ECO and Forest Schools
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Chaucer Infants ECO and Forest School
Travel Smart
Please follow the link below for the tax free bikes for work scheme.
https://www.bike2workscheme.co.uk/
Please follow the link below for Derbyshire County Councils county rider' Upgrade your cycling skills for free'.
https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/transport-roads/road-safety/
Forest School and ECO Updates
March 18th
Reception have rescued some frogspawn from a puddle. The mummy frog laid the frogspawn in a puddle in a tarpaulin. There was no food for the tadpoles for when they were ready to hatch and would have died. Reception have put the frogspawn in the forest school pond and hopefully it will survive the move, so we can watch the amazing growth of tadpole to frog.
January 25th - 27th
Children in school watched and recorded the birds they saw in the school garden and forest school. They uploaded their findings to the Great British Birdwatch campaign run by the RSPB.
12th October
Well done Chaucer, 9kgs of crisp packets have been packed up and sent to terracycle to raise money for our school.
19th September
Mrs Wojtania and Mrs Melbourne held an ECO assembly to discuss ECO bricks and the need to reduce our plastic usage. Each class will be making ECO bricks, using the plastic bags that the school fruit comes in and then we will be making some stools to sit on with the validated bricks.
12th September
Our ECO committe have had their first meeting this week, with 2 new members from each Recption
Global litter pick
After our successful Litter Muncher concert, Chaucer is now involved in a Global Litter Pick. Children are picking up litter wherever they visit, during the summer holidays, and making sure they put it in a bin. We have received some fantastic photos of the litter pick and there will be a display in September to show our good work.
ECO concert 'The Litter Muncher'
Every child in school will take part in the story of 'The Litter Muncher, Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th July.
Forest School
Every year 2 child will have been to Forest school over the last few weeks learning how to make a shelter and being involved in 'Whats under your feet' survey, by measuring worms and counting minibeasts in the forest.
Gardening
10th May, Year 1 Eco committee helped Mrs Wojtania plant some vegetables in our beds at the back of school, so we can watch them grow over the summer.
ECO Action Plan
The Eco committee have discussed an action plan on topics
we wish to learn about and help with . The action plan is displayed on the ECO display board opposite the pine tables and is a link attachment at the bottom of this page, there are 2 pages to the plan. scroll down on each page to see it all.
World Earth Day
World Earth day is 22nd April every year. This year it fell in the Easter holidays so we celebrated it on the first day back, 29th April. Each year group learnt about our world and how we can all help to preserve it and its inhabitants. Reception learnt about bees and why we need them, year 1 made bird feeders thinking about the need we have for birds in the world, Nursery made a large poster colouring a section each to show the Earth and how we should all help in keeping it from harm. Check out the photos in the gallery.
Gardening
Friday 22nd March, Year 2 ECO team and 3 year 3 children from the juniors planted some potatoes,onions, rainbow radishes and peas. The juniors gave us some primulas tto which we palnted with the daffodils to make a lovely splash of colour. Photos can be seen on our Chaucer Infants ECO and Forest School, facebook page.
ECO Commitee meeting
12th March the ECO commitee had a meeting, the minutes can be found on the ECO dislpay board. Mrs Wojtania is coming into school Friday 22nd March to do some gardening and planting seeds to grow in our planter beds at the back of school. Friday 29th March will see Chaucer involved in the 'Great British Spring Clean. The ECO team and 1T will take part in cleaning up our school grounds and surrounding area. Mrs Wojtania and Mrs Melbourne have written a year of activities, for the whole school, which will all go towards our ECO flag award next time. The calendar can be found on the ECO display board.
Waitrose donation
Waitrose have donated 300 pounds to our forest school through their token scheme. A portable toilet and small shed to house it have been purchased so that the children do not have to return to school to use the toilet.
RSPB Birdwatch
The forest school groups did the RSPB birdwatch to see which birds were in our forest. The results were sent to the RSPB so they can monitor which birds are around our country.
Christmas Jumper day
Friday 14th December was national Christmas Jumper day, for Save the children charity. We raised 165 pounds. This is part of our Green flag work, helping others in need.
Recycling shoes
21st November 2018
United Shoe Recycling Company collected 6 bags of shoes that we had collected for recycling.
ECO committee
The ECO committee had a meeting this week, 13th November, to discuss a new action plan for the coming year. They also registered for the 'Great British Spring Clean' and 'RSPB birdwatch'.
New in Forest School
Forest School has had a rope swing, mud kitchen and pallet steps to enjoy in Forest School sessions.
New Forest School Leader
Mrs Melbourne has completed her training to be a level 3 Forest School Leader and will be leading Forest School sessions this coming year.
Green Flag
Chaucer has been awarded the green flag for the 5th time. Every one in school learns about and works towards looking after our world and saving it for future generations.
Waste week
Various activities took place throughout school for waste week 2018. All classes tried upcycling to make something new out of recyclable materials. Nursery used the milk cartons, that they have every day, to make bird feeders. There was a textile recycling day on Tuesday, which raised 48 pounds. Friday was litter pick day when our ECO councillors picked up rubbish in our school grounds, for 'The Great British spring clean'.
ECO concert
Thursday 15th and Friday 16th March saw the whole school perform our ECO concert,'Edwina the penguin saves the world'. Every class contributed with songs,poems and dances to collectively tell the story about a penguin who goes around the world to tell the various countries that they have to make changes, to stop the ice where she lives from melting. A very important lesson that the children of Chaucer learnt towards our work about trying to protect and preserve the world in which we live.
Photos in the gallery
Old Shoes
We are collecting old shoes that we have grown out of. These will be donated to Sals Shoes in the summer who send them out to countries where children do not have shoes and have to walk bear foot.
Water Warriors
24th January- Today was Water Warriors day.The whole school took part in learning about the need to help others who do not have clean water and toilets. Working with Water Aid we asked our family and friends to donate 1 pound to our collection to give to Water Aid so they can put in taps and toilets in Madagascar. We came dressed in blue and realised how hard it is to carry buckets of water a long way. We raised 0ver 500 pounds which the government will match. WELL DONE WATER WARRIORS at Chaucer. Photos in the gallery of our work.
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New Forest School practitioner
Mrs Melbourne is training as a level 3 qualified forest school practitioner, after the retirement of Mrs Wojtania, so our school can continue to enjoy the benefits of forest school sessions.
School ECO song
The whole school has started to learn our ECO song 'Save Our Planet', written by Mrs Crawford. We will be practising it every week in community singing and it will become our ECO code.
Nursery make bird cakes
The Nursery children made bird cakes to feed the birds through the winter. Please see photos of the children putting out the bird cakes in the school grounds.
Recycling Christmas cards
We have collected old Christmas cards and taken them to Sainsburys, who are recycling them and making a donation to the FSC (Forest Stewardship council). See photos in gallery.
Tree planting 15th November 2017
Today we planted over 100 trees donated by the Woodland Trust. This work is towards our Green flag award for our school environment.