Eco-Warriors

At St Mary Magdalen’s Catholic Junior School we care deeply about environmental issues and have a strong desire to actively protect our planet. However, environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity-loss or plastic pollution are huge global issues and the thought of tackling them can be intimidating, leaving many feeling overwhelmed and wondering ‘Where do we begin?’

In the last few years we have developed the role of the ‘Eco-Warriors’ around our school to raise awareness of issues such as the effects of climate change in our world, pollution in general as well as plastic pollution, and our role towards a more sustainable future.

This academic year (2024/2025) we are planning to join the Eco-Schools programme, where we will be connecting our activities to three of the Ten Eco-Schools Topics. These topics break large, global issues like climate change into more manageable and directed themes that prompt young people to consider environmental changes that they can make in their school and everyday lives.

The Eco-Schools programme provides a simple, seven-step framework that answers this question whilst empowering children to make a difference in their school, local community and beyond. Since 1994, millions of children and young people around the world have worked through the Eco-Schools Seven Steps before being recognised for their efforts with a prestigious Eco-Schools Green Flag.

For further information on the Eco-Schools Seven Steps and how they are delivered, follow the early years, and primary links. To find out more about the Ten Eco-Schools Topics (including examples) click here.

Step 1 Eco-Committee

A group of children who, with the support of an Eco-Coordinator/Science Leader, are responsible for running the Eco-Schools programme in our school community.

Step 2 Environmental Review

A set of fact-finding questions linked to our 10 Eco-Schools topics that have been designed to help our Eco-Committee/Eco-Warriors understand what environmental work your school is already doing, whilst inspiring further child-led eco-actions.

Step 3 Action Plan

This is a working document to help our Eco-Committee/Eco-Warriors plan and manage actions for 3 Eco-Schools Topics of their choice, which they will work on during the school year.

Step 4 Curriculum Links

This would include curriculum links to different aspects of the environment across the year groups.

Step 5 Informing and Involving

We would be engaging the entire school and its wider community in eco-projects and actions for the 3 Eco-Schools topics chosen in Step 3: Action Plan.

Step 6 Monitoring and Evaluation

We would be assessing the impact of the topic work in our action plan, addressing what worked well, what needed adapting and how our Eco-Committee/Eco-Warriors could develop their eco-actions for the following year.

Step 7 Eco-Code

We would be creating a whole school promise to protect the planet that reflects the topic work our Eco-Committee/Eco-Warriors completed in their Action Plan during the school year.