Ashlands Primary School

Outdoor Learning and Eco Schools at Ashlands

Here at Ashlands Primary School we care deeply about protecting our environment. In 2023 we achieved Green Flag Status.

We have a community garden and outdoor classrooms, which have been designed to be enjoyed and used by Ashlands Primary children and our local community and to support a strong curriculum with regular access for all our children to outdoor learning opportunities.

During their journey at Ashlands we aim for our children to connect with nature and develop a love and appreciation for their natural surroundings.

The garden benefits the local wildlife and encourage biodiversity through the creation of a range of supportive habitats whilst the outdoor classrooms will allow the children to regularly access outdoor learning opportunities, connect with with nature and develop a love and appreciation for their  natural surroundings.

We have bee hives and we produce our very own honey, vegetable plots that the children help look after and a dipping pond where we have regular visitors of bird and insects.

We have a wildflower garden at the front of school that we initially planted at the start of the Covid pandemic. We were inundated with wonderful feedback from the local community around how it had brightened up their daily walks and the positive effect it had on their mental health. Building on this we have continued to plant every year and are always pleased to hear the positive feedback we receive from the community as well as people driving past who take the time to drop us a note.

There are many reasons we have decided to embark on the journey to Eco-Schools Green Flag. Firstly, our planet (and all life on it) is already beginning to feel the catastrophic effects of climate change, plastic pollution, biodiversity loss and myriad other environmental challenges.

Ashlands Eco Schools

We want our pupils to be aware of the challenges our planet faces, and will continue to face throughout their lifetimes. We don’t want our pupils to avoid or shy-away from these challenges: we want to engage young people in conversations about them and we want to provide them with the skills needed to tackle these challenges directly.

Our hope is by doing this we will empower our pupils with the passion and skills to protect our planet now and throughout their lifetimes, including as they grow to become leaders, decision-makers and educators themselves.

We started to work towards our Bronze award in January 2022 when each class from Year 1 to Year 6 chose a pupil to represent them on the school Eco-schools committee.

This week the Eco Committee looked through applications from other children who wanted to help to make Ashlands an Eco School. It was wonderful to find out why it’s important to them to look after the planet, and to read their amazing ideas for what Ashlands can do to help the environment! At our next Eco Schools meeting we’ll be inviting all of those who applied along to hear about how they can get involved!

For more information about Eco-schools visit: https://www.eco-schools.org.uk

If you would like to get involved with Eco-schools at Ashlands, please contact the school office.

Meet our Protectors of the Planet