Green Schools Project in Year 5

This year, we are taking part in Carbon Zero Schools with Green Schools Project. As part of this, we have been learning about areas around the world that have been impacted by global warming. In the Autumn term, we looked at the Solomon Islands which are being affected by rising sea levels. This has seen areas of the islands completely flooded. We also learned about Fairbourne which is a small coastal village in Wales. Here, the population are being affected by flooding due to sea levels rising. According to our research, we found that the council has decided that it will likely need to dismantle homes, roads and shops, turning the village back into marshland. We also learned about Ethiopia. In contrast to the Solomon Islands and Fairbourne, Ethiopia has experienced increasing temperatures and heatwaves which have led to intense droughts. This has meant that it has become more difficult to sustain agricultural practices and therefor, around 70 million people are being affected. The final case study that we looked at was the Amazon Rainforest. Here, we learned about the importance of the rainforest in terms of absorbing carbon emissions. However, deforestation has meant that the rainforest is unable to absorb as much carbon as it used to.

To learn about these case studies, we were split into groups based on our interests. We then read through a range of information with our partners and then took part in our own ‘press conference’. We had our friends ask us questions, in the style of reporters, and we had to relay our range of information that we’d found out. You’ll see some pictures from that event down below!

Now, lots of this can appear disheartening and can be quite frightening, however, we have been discussing the importance of learning about climate change and global warming. We saw that there are a number of people and communities around that world (or ‘changemakers’) that are taking action to tackle climate change. We learned about some nature-based solutions such as beavers being reintroduced into England to try to reduce the impact of flooding. Once again, we looked at particular case studies to find out about how a range of people have been making changes. One of our favourites was Vinisha Umashankar, a teenager from India. She invented a solar-powered ironing cart that uses sun rather than burning coal!

Today though, we had Bethany from Green Schools Project come in to do a workshop with us. We recapped what we have learned so far during the project. We then spoke about a range of jobs and how jobs can be more ‘green’. We learned about Forest Green Rovers, a football team that promotes vegan food and has been been described by FIFA as the greenest football club in the world. They have use solar panels and have cut emissions from travel too.

With our learning partners, we were given a range of jobs. We could be chefs, architects or football club managers. For each of these jobs, we had to consider ways that we could be more ‘green’. This meant considering how we plan menus, homes and stadiums. We were given helpful information to do this and worked brilliantly with our partners. We then were given the opportunity to share our proposals, although some of us suggested a meal of mushy peas and a vegan kebab… we weren’t all sold on that idea! Some of us even designed football shirts with a company name and logo too!

We are looking forward to eventually calculating our school’s carbon footprint and working to find ways to reduce this.

Thank you to Bethany for coming in and spending time with us today. We found the session really interesting and engaging!