Papplewick Climate Change Eco Week
Boys at Papplewick addressed Climate Change Eco Week recently with The Green Stag kicking off the week with a Headmaster’s assembly on the devastating impact of climate change and litter affecting animals.
The boys had written to and received a response from Windsor MP Adam Afriyie. The concerns were the amount of litter left at Ascot Racecourse Heath (having litter picked twice last year) and with further plans to do more this year the boys asked for more bins to be put around so that people could get rid of their rubbish and keep the racecourse tidy !
Throughout the week, the boys covered below in their various subjectsIn PSHE, Year 2 studied caring for the environment. Year 3 - The problem with plastic. Year 4 - Tackling Plastic Pollution. Year 5 and Year 6- Challenging Transport: Air Pollution.
In Science, in their various year groups the boys looked at micro-organisms and the effects of ocean acidification on phytoplankton, climate change effect on an ecosystem, microorganisms and, more specifically, their role in decay thus biodegradable materials and the negatives of non-biodegradable materials and landfill sites.
In Geography, Biomes and different strategies that can be implemented in each biome to help prevent and mitigate the damages caused by the changing climates. Year 7 explored the increased risk of flooding in Carlisle with climate change being one of the causes and Year 8 explored how a business can improve their transport links to make them more economical and better for the environment.
In English, all classes explored poetry with many of the poems written during the Romantic period as a reaction against the industrialisation of the time and ‘the dark satanic mills’ blighting the landscape.
In music classes, the boys sang "Touch the earth lightly" from the RSCM booklet "God's green planet". The daily chapel hymns bored an Eco theme - “Beauty for brokenness” and “All things bright and beautiful - and the choir including in their tour music Rutter's "Look at the world".
In Languages and through Music, boys identified the missing climate change vocabulary field through and learnt new words via word recognition skills. They successfully used those words to develop a climate change poem as a group work activity.
Tom Bunbury, Headmaster said "The boys threw themselves into Climate Change Eco Week in their usual enthusiastic style and both learnt a lot about the changes we are all making and also contributed a lot with suggestions of their own."
February 2024