Sustainability Week

We have held our second Sustainability Week at Channing, with a range of special events. On Monday, we were visited by Conor O’Keefe from the Natural History Museum. He gave an excellent lunchtime talk on engaging different groups of people with the climate crisis and spoke about how the Natural History Museum is challenging young people to think sustainably.

On Tuesday, we heard from Peter Hume, a Marine Ecologist from Scotland, who exposed the illegal dumping of fish in Scottish seas this summer, making international news. Peter gave an amazing online talk on the importance of seagrass and the dangers of different types of fishing, especially bottom trawling. When questioned by students about how we can help on an individual level, he underlined the huge difference that can be made by people choosing carefully what they buy.

On Wednesday, Cath Demetriou, a local sustainable arts and crafts teacher, held a sustainable Christmas workshop and helped us make woodblock-printed Christmas cards, recycled card wool-wrapped Christmas trees, felted mushroom decorations with acorn cap tops, to name but a few. Everything was made from recycled material and biodegradable.

Congratulations to Sharpe, who won the walk-to-school day on Monday! They had the highest number of students using a more sustainable form of transport instead of traveling by car. Also this week, every form received their own snake plant. Snake plants filter indoor air, help to remove toxic pollutants, and are easy to care for. Each form gets to name their plant and decorate their plant pots. The Eco Reps are responsible for looking after them.

Finally, the assembly this morning was taken by Lola and Grace, our Sustainability Officers, with many of the Eco Reps, on the topic of COP 28. You can see their presentation here.