Bourne Elsea Park Church Of England Primary Academy
Striving For Excellence, Caring For All In a Loving And Caring Christian Environment.
Waste Week 2021
We took part in Waste Week in March, along with 643 schools from across the UK and overseas. Waste Week is run by EDF Energy’s schools programme the Pod. This year’s campaign focused on food waste.
During Waste Week, we learnt about the impact of food waste and how we can tackle it. We discovered how we throw away 20 million slices of bread every day in the UK, which creates greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to over 140,000 cars every year.
We were also encouraged to enter the ‘Great Busta Bake Competition’ where they had to create a dish from leftovers or ingredients that might otherwise be thrown away.
We all took part in a variety of lessons and activities to promote awareness of different waste topics including; food waste, plastic waste and recycling.
Children in Reception completed a lunch box audit and counted how much food waste and single use plastic they had in their lunches each day. In Year 1 they investigated food packaging waste and sorted it into the material that each item was made from then made a tally to find out whether there was more plastic, paper/card, metal or glass in their rubbish. In Year 2 the children discussed food waste items which could be reduced, reused or recycled. They thought of a class pledge to recycle fruit peeling by composing. They also played a sorting game where they had to decide if the food waste could be recycled, reused or reduced.
The children in Year 3 focussed on the journey of a crisp packet. They were fascinated to discover Walkers have their own recycling scheme where they turn packets into watering cans, benches and pots. In Year 4 they looked at three possible journeys of a plastic bottle and the impact of each journey on the environment including land fill, rivers and recycling. Children in Year 5 wrote persuasive letters on the topic of food waste. Year 6 focussed on the impact food waste has on the environment. They created videos on Adobe Spark to inform others of the issue and shared top tips on how to reduce food waste.
Mrs Simpson (Eco School Co-ordinator) said, “This year’s theme of food waste was an excellent way for children to understand the difference they can make with the food they eat and throw away. The children were enthused to make a difference and become ‘Agents of Change’ after discovering how waste is impacting the world in which they live in.”
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