Our Eco Conference is back for the 3rd year!
Students across our Trust had an amazing time at our annual primary and secondary Eco Conferences, held on 23 - 24 April.
This year, we had a record number of academies attend and increased numbers of those who’ve also implemented Eco Clubs at their academies.
The conference was organised by Keela Walsh (from Co-op’s Community Team), and our Trust’s Community Team, who’ve been finding ways to assist Eco Clubs through bids for equipment, sourcing vouchers and searching for volunteers. These clubs are helping to facilitate eco and wellbeing gardens in schools across our Trust to help improve the quality of life for students and families.
Thanks to our partnership with Biffa, all academies have received wildflower seeds and some have even been given apple trees to create beautiful orchards at school - all in aid of helping boost biodiversity and provide green spaces for young people to enjoy.
Children from existing Eco Clubs presented to share what their academy had focussed on this past year, from peace gardens, to wellbeing gardens, and the joint effort to help tackle litter.
Students got to make their very own milk bottle swallow; a great lesson on recycling and how something we might throw away each day can actually be made into useful items that bring happiness.
Students were incredibly lucky to meet some fantastic leaders in this space!
They spent time outdoors with the Royal Horticultural Society to discover the habitats and creatures around 1 Angel Square.
Fair and Funky taught students the six Rs (Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair) and impressed everyone with their smoothie bike, where students peddled to get the blender to work on their very own banana smoothies.
Myco Manchester presented a session on the importance of worms and students discovered how to make their own wormery!
Sow the City showed students how to make wildflower bombs. Using clay and wild flower seeds, they created balls which can be thrown into the environment to bring little bursts of joy when they grow.
Year 7 student, from Co-op Academy Belle Vue's Eco-Committee, said of the day:
“I enjoyed the eco-conference and learnt about how important it is to recycle. I really enjoyed making a smoothie with the bike and also making seed bombs and then throwing them when we got back to school. I look forward to watching the wildflowers grow.”
Hannah Williams, Community & Partnership Manager at Co-op Academy Belle Vue, said:
“It was brilliant to see all of the academies cooperate to play our part in minimising the impact of climate change.
Co-op Academy Bebington and Co-op Academy Manchester have inspired us with their eco-projects and the social impact they are creating. Our eco-committee was inspired and are now full of ideas for projects that we can implement at Belle Vue.
It was also great to connect with so many external organisations who we look forward to working with in the future as we work towards our Eco-schools Green Flag Accreditation.”
