Progress of Action Plan

Increase Bio-diversity

· We have held a fundraising day and were able to donate a large sum of money to counteract deforestation across the globe

· We have added wildlife friendly plants near our restored wildlife pond

· A wildlife camera has been purchased, classes will be able to access the footage in order to gain better knowledge of the animals visiting Nelson

· We have applied for hedgerow plants to increase natural habitats on site

· All outdoor areas have been distributed to next year’s classes. They will be responsible for providing new habitats for wildlife

Litter

· Each year group have been taking turns picking up litter on the grounds

· Next year we will track what each year group collects and hold a competition

· Recycling bins have been added to staff room and plans are in effect to add some to the play areas

· Eco Committee members have been designing posters and bin designs to reduce littering on the grounds

· We may undertake a litter picking activity off campus- TBA

Growing our own fruits and vegetables

· Bids are being submitted to help us create garden beds for each year group. These beds will stay with the children as they progress through their years at Nelson. The classes will be in control of what they plant and hopefully will be able to reap the rewards from their hard work.

· We have applied for fruit trees to create a miniature orchard

· We plan to have a harvest festival to showcase what produce has been grown.

 

We would like to announce that Nelson Academy has achieved their Eco-School Green Flag Accreditation and to make it even more noteworthy; the certification was awarded with distinction.

 

If you are unaware, the Eco-Schools Green Flag program is sponsored by Keep Britain Tidy in the UK, but it is part of a worldwide network operating in over 70 countries. In order to achieve certification, schools must complete 7 steps over the academic school year.

 

The pupil-led process begins with a student survey asking environmental questions that relate to our school setting. Within these 10 different areas (such as water, waste, and transport etc the survey revealed our students were most concerned in making improvements in three areas at Nelson Academy.

 

The three areas the children wanted to improve were; Biodiversity-where we vowed to increase habitats for animals; litter-where we aimed to reduce litter at school and in Norfolk; and finally, school grounds-where the children wanted to grow our own veg and fruit (this also fell into to healthy living).

 

We constructed an action plan and had to document our progress and show plans for projects that are still to be completed. As a school, we needed to show curriculum links to the 10 sustainability goals, explained how our eco-committee works and how we communicate with students and their families, and how we monitored and evaluated our actions.

 

Our goals were quite ambitious and because of that we are still working towards completing them, the organization could see our accomplishments and were pleased with the progress we made. Our school actually went beyond the normal targets thus qualifying for the distinction level of Eco goals, and as these goals are meant to be progressive- we believe that this is the start of making Nelson Academy a greener, happier school.

A copy of our report can be found below. We want to thank all the help we have received from staff and families because without their support we would not have been able to achieve our award.

Here is the report:

We are very pleased to tell you that you and your Eco-Committee at Nelson Academy have been awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag.

We reviewed your application and noted the following:

We really liked your action-focussed and practical approach to Eco-Committee meetings. We love that students were able to use critical thinking here and focus on the substance of what was needed. It’s a productive way to work and yielded great results. We love how active your Eco-Committee was in communicating Eco-Schools activity school-wide. Posters, dojo messages, newsletters, website (we love that you have your own page!), an eco-board and email messages to class teachers… all combine to make a great approach! This is really strong informing and involving. Your approach to appointing an Eco-Committee was really mature and fair. We loved that you engaged extra pupils in the process, alongside those elected. Eco-Schools is designed to be pupil-led so this is excellent! It was really great to see that your Environmental-Review provided the basis for your actions, especially as it helped you to spot gaps in your existing activity. It shows the reflective and considered approach that you’ve taken throughout – this is a great skill that many adults can learn from! Next time, we’d love to see your completed environmental review as it’s clearly been a substantial and insightful experience. Your Action Plan is really focussed, SMART and informed by the Environmental Review. It was a manageable amount of activity and designed to show impact. Having a research-informed defined goal is very professional. It made us so happy to see how the pupils were fizzing with ideas for other projects and actions that they can take. We can’t wait to see how you develop in the coming years! Your curriculum links were really clear and creative. They were also very fun which is great to see! They challenged pupils to think outside of the box and approached topics in a fresh and different way. We were really impressed by this evidence. It was brilliant to see the school’s excellent, substantial planning materials. This is great example of layering in sustainability and climate change in to your Curriculum studies. We were very impressed and it’s clear that the students get a varied and exciting experience at Nelson Academy. You’ve clearly looked externally and engaged with lots of different campaigns, projects and organisations. This open approach extends to your brilliant collaborative practice. You’ve clearly demonstrated your desire to make this a team effort. It was a collaboration-masterclass! Teamwork is key to combatting climate change and your pupils are already great at this – this makes us feel really positive for the future. It's amazing to see that your school has become a greener environmental as a result of the work on the Eco-Schools programme this year. The Eco-Schools team have all said that we wished we’d be pupils at Nelson when we were growing up. Overall, this is a terrific application and a great year’s work. The Eco-Committee and the entire school should feel very proud. The Eco-Schools team is delighted to award you a Green Flag with Distinction.

 

 

 

Eco Club has participated in the following activities this year

British Big Beach Clean sponsored by the Marine Conservation Society

On Saturday 17^th September 2022, Nelson Academy completed our second British Big Beach Clean sponsored by the Marine Conservation Society.  Over 20 students and family members scoured the beach at Hunstanton - collecting rubbish and scientific information.  We amassed over 15kg in litter and beach debris and carried out a 100 meter survey which is then compiled into a national report.  The day was wonderful and we all felt we had achieved something amazing.

 

 

Eco Club participated in the following activities in 2021-2022

Talk Like a Pirate Beach Clean Sept 2021 in partnership with Marine Conservation Society

Several students and their families went to Hunstanton to do both a beach rubbish survey as well as did an hour-long litter pick.

Message in a Bottle – Bottle cap art competition 2022 

Using only rubbish, we constructed an ocean scene for a competition held by the National Schools Partnership organisation. The competition was called “Message in a Bottle” and it was designed to raise awareness on plastic pollution especially in our seas. The children from several year groups created “messages” or drawings to help get the message across which we added to the sculpture.

Eco Green Flag with Distinction Award 2022

(Increased Habitats, Improved School grounds by planting hedges and trees, and battled litter) 

We would like to announce that Nelson Academy has achieved their Eco-School Green Flag Accreditation and to make it even more noteworthy; the certification was awarded with distinction.

If you are unaware, the Eco-Schools Green Flag programme is sponsored by Keep Britain Tidy in the UK, but it is part of a worldwide network operating in over 70 countries. In order to achieve certification, schools must complete 7 steps over the academic school year.

The pupil-led process begins with a student survey asking environmental questions that relate to our school setting. Within these 10 different areas (such as water, waste, and transport etc the survey revealed our students were most concerned in making improvements in three areas at Nelson Academy.

The three areas the children wanted to improve were; Biodiversity-where we vowed to increase habitats for animals; litter-where we aimed to reduce litter at school and in Norfolk; and finally, school grounds-where the children wanted to grow our own veg and fruit (this also fell into to healthy living).

We constructed an action plan and had to document our progress and show plans for projects that are still to be completed. As a school, we needed to show curriculum links to the 10 sustainability goals, explained how our Eco committee works and how we communicate with students and their families, and how we monitored and evaluated our actions.

Our goals were quite ambitious and because of that we are still working towards completing them, the organisation could see our accomplishments and were pleased with the progress we made. Our school actually went beyond the normal targets thus qualifying for the distinction level of Eco goals, and as these goals are meant to be progressive- we believe that this is the start of making Nelson Academy a greener, happier school.

A copy of our report can be found below. We want to thank all the help we have received from staff and families because without their support we would not have been able to achieve our award.

· Here is the organisation’s grading/report of our work:

We are very pleased to tell you that you and your Eco-Committee at Nelson Academy have been awarded an

Eco-Schools Green Flag.

We reviewed your application and noted the following:

We really liked your action-focussed and practical approach to Eco-Committee meetings. We love that students were able to use critical thinking here and focus on the substance of what was needed. It’s a productive way to work and yielded great results. We love how active your Eco-Committee was in communicating Eco-Schools activity school-wide. Posters, dojo messages, newsletters, website (we love that you have your own page!), an eco-board and email messages to class teachers… all combine to make a great approach! This is really strong informing and involving. Your approach to appointing an Eco-Committee was really mature and fair. We loved that you engaged extra pupils in the process, alongside those elected. Eco-Schools is designed to be pupil-led, so this is excellent! It was really great to see that your Environmental-Review provided the basis for your actions, especially as it helped you to spot gaps in your existing activity. It shows the reflective and considered approach that you’ve taken throughout – this is a great skill that many adults can learn from! Next time, we’d love to see your completed environmental review as it’s clearly been a substantial and insightful experience. Your Action Plan is really focussed, SMART and informed by the Environmental Review. It was a manageable amount of activity and designed to show impact. Having a research-informed defined goal is very professional. It made us so happy to see how the pupils were fizzing with ideas for other projects and actions that they can take. We can’t wait to see how you develop in the coming years! Your curriculum links were really clear and creative. They were also very fun which is great to see! They challenged pupils to think outside the box and approached topics in a fresh and different way. We were really impressed by this evidence. It was brilliant to see the school’s excellent, substantial planning materials. This is great example of layering in sustainability and climate change in to your Curriculum studies. We were very impressed and it’s clear that the students get a varied and exciting experience at Nelson Academy. You’ve clearly looked externally and engaged with lots of different campaigns, projects and organisations. This open approach extends to your brilliant collaborative practice. You’ve clearly demonstrated your desire to make this a team effort. It was a collaboration-masterclass! Teamwork is key to combatting climate change and your pupils are already great at this – this makes us feel really positive for the future. It's amazing to see that your school has become a greener environmental as a result of the work on the Eco-Schools programme this year. The Eco-Schools team have all said that we wished we’d be pupils at Nelson when we were growing up. Overall, this is a terrific application and a great year’s work. The Eco-Committee and the entire school should feel very proud. The Eco-Schools team is delighted to award you a Green Flag with Distinction

 

Woodland Trust Gold Award 2022

This is a scheme that is designed to get children out into the woods and to gain respect and love of trees. There are several levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. We needed to complete several activities (I’ve highlighted the ones particularly pertinent) which were worth a variety of points which helped us climb the levels. As this year was our first year, we did exceptionally well, jumping to the gold level. We did this by certain year groups completing different activities - and though Eco-Club did not complete all of them directly they issued the challenges to the appropriate classes. The projects that our school completed are:

· Campaign to reduce carbon emissions in school (posters put up, turning off lights in classrooms etc)

· Campaign to recycle in school

· Planting trees in school

· Decorating trees in school

· Sharing woodland inspired art and words

· Visiting woods and enjoying trees

· The man who planted trees assembly

 

RHS Gardening Level 2 Award 2022

We have yet to get the beds in, but our Eco club was able to get the grant from Tesco to have the funds to put in garden beds for each year group. However, many year groups have already began growing thing- enough to get the RHS Gardening Level 2 Award which means that we were able to answer yes to the following:

· We have started to grow some plants

· We are asking our students what they want to grow

· We can use basic gardening terms

· We can use hand tools safely

· We have the skills to prepare the soil, sow, plant and water

 

RSPB Big Bird Watch 2022

We spent an hour watching and recording the presence of birds. These results were then sent into the RSPB for their nationwide survey.