Eco newsletter - issue 1

ECO NEWSLETTER

Issue 1.

March 2021

Dear Sibford Community, Welcome to the first of our termly eco newsletters. We wanted to keep you up to date with how we are continuing our environmental journey to reuse, reduce, recycle after gaining our ‘Green Flag’ status in June of last year. We hope to inspire and be inspired encouraging you to get in touch and join our group with your ideas.

This term we are hosting Earth Day on April 22nd with a weeklong series of events woven into the curriculum and lunchtimes.

Keep your eyes open for the two house competitions as well as our incredible textile project opportunity. We welcome your feedback via email rbee@sibfordschool.co.uk. Thank you, we hope you enjoy it.

The official newsletter of

El Dorado High School teachers

Eco highs and lows What were your environmental lows and highs during lockdown?

Here some staff share theirs: “Our heating has been on a lot more due to being home, but our car has barely moved!”

"We have not flown for over a year, but we have used the kettle and lights more."

“I used the car much less but my lights were on more.”

This year’s theme for Earth Day is ‘Restore our Earth’ which seems particularly appropriate after spending the past year in a pandemic.

Not only are we offering the below textile project to help restore our Earth and our community, we are also going to be having an ‘Earth Week’ from Monday 19th April.

All week we will be hosting events at lunchtime, looking at themed activities in class lessons, litter picking and having competitions.

Some activities will include a talk with ‘Nothing But Footprints’ refill shop about simple changes you can make, Horticulture activities, Screening of ‘I am Greta’ and Big Bunting Bonanza using recycled umbrellas.

Earth Day Textile Project

The Art Department and the Eco Group are joining forces to create a beautiful textile hanging for our school to combine three things: The official newsletter of

El Dorado High School teachers

Earth Day and the environment 1.The Quaker ‘Loving Earth’ textile project 1.The connection of our Sibford Community after a pandemic

We would like you to get involved by stitching your own message or picture onto a 12 x 12 square (available from the Art Department).

Your square needs to show what is important to you about our beautiful earth as shown in some examples above. It could be a message, or just a picture. The best 50 will be sewn into a hanging that will be displayed in the school.

If you have any questions, please see Rachel Bee, Michelle Aylott or Michelle Holdsworth.

El Dorado High School teachers

LOCAL ECO-INITIATIVES We will be featuring local village eco-initiatives that will hopefully inspire our community at Sibford. This term we’re featuring Hook Norton and the article was written by Fran King.

Hook Norton Low Carbon Hook Norton Low Carbon group was set up to improve energy efficiency and carbon footprint of the community by promoting the implementation of carbon reduction and renewable energy initiatives at a local and individual level within and around Hook Norton.

How does the village afford to do it?

In 2010 Hook Norton Low Carbon was one of 12 organisations around the country to be awarded funding by the government as part of the Low Carbon Communities Challenge.

This funding provided them with capital to invest and assist others to invest in sustainable carbon reduction initiatives.

The cost to join Hook Norton Low Carbon (and hence be able to take part in the car club, electric bike hire, low cost loans for insulation etc) is £1 – a one off lifetime fee.

How does the car club work?

There are now 3 electric cars and one hybrid car (which runs on waste oil biodiesel – stored at the brewery).

Car club membership costs £5 per month. The cars can then be booked online, either well in advance or at short notice if they are available. They can be booked for just 1 hour or for a few days. The electric cars cost 60p per hour plus 28p per mile and the hybrid car 60p per hour and 44p per mile. This price includes fuel.

The cars are parked at various places in the village (the electric ones hooked up to a charging point) and the keys in a key safe to which members are given access to the codes.

Once booked you just turn up, get the key from the key safe and drive off. Return the car to the same spot when finished and rehook up the electric cars to charge.

The driver needs to hold a full driving licence and be over 20 years old.

Electric Bike Hire – how does it work?

There are now 6 electric bikes in the village for hire. Hire includes a pannier rack, lights, lock and I think helmets are available (they certainly used to be) To hire the bikes, it costs £5 per year membership and then £2 per day, per bike hired. The bikes are booked online and collected from their storage point in the village, using the code to access the key safe.

To read more about the Hook Norton Low Carbon group, click here.

A huge thanks to the PSFA for contributing to our hotbin for kitchen waste and for buying two large 50 litre stainless steel water containers with taps that we can now take out on school trips to refill water bottles. No more plastic! Thank you!

The official newsletter of El Dorado High School teachers

TOP TIPS FROM YEAR 8 Walk more, drive less, bike to school if you can.

Use less paper – do you NEED to print?

Turn off lights and don’t leave things on standby.

POSITIVE NEWS So often the environmental news is negative, so we thought we’d end with some positive news for our bees. Bee-killing' pesticide now will not be used on UK sugar beet fields.

BOOK REVIEW “Turning the Tide on Plastic” by Lucy Siegle

Whilst this book really only deals with plastic waste and less on other areas of environmental damage, it is an excellent place to start. Lucy not only explains the hows and whereforths behind our over reliance on plastic, she gives simple and easy ways to kick the habit without breaking your bank balance too. A great first dip into understanding our impact on our world.