SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT… SGS ECO COUNCIL SETS ITS SIGHTS HIGH Eco Council Directors Chloé Barron and Michael Shirley set out their agenda for Steyning Grammar School (SGS) The Eco Council at SGS has had a busy few weeks in preparing to run our six topics for the remainder of the academic year. To start this process off, a strong foundation of Eco leaders at every SGS campus and year group is required in order to drive forward the changes we are making to our school. To establish such a team, we have been selecting students in the Eco Council for the positions of Deputy Directors, Topic Leaders and Deputy Topic Leaders through an interview process. All of the interviews went incredibly well and we are immensely proud of the passion, commitment and leadership traits shown by all of the candidates. Thank you to all students who applied and congratulations to those successful in becoming one of the members of our Board of Leaders. Following the election of our Board of Leaders, we held a meeting with the newly established team to discuss how we will go about tackling our six topics - energy, marine, litter, waste, biodiversity and global climate. These topics have been identified by students as consisting of monumental importance in the pursuit to transform our school’s environment. These climate focus points will enable us to centre our actions around specific environmental aims for each of the topics, leading to the achievement of consistent environmental successes across all school campuses and all topic areas. That’s the vision for this academic year - something which we hope to get all students, staff, parents and members of our school community on board with. The Eco Council has also been on a large student-driven recruitment drive to encourage more students to join our Eco Council and be on our side in the fight against the climate and ecological emergency. This was done through 14 collective workshops which were carried out across all of the year groups at our school and were led by student leaders in the Eco Council. Not only this, but during the assemblies we have been asking students to ensure they take responsibility for their actions - ultimately, it is our future’s at stake. If all students can make small changes to their lifestyles, as a school, we can make a large difference. These assemblies have been a great success, with more than 60 applications to join the council. Finally, we would like to say thank you to John Lewis & Partners who have made a generous donation to the Eco Council - a box of goodies full of eco-friendly products. We plan to put these items to a raffle at our school’s Winter Fayre.
I S S U E 11
29
