‘It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” Matthew 13:32
Welcome to the ABG Sustainability group page!
In September, the sustainability group was elected through an application process by their peers. They had to put forward their ideas on why they should represent their form in this key group and as a group we agreed that more needed to be done by the student body but with action, changes can be made (one notable success from the last year was the introduction of ‘Meat Free Monday’. The Abbey Trust has made great strides in working towards being net-zero (Sustainability) with two Abbey Grange groups winning awards – the ‘Recyclists’ and ‘Meatless’
Our aim is to ensure students take a lead on sustainability and show their Abbey Character.
Throughout the school year, the Abbey Grange Sustainability team has been working hard to apply for the Eco School Green Flag Award. Eco-Schools is a simple, seven step framework designed to place young people in control of environmental actions and projects in your school, local community and beyond.
Climate change is happening now, and the impacts of climate change will only increase in the future. But young people don’t have to be bystanders. At Abbey Grange, we are committed to developing students beyond the classroom and creating leaders of the future. Abbey Character is central to what we are doing and reminds students that they can make a difference.
To begin with, the group completed the eco-schools environmental review and through this, recognised the areas we would focus on. This led to the creation of our action plan, which ensured we focused on what we wanted to change. This has given the students a platform on how to improve on all areas at school and take a leading role on the Academy becoming net-zero.
A big focus for our team has been the development of the allotment. After securing £250 funding from Caterlink, who run the Abbey Grange kitchen, and £1000 from the PTA to replace the shed and greenhouse, the team have been working hard to make the allotment an area we can be proud of. Whilst we don’t have the capacity to feed the school, the team want to make the allotment a space that students can go to learn about growing your own food and embrace the Sustainable Development Goals (Responsible Consumption & Responsible Waste Management). The DT Food department are eager to take classes to the allotment to encourage our students to grow food at home. The Abbey Grange site team also help out by ensuring any waste produce from the canteen is taken to the allotment and placed in the compost bins.
As part of the Eco-schools bid, we have also committed to making the site more eco-friendly. We are in the process of creating a bee corridor, in addition to making several wildlife homes and putting up bird feeders.
