Many thanks to the Friends of Trittiford Pool and Park for accompanying us on a litter pick. We really loved getting lots of tiny bits of litter cleaned up. It is a beautiful park that the team felt strongly should be litter free for the sake of the wildlife and visitors. 

Friends of Trittiford Pool and Park can be found on X if you wish to join them.

https://x.com/TrittifordPark 

The Eco Team were invited to plant trees in a local park with Birmingham Tree People and Councillor Timothy Huxtable. The parks team from BCC helped too.

We planted a rowan and three field maples. We talked about how trees improve how land copes with flooding, improve air quality and increase biodiversity.

You can visit our trees at Marion Way (B28 0BL). 

Our Live Simply award is proudly displayed in the school entrance. Thank you to everyone who helped the school to gain this accolade.

The new OLOL Eco Code has been agreed by the Eco Team. Can you follow these rules at home and school?

The Eco Team have entered the Gardeners World Live School Wheelbarrow Competition. We had to choose a Commonwealth country and represent them in some way. The team decided on Kiribati. This country is at risk of becoming the first to be eroded away by rising sea levels. This is caused by climate change. 

The wheelbarrow is planted with blue lobelia for the sea. We learned that the people of Kiribati are planting mangroves in the water to try to stop erosion. We used pepper plants for this. We used other vegetable seedlings to represent plants that grow in Kiribati. We made houses to place in the ocean and close to the water. We wanted to show how people are impacted by climate change. 

The flag of Kiribati has waves, the sun and a bird on it. We added a large sun to represent the sun on the flag. We painted waves onto the side of the wheelbarrow too. 

Food for Life Plant and Share

On Monday 16 May we held our first ever Plant and Share event. 

We offered seeds, seedlings and compost to get everyone growing vegetables, flowers and herbs. People brought along an old plant pot or a reusable plastic pot to plant seeds in. The Eco Team rolled out lots of paper pots. These can be planted straight in the ground when seedlings are ready. They will biodegrade in the soil. 

We used peat free compost. Peat comes from peat bogs. These are very important habitats for wildlife. They hold nearly 30% of all the carbon held on land. When peat is extracted to make compost this carbon is released which contributes to climate change. Peat bogs are formed very slowly - 1mm a year! We will always choose peat free compost at OLOL. 

Lots of pupils and their grown ups came to join in with planting seeds. Please let us know how you get on. We would love to see some photos of your flowers and vegetables growing. 

The Eco Team went on a litter pick in the Dingles. We collected a bag of rubbish. It included plastic bottles, crisp packets, masks and sweet wrappers. We do not want any litter getting into the river Cole or Chinn Brook. 

Our Lady of Lourdes School is on a journey to act upon the words of Pope Francis in his letter to the world known as Laudato Si. We are already an Eco School. Now we are aiming to become a Plastic Free School and to gain the Cafod Live Simply award. Can you join us during Lent? Follow the actions suggested in the Lenten Calendar and let us know how you get on. You can tweet us @ourladyoflourd1 using the hashtags #LiveSimply #OLOLLaudatoSi

Take a look at our Eco Schools Action Plan.

Eco Team 2021-22

The Eco Team for 2021-22 have been busy carrying out an Environmental Audit of OLOL. They asked their classmates and school staff questions about their knowledge of all things environmental. From naming the 5 Rs (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Repurpose) to checking that our staff room tea is Fairtrade Certified (it is) we've taken a close look at how we do things.

Next the Eco Team voted to select three topics to focus on for the rest of the year to improve our environmental impact in school.  The topics chosen are Biodiversity, Waste and Litter. The team wasted no time at all by proposing a glitter ban in school. They voted unanimously to stop using glitter in school. They felt strongly that letting glitter escape into waterways was a problem with a simple solution. So no more glitter at OLOL...

What will they do next? Keep your eyes out for our Action Plan. 

The Global Goals for Sustainable Development

Have you heard of the Global Goals? Take a look at this website to find out more:

https://www.globalgoals.org/

The goals were agreed in 2015 by 193 countries. The aim of the Global Goals is to create a better world by 2030, by ending poverty, fighting inequality and addressing the urgency of climate change.  

Which Global Goals are we helping with by taking action on Biodiversity, Waste and Litter this year at OLOL?

The Eco Team from last year are staying in their posts for this term. We had an open air, socially distant meeting to catch up and get ready for action. 

The team members are busy reviewing our Action Plan, checking our classrooms are reusing and recycling paper, turning off lights and devices when they leave classrooms and reminding everyone to bring in their crisp packets and dental care packaging for recycling. 

Season of Creation 2021

This time last year, Pope Francis made his first official statement promoting the Season of Creation this week, an annual celebration of prayer and action for creation that is observed by Christians around the globe.

These are still the Key messages

• We are called to protect creation–and we are missing the mark. “Something good in the eyes of God has become something exploitable in human hands.”
• The Season of Creation is a time for prayer in nature. “This is the time to re-acquaint ourselves with praying immersed in nature, where our gratitude to the creator God arises spontaneously.”
• The Season of Creation is a time to grow in sustainability. “This is the time to reflect on our lifestyles . . . Let’s change and adopt simpler and more respectful lifestyles!”
• The Season of Creation is a time to urge governments to enact better climate policies. “This is the time to take prophetic actions” and governments have the task of “demonstrating political will to drastically hasten their measures to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible . . . in line with the Paris Agreement goals.”

Our M.P. Steve McCabe came to meet the Eco Team to talk about all things environmental. The children asked him his views on HS2, plastic pollution, bottle return schemes, air pollution, tree planting, recycling and green waste.

He added a leaf to our Laudato Si Tree. He pledged to walk more, carry a reusable water bottle and to vote in Parliament for measures to help the environment and cut CO2 emissions. 

Many thanks to Steve McCabe, his assistant and the Eco Team for a productive discussion. Our next visitor is a local councillor. What would like Birmingham City Council to do?

Eco School's Action Plan

The Eco Council has decided on our topics for the year ahead. We will focus our actions on Waste, Transport, Marine, Energy and School Grounds.

Our Action Plan is linked below. How could you help tackle these important issues at school and at home?

Many thanks to Moseley in Bloom for their donation of £500 to support gardening at school. We will be building raised beds for growing vegetables. They will be sited outside Year 2. This is a great help in tackling the School Grounds targets on our Action Plan.

Now, what shall we grow? 

Terracycle collection boxes are now available at the back of our church. Please drop off crisp packets and dental care items for us to send away for recycling. We get a small donation each time we send some to be processed. 

Please check the links below to ensure you drop off the correct items.

The 2018-19 Eco Council team have handed over their roles to this years team. They updated them on all that they did - from litter picks to gardening and a pop up shop. The two teams carried out an Environmental Review to assess what we need to work on next. 

We talked about Laudato Si and our mission to look after our Common Home. The children are all ready for action. Watch this space for ways you can help too. 

Our Lady of Lourdes is a public drop off point for crisp and dental care recycling. Items can be dropped off at the school office by members of the public. Pupils can use the bins located in the conservatory area by the playground.

We can raise funds for greening up our school grounds and divert plastic from landfill at the same time. Please check the posters above for more information. 

We had a Pop Up Shop to sell good quality, donated clothes that children in our school had grown out of. We raised £44 for CAFOD. We will send on unsold clothes to St. Chad’s Sanctuary. 

Before the sale we weighed the clothes. They weighed 78.5kg. We will reweigh the remainder after we have sent some to St Chad’s Sanctuary.

Special thanks to Miss Browning and Miss Kobic for teaching us how to sew a button on. Simple repairs keep our clothes in use for longer.

The Eco Council have litterpicked in the Dingles as part of the Great British School Clean. They chose a wooded area close to the Chinn Brook. Two of our topics are Waste and Water, so it made sense to litter pick an area where rubbish was getting into a waterway and out to sea. 

After just half half an hour of litter picking the team had filled almost six bags. We were all surprised by how many small plastic wrappers we found from sweets and cigarette packets as well as wipes. Wipes contain plastic too. They will never biodegrade completely. 

The Dingles looked so much better after a good clean up.

Charlotte from A Zero Waste Life came to share with us her knowledge about waste in everyday life. She talked to us about how plastic is made, used and wasted. After an assembly pondering the future we’d like to see - more fish 🐠 than plastic in the oceans 🌊 - we all committed to creating less plastic waste. What could you do? Maybe swap single use plastic bags and bottles for reusable ones? 

Year 4 and Reception had workshop sessions with Charlotte. The children identified and sorted waste materials. They came up with campaign ideas to reduce plastic waste. How about always putting the lids back on felt tips so they last longer? Do pen licences need to be plastic cards? 

The Eco Council planned and led an assembly about old clothing being sent to landfill when it could still be worn. They told us all about what happens to clothes in landfill sites - it can take hundreds of years to break down. 

They have decided to offer a solution to the problem by opening a Pop Up Shop. Clean children’s clothes in good condition will be sorted and sold to raise money for CAFOD.

We will weigh the clothes before and after the shop to see how much clothing we save from landfill. Any unsold clothes will be donated to St Chad’s Sanctuary or our local St Vincent de Paul shop. Any clothes in poor condition will be put in a clothes recycling bank. 

Can you help by donating clothes you have outgrown? Please make sure they are clean and in good condition then bring them to school by Friday 29 March.

The Pop Up Shop will be on Tuesday 2 April in the school hall. We will open for parents and carers at 2.30 p.m. and pupils once they have been collected after school. Refreshments will be on sale too. 

The junior Eco Council members met to carry out an Environmental Review. After discussing our answers we have decided on our three topics for this year's action plan. They are Water, Waste and School Grounds. Look out for more information on the Eco Council board in coming weeks. 

Our aim is to earn an Eco Schools Green Flag.

Switch Off Fortnight 2017

We are taking part in Switch Off Fortnight this term (but our Eco Team and energy monitors try really hard to keep things switched off all year!). How many things are you leaving on standby at home every day? Switching off saves energy, reduces your bills and helps us conserve fossil fuels...

Today we had a visit from Smurfit Kappa and Birmingham City Council Waste Team. They told us what happens to our paper and cardboard at the paper mill in Birmingham. We played a game of 'Recycle or Rubbish'. We had to put our thumbs up for recyclable items and down for rubbish. We learned that these things can be recycled:

• cardboard
• paper
• magazines
• plastic bottles and caps
• cans

After the assembly the Eco Team and School Council, went on a litter pick. Rubbish went in a blue bag and recyclables went in a green bag. We picked up some bottles, cardboard, scratch cards and bottle tops. The litter pick crew collected waste from the Dingles, outside school and the local shops and our playground. They put the rubbish in the bins and our visitors took away the recycling. 

Our litter pick crew want you to recycle to keep Birmingham cleaner and healthier. They were disgusted by the rubbish on our streets and very concerned about broken glass that could hurt young children and pets. So use the bins or take your rubbish home! 

Later the Eco Team helped to compile this report and reflect upon our responsibility for the world around us. Perhaps you would like to reflect upon the First Encyclical of Pope Francis; Laudato Si - Care of Our Common Home. How can you help to make the world a cleaner, healthier and fairer place for all?

Our Eco Board 

The Eco Team meet regularly and display information about the work they do to make our school and community a better environment. We are working towards our Eco Schools Award.