Horbury Bridge CE

Living by Our Christian Values: Together in Faith, Hope and Love

 

Young Leaders 

Eight children from Year 6 have volunteered to become Young Leaders. They will  be  promoting good environmental and healthy living practices as well as taking additional responsibilities around school. Their work will be especially linked to our Eco School Green Flag and Fairtrade Foundation Fairacheiver status. 

British Nutrition Foundation Topics

Each year the BNF runs a campaign linked to a series of healthy living topics. This year our Young Leaders will use these themes to encourage our community to be healthier. 

 Based on the "DRINK PLENTY" topic, the group created a display for the hall, highlighting the importance of keeping hydrated. It shows how much water children of different ages should drink daily, along with why their body needs water. 

 The group considered how they could encourage people of all ages to "MOVE MORE" and came up with a #Challenge100 video made up of ten different exercises to do ten times. Why not have a go and see how your fitness improves daily?

http://bit.ly/HBAChallenge100 

Recognising that a healthy mind is as important as a healthy body the group has also been thinking how to "BE MIND KIND". They have created "Post The Positivity" boxes for children to post notes about the good things that they have accomplished and that are around them. At some stage in the week classes will then have a chance to review the notes. It is hoped by the group that this will help children have a positive outlook, be more optimistic and generally feel good about themselves. 

   

Eco-Schools Green Flag Award

We are proud that the hard work of our Young Leaders and Eco Rangers 2019/2020, has earned us the Eco-Schools Green Flagan internationally recognised award for excellence in environmental action and learning. These children help us to think about our Christian Value of 'Respecting God's World'. Read about some of their work in our work below.

Our Previous Achievements

Young Leaders and Global Goals

In September 2018 we introduced the work of the United Nations and their aims for a more sustainable world to our oldest children, from that the Young Leaders group was born. Children in Year 6 put themselves forward to meet regularly to use the UN's global goals to make our school community a better place.

 

Pupil-led lessons

The Young Leaders feel sustainability is an important message to share, including with the youngest children in school.

To raise the younger children's awareness of our link with a school in Mara, they taught them some African music and dance using junk percussion. They have also explained what recycling is and helped them make their own sheets of paper from waste paper. This paper was then used for the Nursery and Reception children's Christmas cards to their parents. 

     

What are the Global Goals ? 

In order to raise awareness of the Global Goals and their proposed work within the school , the Young Leaders led a whole school assembly showing a video featuring activist and Nobel Peace prize winner, Malala Yousafzai. They explained some of the 17 goals and how they affect our community. Quizzing their audience about what they thought should be done to make improvements to help our world, they were able to gain ideas of future work. Global Goals Conference

Our Young Leaders and Eco Rangers, planned, organised and led a Global Goals conference for other local primary schools to attend. They wanted to spread the word to others about how they can help the environment and create a more sustainable lifestyle. Local MP, Mary Creagh, opened the conference which was also attended by local Councillor, Darren Byford. See a full report on the Leeds Anglican Diocesan Website: Global Goals Conference

     
              

Sustainability Conference

Our Eco Rangers attended a primary schools' Sustainability Conference to explore issues of energy use, pollution, waste and how each one of us can help to 'Change the World'.     

Our Eco-code

Having worked on many environmental issues throughout the school year particularly waste, global issues and marine a sub group of the Eco teams developed an Eco-code based on the 6R's - recycle, reuse, repair, rethink, refuse and reduce. This code is displayed all around the school as a reminder.

Eco Audit

Our Year 5 children took part in an Energy Audit with Energy Heroes to see how eco-friendly we are. The children enjoyed a Maths lesson followed by an energy audit using our gas and water bills. Overall the children were happy to see we are efficient when it comes to energy.  

 Sport Team Names Chosen Democratically

Global Goals:

  • 3 Good Health (encouraging sport)
  • 10 Reduce Inequalities
  • 16 Peace and Justice (through democracy) 

Our school sports teams are named after famous sporting people to help children be inspired to try their best in sport. When the Young Leaders felt that these needed refreshing, they chose six current, inspirational sports people and publicised these on a noticeboard. Recognising the importance of fairness, they gave each child an opportunity to vote for their favourites. 

Our teams are now named after Lewis Hamilton, Jonnie Peacock and Harry Kane

Fishy Fun 

Global Goal 14: Life below water

One of the areas the Eco group chose to work on was 'Marine'. They organised a number of activities through the year to highlight the problem of litter in rivers and seas showing how it impacted on marine life. 

They  led an assembly telling our children the full extent of litter damage especially from single use plastics. During this assembly they introduce a "Sea in the Box" competition asking children to create a underwater scene using rubbish. There were some amazing entries which are displayed in our hall. 

Another event the children organised was a Fishy Fun lunchtime. They created a fish board game and other games and helped children make a jellyfish out of old plastic bags. 

As a result of the group raising awareness about good fishing methods we know only use fish bearing the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) logo in our school dinners. 

Reducing Waste: Uniform Recycling Shop

Another topic that the Eco group chose to work on was WASTE. They held a Relove sale to encourage re-using items rather than simply throwing things they had finished with into the bin. Families were asked to donate any toys, books or children's clothing that they had finished with. These items were then sold on and the income put towards the groups work. 

Global Goals

  • 12: Responsible Consumption
  • 13: Climate Action

The Young Leaders have also run a recycled uniform shop each half term.By donating uniform that has been outgrown, we encourage parents to recycle through our uniform sales. This saves uniform heading straight to landfill sites, it supports parents in buying uniform economically and it makes children more aware of our impact on the environment.

This has caught the attention of our local MP, Mrs Mary Creagh, who chairs the Environmental Audit Committee. She was so impressed by our work, that she asked us to explain how it works and for the local paper to spread the message to others.

 https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/school-uniform-recycling

Harvest Collection

Global Goal: 2 No Hunger

Young Leaders got involved to help our Harvest Collection for Kinsley Foodbank. Each day they put out a noticeboard to remind families to donate and helped arrange displays in the church and school hall so they could be seen during our Harvest Services 

Encouraging Exercise

When Imogen and Dylan said they were fed up at lunchtime, they were asked what would they like to do. They developed the idea of leading activities for other children to be involved in. This became known as "MOVE IT MONDAYS" with different Young Leaders taking responsibility each week. So far they have set up obstacle courses, target games and races. 

Global Goal: 3 Good Health (encouraging exercise)

Recycling Lunchtime 

Global Goal:  12 Responsible consumption and production

Young Leaders held a lunchtime of recycling and upcycling activities:

  • "Race Against Time" -  a timed challenge to sort out different materials (plastic, cans, and paper)
  • "Ditch the Plastic" - a target game using plastic bottles. 
  • Making balls from plastic bags
  • Making tealight holders from empty jam jars

Appointing an Eco Group

Many of the Global Goals address climate change so the Young Leaders are also working towards Eco School Awards. 

They advertised job vacancies for Class Eco-Rangers of all ages and spent lunchtimes interviewing those interested in taking on the responsibilty of encouraging their class to be more sustainable. 

Each Young Leader is assigned to a class and works closely with their Eco-Rangers as we progress with our EcoSchool awards. 

The Young Leaders and Eco Rangers reviewed our school environmental practices and created an Eco Schools Action Plan to improve these. This focuses on 3 priorities:Eco Action 
  • Global Citizenship (Global Goals)
  • Waste (12 Responsible Consumption and Production)
  • Marine (14 Life Below Water)

The plan includes special lunchtimes with activities, competitions, sales, assemblies and conferences. 

30 Days Wild

30 Days Wild encourages children and their families to bring a little nature into their lives every day in June. The Eco Team organise lunchtime activities so everyone can get involved http://www.mywildlife.org.uk/30dayswild/