they had achieved in promoting the environment and eco issues.
‘It’s been brilliant to see the staff and students take part in the college’s first eco dedicated day,’ she said.
‘Since the staff eco team was founded in January 2018 and the students’ eco team in September 2019, we’ve achieved so much and it’s gone beyond my expectations.
‘Everybody has taken it on board and really got involved in the aim of the day which is to promote climate change and its severity.’
At the Junior School, pupils from Reception to Year 6 were given the chance to work on eco projects from creating bird feeders, to planting activities in the school vegetable patch.
A poem on the environment was written, with each class working together to write a line, before being collated and put together into a giant school community poem.
