We are at the end of COP26, so here is a flavour of what has been happening over the last couple of weeks in the Prep School. 

M Form chose to focus on the issue of food waste. After one lunchtime they weighed the waste from their table and were shocked at how much was collected. They learnt that food waste from the school goes to a local anaerobic digester and is turned into compost, but all agreed it was better not to create this waste in the first place!

P Form have also been busy. They made seed bombs from scrap paper and wildflower seeds that will encourage butterflies, bees, and other pollinators to their gardens. They also watched an informative Eden Project video that gave them some top tips to save water at home and after thinking about all they had learnt they wrote down their hopes and wishes to world leaders.

S Forms were shown a list of the top 10 items of plastic debris found in the oceans. They made posters to share this information and warn of the dangers to sea and bird life of litter in our rivers, seas, and oceans. Once these are ready, they will be placed around the school so this message can be passed to other pupils.

S Form were also involved in a project to design birdfeeders, using discarded plastic bottles, which they decorated beautifully.

T Form's Molly and Layla took time out during their lunch breaks to do some litter picking and they inspired others to pick litter too.

1^st Form pupils have been looking at the ingredients labels on biscuits and searching for biscuits that do not contain palm oil whilst 2^nd Form discussed the many issues around the warming of our planet in Geography and Science lessons and took part in experiments to see why warming oceans store less CO2.

We watched a very interesting assembly from Head of Geography, Mrs Muddiman, who talked about the pledges we could all make to help the environment. She mentioned two schoolwide challenges to focus on. The first was to reduce our food waste and the second to reduce our electricity usage, making sure we switch off lights when rooms are not in use. We have purchased two beautiful apple trees and will attach our individual pledges at the end of next week, before planting the trees on campus.

Our Eco Group met twice during COP26 and we discussed what changes could be made at school to help lower our carbon footprint. Using Mrs Muddiman's two ambitions and the five Earthshot categories as our framework, we are working on an outline that we hope, after consultation, could become a Green Charter for the Prep School. 

The youngest members of our community spent their Papercraft activity session making wonderful posters with key environmental messages.

We recognise that all of the above are small steps on our journey, but we are learning all the time. There is plenty more to think about, discuss and action in the coming weeks, months and years.