Eco Council
Rain Garden Sign Designs
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust have worked with The Co-op in Salisbury Avenue to create a rain garden outside their shop.
Warden Hill Eco Warriors invited all children to take part in a competition by decorating a letter to be included in the Rain Garden sign. They were absolutely blown away by the amount of entries they had! After much deliberation, the Junior and Infant Eco children created a shortlist of the best letters.
As you can see from the photograph of winning entries, the standard was extremely high.
The designs have been given to Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust to be incorporated in their sign, which will be installed outside The Co-op.
Furthermore, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust will be visiting the school in the New Year to present prizes for the top 3 entries.
Congratulations to everyone who took part.
GWT have partnered with RSA Insurance to provide Natural Flood Management solutions in Gloucester and Cheltenham, to limit the impact of flooding and improve the resilience of local communities.
Yellow Rattle Sowing
On Friday, 29th November, the Junior and Infant Eco Warriors had the incredible opportunity to work alongside Tricia and Ken from Butterfly Conservation to start to create Warden Hill’s very own wildflower meadow.
Under the guidance of Tricia and Ken, the children enthusiastically sowed Yellow Rattle seeds, which provide essential nourishment for the stunning Painted Lady and Common Blue butterflies. The Yellow Rattle plant also plays a crucial role in preparing the soil for the wildflower plants we aim to cultivate in March. A heartfelt thank you goes out to Tricia and Ken for their generosity in supplying the seeds and for their invaluable guidance during our session.
This initiative forms part of Butterfly Conservation’s Wild Spaces programme, which focuses on enhancing biodiversity in our communities. Following the results of Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count 2024, they declared a butterfly emergency. They found that the combined effect of habitat loss and climate change means that butterflies and moths are in severe decline across the UK. But… it doesn’t have to be that way. Butterfly Conservation is asking for everyone’s help in creating more Wild Spaces where butterflies and moths can thrive. More details about how everyone can get involved can be found at https://wild-spaces.co.uk/
Eco Warriors Update
Our newly elected Eco Warriors have been busy at work this term already raising money for a very good cause.
Eco Warriors wanted their focus this term to be about supporting wildlife, butterflies in particular, due to the recent concerns that they have heard about in the news that it has been the worst year recorded for butterfly numbers. Apparently, butterflies are thought to be a key indicator species and therefore when they are at risk, this shows that the wider environment is a concern as well.
Mrs Catchpole recently met with Tricia Atkinson from Butterfly Conservation to discuss ways that we could support butterflies at Warden Hill. Although we are very fortunate at our school to have designated wild spaces, which create habitats for a range of creatures, Tricia was able to make some recommendations in which so that we could further improve our school grounds to support butterflies and moths. Tricia suggested that we should plant a wider range of wildflowers. Therefore, to fund the purchase of these wildflower plants, Eco have wasted no time in setting to work to raise money by selling pre-loved Halloween costumes.
Eco were very enthusiastic and impressed us with their selling skills! Thank you very much to families who donated and bought costumes from our pre-loved sale. We are pleased to say that it was a success and we have managed to raise £55.90 to purchase wildflowers to support butterflies at Warden Hill.
Rain Garden Competition
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust are working with The Co-op in Salisbury Avenue to make a rain garden.
Rain Gardens are designed to capture rain water flowing off roofs and slow the flow of the water back into drains and eventually watercourses. They can help to reduce flooding by storing rain water and reduce pollution by filtering water, whilst also allowing you to create a wildlife friendly feature for your garden that may need less maintenance and watering. You can find o more information about this scheme on their website:
The Eco Warriors invite all children to take part in an exciting competition, by decorating letters for the Rain Garden sign.
Get creative and show your artistic flair by creating designs based upon water, nature, rivers, sea, aquatic life or urban wildlife. The designs need to be coloured with either pencil crayons or felt tips.
The final date for entries is Friday 8th November.
Please ensure you write your name and class on your entry and give your entry to your teacher.
The winning entries will be given to Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust to be incorporated in their signs, which will be installed outside The Co-op.
We can’t wait to see your designs!
Good luck
The Eco Warriors
School Council and Eco Warriors Elections
We are inviting children in Years 1-6 to stand for their class’s School Council and Eco Representatives.
This year, we are starting a slightly new system to enable more children to take on these roles during their time at Warden Hill.
Your child will only be able to stand once for each role in Years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4, and Years 5 and 6.
As this is a new system, all children can stand this year, even if they were a class representative last year.
Children need to tell their teacher two days before the Elections Day that they wish to stand.
Elections will happen on the same day in every class.
Children need to have prepared something and have it with them on voting day in order to stand.
Years 1 and 2:
Children need to draw a picture or make a poster to present to their class.
Years 3 – 6:
Children need to create a verbal presentation (no powerpoints). They can also have props such as posters or pictures but nothing should be handed out to the class.
Parents are welcome to support their children in preparing for the role but posters etc must be the children’s own work.
Wednesday 18th September:
Inform your teacher if you wish to stand and for which roles.
Friday 20th September:
Elections Day
Children to present to their class.
Good luck to all candidates.
Proudly waving our green flag
At Warden Hill we are delighted with our Eco-Schools Green Flag as it is a constant reminder of the ecological achievements of our Eco Warriors and it is our aim to inspire the next generation of innovative, inspirational environmentalists to make considered choices which help to protect our planet.
At our school, each class has an Eco Warrior representative, elected by their peers each term, after they have given a short presentation to show how they will meet the roles and responsibilities of being an Eco Warrior. The group meet every week with Mrs Catchpole and Mrs Taylor (Eco Warrior Coordinators) to work on our identified action plan target areas which are: Global Citizenship, Transport and Waste.
We are very proud of our Eco Warriors and the way they continually amaze us with their ideas, the way they work hard to raise awareness of environmental issues and how they have actively engaged in helping to make our school more environmentally friendly.
Post-Christmas Recycling
Warden Hill Eco Warriors have been concerned about the amount of waste created after the Christmas holiday, so they have researched some ways to recycle seasonal items. Here are their suggestions.
CHRISTMAS TREE RECYCLING
Christmas tree drop off points
Cheltenham Borough Council, want to make sure all Christmas trees are composted locally, so take your Christmas tree to one of the following drop off points:
- Swindon Road Recycling Centre – anytime during opening hours
- From 2 to 15 January 2024, locations around Cheltenham where trees will be collected and recycled:
- Cheltenham Racecourse – New Barn Lane, Cheltenham, GL52 3LT
- Cheltenham Town Football Club – Whaddon Road, Cheltenham, GL52 5NA
- Old Patesians RFC – Everest Road, Cheltenham, GL53 9LG
- Cheltenham B&Q – Golden valley retail park, Hatherley Lane, Cheltenham, GL51 6TA
Christmas tree kerbside recycling
Garden waste customers
If you are a garden waste customer, you can recycle your real Christmas tree at the kerbside once collections resume from Monday 15 January 2024.
Simply place your real Christmas tree next to your brown garden waste bin at the kerbside on your normal collection day and the crews will be able to take it away to be recycled.
Non-garden waste customers
If you are not a garden waste customer, you can dispose of your real Christmas tree at the kerbside from Monday 15 January 2024.
Please check to see when garden waste is collected on your road and place your real Christmas tree out on the kerbside on the day that there is a garden waste collection.
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
Broken or unwanted Christmas lights can be placed in a tied carrier bag and then put one of your recycling boxes for collection. You can also take Christmas lights to the Swindon Road recycling centre.
CHRISTMAS CARDS
Please bring your Christmas cards to the office where they will be collected and taken to Cobalt https://www.cobalthealth.co.uk/support-us/supporter-events/
WRAPPING PAPER
Wrapping paper, which does not contain foil, can be put into your kerbside recycling boxes for recycling. However, wrapping paper made from foil cannot be placed in to the kerbside recycling box as unfortunately they cannot be recycled.
Tip: If your wrapping paper can be scrunched and stays scrunched up it does not contain foil, foil wrapping paper springs back when scrunched.
Cardboard gift boxes and packaging should be flattened and placed in your blue cardboard bag.
SWEET AND CRACKER TUBS
https://www.tub2pub.co.uk/tub2pub/
Greene King is running ‘Tub2Pub’, a recycling campaign to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and recycle plastics. Make sure your tubs don’t go to waste and bring your clean, empty plastic confectionery and cracker tubs to any Greene King managed site from 1 January – 11 February 2024 to be recycled. Our nearest Greene King pubs are The Norwood and The Lansdown.
UNWANTED TOYS OR BOOKS
Please take any toys or books you no longer need to a local charity shop, so they can be reused.
Help a hedgehog
In 2020, Hedgehogs were put on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable to extinction in Great Britain, with only an estimated 879,000 living in the UK. So, Eco Warriors want everyone at Warden Hill to help these secretive spikey friends.
Do you have Hedgehogs living in your garden? Here are some signs to look out for:
- Their droppings look like small brown slug shaped, shiny and black bullet shaped about an inch long
- Tunnels in flower beds
- Hear snuffling noises in the dark
How to help hedgehogs in your garden:
- Leave a bowl of water and food out. In the wild, they like to chomp on insects, eggs, snails and larger prey like small mice frogs and snakes, which make them a gardener’s friend. You can feed them meaty cat or dog food, as long as it does not contain fish. Also, avoid foods like milk and bread because they are lactose intolerant. They can choke on peanuts so avoid those too.
- If you have dug a hole in your garden, cover it over at night and check daily that no Hedgehogs have fallen in and are trapped. Also, if you have a pond, make sure that it has an exit ramp so Hedgehogs can get out easily to avoid drowning.
- To help Hedgehogs roam from garden to garden, put holes in the bottom of fences, which are big enough to avoid getting their spikes caught on, 13cm x 13cm. A sustainable Hedgehog population needs 900,000 m² of connected land to survive.
- You can put Hedgehog houses in your garden, which have a hole, which is big enough for a Hedgehog to enter but small enough to prevent foxes from getting in. A layer of dead dry leaves or nesting material can be put in the house, so they can hibernate from late December/Early January until late March.
- Artificial lights can deter Hedgehogs from visiting your garden, so only have lights on when you need them.
Interesting fact
Did you know that hedgehogs are the only British animal which has a spikes? They have an amazing 5000 – 7000 spikes.