The Sussex School with the E Factor

At Holbrook Primary School, near Horsham, caring for the environment is not just a project, it is a way of life

For the past eight years the school has been consistently awarded an internationally recognised ‘Green Flag’ for its environmental actions and education.

To win the award children at the school have been working hard to maintain and understand the ten themes of Eco Schools: Global Citizenship, Marine Environment, Healthy Living , Energy, Transport, Waste, Water, Litter, School Grounds, and Biodiversity.

The school integrates all these themes into everyday school life. The children are taught about wider issues such as Fairtrade and the marine environment in school assemblies, and they learn about their own environmental impact through the school’s recycling, water conservation and green transport initiatives.

Holbrook has a team of Year 6 ‘spark spies’ who monitor energy use at lunchtimes and the school has its own conservation area and growing field where the children can learn about biodiversity and healthy eating.

‘We work hard to maintain our different environments providing a range of habitats and food sources for wildlife,’ explains Year 6 teacher, Harriet Mayo. ‘We have created brash heaps and bug hotels to provide over-wintering sites for invertebrates and small mammals and installed a bat box on one of our taller south-facing trees.’

‘Even during lockdown, we planted up our growing beds, picked up litter and dipped in the school pond discovering a large number of newts, frogs and ram’s horn snails.’

‘At a time when the climate crisis and mental health issues have been hitting the headlines, it is a natural step to engage children in caring for the natural world.’