The aim of Sustainable King’s is to enhance our awareness and responsibility of our sustainable development and putting this into practice for our economic, environmental and social needs to ensure that we achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. We have listed below key areas that outline where we are encouraging and actioning our efforts.
There are many other smaller projects in play in our drive to become a more sustainable school and we look forward to sharing these with the whole King’s community through the committees, assemblies, letters, social media and open evenings.
We welcome any ideas from pupils, parents and staff in how we can be even more sustainable in all of our endeavours. If you have any suggestions, please contact our Sustainable Travel Lead, Mrs Rachael Aldridge.
The Eco Schools Committee – working towards Eco School status.
The Eco Schools Committee will be the cornerstone of King’s bid to become an Eco School. The committee consists of representatives from Willow Lodge, King’s Juniors and King’s Seniors and will meet regularly throughout the year.
There have been two pupil Committee Meetings during the Michaelmas Term 2019 and the first stage of the Eco Schools Award is now complete. The Committee have agreed to focus on three key areas in the first year: Travel, Energy and Health and Wellbeing. The Sustainability Prefects, led by Hannah Peters (U6WAL) in the Upper Sixth, are now conducting a school wide Environmental Review before the King’s Eco Schools Action Plan is written.
Parents and other staff are going to be invited to join this Committee during the Lent Term 2020.
Sustainable Travel
Sustainable travel is and will remain a key focus area as we hope to reduce the number of cars on the site by supporting more sustainable means of travel.
We have launched different schemes to encourage this including the Car Share Reward scheme, the Golden Padlock Prize for the most regular cyclists and the Golden Ticket Prize for pedestrians. Once a term, all pedestrians will be given a raffle ticket as they enter the school site and these tickets will go into a prize draw. Two tickets will be drawn at random and the lucky winners will receive a £15 Waterstones voucher.
The King’s Sustainable Travel Days will continue to be a regular feature, with one planned per term. This is where all modes of sustainable travel are celebrated and each person who takes part (cyclist, walker, public transport user, car sharer) gets a free smoothie on arrival at school as well as being entered into a raffle to win vouchers for the Bike Factory.
We have welcomed staff from the Bike Factory who carry out quick maintenance checks on bikes, as well as Police Community Support Officers who have been on hand to advise on cycle and parking safety. We have also doubled the amount of bike shelters installed on site.
Eco Action Tips
As part of putting sustainability at the heart of King’s, every week during the summer term, each tutor group from Willow Lodge to the Sixth Form is given an Eco Action Tip of the Week. These are practical, simple and quick ideas to reduce carbon footprint and live in a more sustainable way. We hope that pupils will think about them personally as well as sharing them with their family. The final Eco Action tip of the year was to encourage each member of the King’s Community to pick up one plastic bottle they see on the ground and take it home to recycle it. That one act would stop 1000 plastic microbeads entering the ocean in years to come.
Plastic Free
Our Rowing Club is now 100% plastic free and King’s Sport has also adopted this stance. All pupils are now expected to bring in their own reusable water bottle for daily use as well as for sports practices and fixtures. This is a great step forward as it will cut our single use plastic levels dramatically. There are now more water stations around school to help pupils refill their bottles with ease.
