At North Baddesley our Eco Schools Green Flag award helps us to focus on various aspects such as conservation, our carbon footprint being energy efficient. In effect to protect the planet and save money and resources at the same time. We maintain our commitment through a whole school environmental project "The Real Earth Force" , our creative curriculum and through our Eco committee. 

How our beach themed central courtyard looks in early summer!

REF Week: Real Earth Force

Each year, we celebrate our environment and planet during our special Real Earth Force week. During the week, everyone in our school community takes part in a range of activities inspired by our planet. REF week is a week where we focus on outdoor learning with activities such as den building, creating bug hotels, learning about our school grounds, gardening and creative art work. Children can also take part in a range of competitions, including the very popular nature photography competition. 

Top tips on how to help our planet:

• Prevent litter.

• Be energy efficient.

• Recycle

• Use a composter.

• Look after plants and animals in the environment.

We aim to reduce the amount of rubbish we produce by reducing packaging both at home and in school and in packed lunch boxes.We conserve energy by switching off lights and computers and we recycle all paper, card and plastic bottles .Children and staff compost left overs from lunch and breaks, and we collect empty crisp packets.We monitor our energy use through a smart meters.

We were re-assessed in September 2016 and were re-awarded our green flag credentials in spite of the building work going on around us. In addition to receiving a South East Schools in Bloom Award and a Test Valley in Bloom Gold award once again, the school really does work on its green credentials!

Now completed, our newly insulated roof and walls plus double glazing will help reduce our energy usage. The classrooms and many shared areas have all been fitted with motion sensors to switch off lights when unoccupied and we have installed water saving devices in the toilet cisterns. The car park lights have light-level switches and a timer to ensure they are not needlessly being lit. All classrooms have high efficiency LED lighting and we have solar panels on top of the single storey year 3 block which feeds directly back into the school. Our heating systems are on the waiting list to be replaced by energy efficient heat pump systems.

Want to find out more about the environment and how you lead more sustainable lifestyles?

Try these websites below:

https://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/pages/recycling-empty-cartridges

http://jointhepod.org/campaigns/campaign/28

www.eco-schools.org.uk

www.grownupgreen.org.uk

(grownupgreen is for people who want to make well-informed choices on such matters as: renewable energy supply, managing household waste, purchasing of consumer goods, food supply, public and private transport)

How we were reported after our 2016 Green Flag assessment in the New Forest "Sussed" newsletter