On Friday 30^th January, our school environmental group, “The Green Team” held a summit meeting with Melanie Steadmon of the Shanks recycling group in East London . The aim of this meeting was to discuss the most effective ways to make our school a more environmentally friendly place to work and learn in.

During the next half-term the Green Team plans to place recycling bins in every classroom throughout the school to increase the amount of paper and card we recycle at Sydney Russell.

Melanie outlined the different ways that we could maximise our recycling efforts by labelling and placing  collection containers in accessible locations.

“We currently don’t do enough to recycle  the material we dispose of in our lessons.” Claimed Paije Boothe, a concerned Year 10 student.

Thomas Drake of year 9 echoed these sentiments, “We can do so much more with just a small amount of planning,” he added.

The Green team is currently led by Ms Guerin. She plans to see our school attain the new “Sustainable School” standards issued by the government. This means that a school like ours will seek to maximise its recycling efforts, be as energy-saving as possible and encourage staff and students to travel to and from their place of work in an environmentally sustainable way (Walking, cycling and public transport).

The Green team summit lasted well into the evening and saw team members discuss and plan their way forward. “It was very useful” claimed Rebecca Day from year 10, “we now plan to visit our school council meetings to get as many students backing our plans as possible.”

With such ambition, our school will be greener than ever in no time.

 D. Guerin & C. Sullivan

“Green Team”  News

On Friday 23rd January, our School Council took a trip to Barking Town Hall. The aim of this visit was to give our form representatives an insight into how the council actually works and an understanding of the processes our councillors go through in making decisions about the running of our borough.

Ardit Baku of Year 9 takes up the story:

We were shown the Chamber where the council debates take place. A group of us were able to sit in the Chamber, while the rest of the our group sat above in the balcony.

In the Chamber were the Deputy Mayor, three councillors and our host, Mr Kevin Donovan.

Once we were settled, our host gave us a presentation, telling us a few things about the council; what it does, how it operates, etc. It was very informative and we enjoyed it greatly.

After the presentation, we were allowed to ask questions about the council and what it does. This was even more informative, as the Deputy Mayor and councillors answered the questions effectively, and there where plenty of them. We were also surprised at how the primary school children’s questions where cleverly well thought out. Our group of councillors and the primary school children where full of questions, and we actually ran out of time in the end. But, before we left the Chamber, we had the chance to sit down on the Mayors chair. It left us, and a lot of other people smiling. Some students had their photographs taken on the chair.

We were then guided to the Mayors office. This isn’t normally allowed, but it was a quiet place where we could have a more mature conversation about the council and other matters. The room was very posh and there where shelves covered in prizes, and commendations. We saw  the Mayors robes and large array of jewellery on display. We got to try on the Mayors robes, which where really heavy and thick. Our student representatives thought the visit worthwhile, We thought that the Town Hall was a very useful place to visit and it was very interesting and informative. The people we met where friendly and entertaining, we all enjoyed our time there.

Ms. K. Hargreaves & Ardit Baku (Year 9)

School Council Visit Town Hall

www.sydney-r.net