The Green Gang is a group of children and adults who are concerned with caring for and improving the school environment.
Here is our latest news:
Great news on the last day of the Autumn Term 2008! Mrs Vaz heard yesterday that the Green Gang’s application for Green Flag status in the Eco-Schools Award scheme has been approved. A couple of weeks ago, Green Gang members were interviewed by an assessor, who also inspected documentation of the school’s activities related to saving energy, reducing and recycling waste, walking to school, gardening and growing and planning for a ‘green’ extension. We gained the Bronze and Silver awards some time ago, and now we have the top Green Flag award – just the 4th school in Kingston to gain it. Congratulations to Mrs Vaz, the Green Gang, and all who help make the school ‘green’.
Green Flag status!
Kayleigh and Amy (Y4) report: "On Tuesday July 8th 2008, Kayleigh, Amy and Alice went to Chessington Garden Centre because they were holidn g a 'crazy potato pot 'competition. Mrs Vaz brought some potatoes that the Green Gang had grown. First we had to find them in all the dirt, then we weighed them. The first weighed 422g and the second 642g. We got really muddy!"
40 children of all ages enjoyed taking part in the PTA's Miniature Garden Competition around Easter 2008. The gardens were created using many different materials - some in paper and card, and others using flowers, seeds and grass, and even balsa wood for decking. Some were DIY gardens where the children had been entirely independent, and others were the result of family learning where adults and children had worked together. Denise and Steve from Chessington Garden Centre kindly came to judge the competition, and took a long time deciding on the winners. Everyone received a certificate to congratulate them on their entries, and the winners are going to share making and using the main prize - a build-it-yourself bird feeder for the Nursery garden. We have taken photos of all the entries, so we can use the ideas when the time comes to landscape the school grounds after the building project.
Thank you very much to Denise and Steve from the Garden Centre for judging the entries.
Mrs Vaz reports that the Gang's action plan for 2008 includes: increasing the number of indoor plants in classrooms; planting out vegetable gardens again; monitoring how much energy we use and designing posters to save energy; monitoring how much paper we are saving by using the virtual noticeboard on It's Learning; and updating the school's eco-code. Together with ongoing projects like caring for the birds and the general school environment, these actions will help us to gain the coveted Green Flag status - the highest Eco-Schools award.
The Green Gang's main project for 2007 was to provide each class with a plot of garden where vegetables and flowers can be grown. The Nursery have led the way - they have had one for a long time, and they appreciate the help they get from parents in encouraging little green finders. Now the rest of the school is able to join in, again with huge help from a parent. Mr Hodges is a dad who is a landscape gardener. He and his colleague have constructed wooden surrounds for the beds and have installed them on the banks of the playground and field. Mrs Vaz and the Green Gang have really enjoyed the excitement of planting, tending and harvesting and even eating a wide variety of vegetables. Some of them were even served to the Mayor! (See pictures below.)
Members of Year 2 offering salad to the Mayor at the Chessington Healthy Living event - made with school-grown lettuce!
I am Ruby Archer and I am a member of the Green Gang. I am in Year 6. I am Ryan Collins and I am a member of the Green Gang. I am also in Year 6. At the Green Gang we do competitions, and we sort out the pond area. We also grow plants and we were thinking about growing some vegetables next to the pond area, to raise money for the school.
In July 2006, Science Club and Reception Class created a lovely display about lavender and other herbs for Chessington Garden Centre's exhibition of work from local schools.
"On 22nd June 2006, a man who knows a lot about birds came to visit Year 3. He showed us some of his books, and a stuffed jay. He told us about the birds' feathers and claws, which are like our nails. You can recognise birds by their colours, or the way they fly, or their footprints. He showed us his binoculars, and said a bird-spotter needs pen and paper so you can jot down what you see. I belong to the RSPB. You get certificates and information about how to help birds. I am a bird monitor in school. This week I have seen loads of blue tits pecking at the bird cake we have put on the bird table. I think they really like it!" (report by Abigail, Y3)
The Green Gang has been busy in the Spring of 2006. Mrs Jefferys has given us some fish for the pond, and we have also spotted lots of frogs and newts. Some classes have had frogspawn and tadpoles to study, and also caterpillars which changed into cocoons and then butterflies. Then at the beginning of the Summer Term, Miss Cunden was scared by a robin which flew off a shelf just outside the Nursery. The birds had built their nest on the shelf over the Easter holiday, and laid eggs. Despite the noise of term-time, they looked after the eggs till they hatched at the beginning of May. Three tiny chicks grew bigger and fluffier, and later in the month they flew the nest. Here are pictures of the chicks, new-born and two weeks old:
Reception Hannah P
Year 1 Olivia E
Year 2 Megan M
Year 3 Kiera B
Year 4 Georgia H
Year 5 Eloise B
Year 6 Ella I
The Green Gang will now be looking again at all the designs and will be choosing ideas from them to incorporate in our entry for a national competition.
Mr Martin of the Garden Centre, Mrs Vaz and pupils with our certificate and our display
Chessington Garden Centre are sponsoring another environmental activity to follow up the successful daffodil and crocus projects of the last two years. It is called High fliers and is all about birds. The climax of the project will be an exhibition at the Garden Centre on March 10th at 5 p.m., when we will be displaying examples of our work along with many other schools. We are following the project in science and art lessons especially. Year 1 have been busy making bird-cake to hang on the tree in the playground. They also regularly put food out on the bird table, and they spot the birds who come to eat it - usually as soon as playtime has finished!
We're also grateful to the Garden Centre for enabling us to recycle our white waste paper. They have included us in their scheme which saves us from paying for the collection. Each classroom and office has a recyling box, which is regularly emptied by our recycling monitors, and we are now sending much less rubbish to landfill in our standard refuse skips.
Jake, Alex and Ben have been gardening at home. Click here to see their amazing sunflowers, grown from seeds they took home from school last term.
It is surprising how wild the school can look after a seven week summer holiday. The professional gardeners with their mowers and the pupil gardeners with their hoe both got working in September to restore order to the site.
Throughout the Spring and Summer, children from Year 5 kindly volunteered for the smelly job of putting our fruit waste in the compost bin. Over the Summer break, it has been rotting down well, so it can be used to help more plants to grow.
One of the school's Governors kindly gave us two clematis plants to grow over the trellis archway to the Juniors' quiet area.
Several older members of the Gang went shopping at Chessington Garden Centre one lunchtime to buy some new wooden planters and lots of plants to make the school look attractive in the Summer Term. Each class looked after some of the plants, and many of them are still blooming in September.
Two members of the Gang helped Tony, our caretaker, to plant a young weeping willow tree. The tree was a present from Mrs Maragh, who retired recently after 28 years' service to the school. She loves gardening, and wanted to give us a tree which will grow to look attractive and give shade beside the playground. The Green Gang met with Mrs Maragh to decide where to plant the tree. All the classes came to the playground to see the tree being planted, and Mrs Maragh made a short speech to complete the ceremony.
Mrs Maragh presents the tree
We are very grateful to Chessington Garden Centre for helping us to recycle our waste paper. We are collecting used paper from all the classrooms and offices, to put in sacks provided by the Garden Centre. They have kindly offered to collect the sacks when one of their delivery vans is passing the school.
