Eco-School – JMPS

ECO SCHOOLs Programme

JMPS have been participating in the Eco Schools Programme for 5 years.

Our Eco-Schools programme aims to promote environmental awareness of the entire school. An awareness of the environment and pride in our school and community is an important part of our school ethos.

In Jones Memorial P.S. Our Eco Committee is led by Mr. Barbour. The Eco-Committee is made up of a number of children from P4-7.

ECO TOPICS

Over the last 5 years a range of Eco topics have been covered and these have helped us to achieve the Green Flag status on three occasions. Some of these topics have included: Biodiversity (the variety of life on Earth – from tiny bacteria and insects to the largest living animals such as the Blue Whale. Humans are also part of biodiversity too.) Our Year 6 class studied Biodiversity as they utilised the Irish Aid sustainability project to discover plants/trees/animals that have been classed as ‘threatened’! To raise awareness of the different ‘threatened’ species, the class produced a drawing and factsheet to share with the school and wider community.

The Eco Committee and Parents team have visited the local parks and tourist attractions on several occasions to plant daffodil bulbs/trees, litter pick and undertake weeding. Their contribution in this task should help Enniskillen to be a more bio-diverse place. Year 7 studied ‘compost’ in depth and produced an information sheet. One of these sheets can be found on the Eco Notice Board located at the entrance to our school garden. Biodiversity throughout the school grounds has also been supported on Spring Clean day and integration in to the curriculum. Every child from the Reception to Primary 7 has the opportunity to plant something on these Focus days that will help attract as much wildlife to the playground as possible.

Jones Memorial Primary School is recognised as one of Northern Ireland’s leading eco schools and as a result we became an Ambassador school in 2018. We received the highly acclaimed award for our efforts in eco actions. In 2021 we were awarded our 6th ‘Green Flag’ status through Eco Schools.
Mrs Isherwood (front) collecting our Ambassador Award Sustainable living and learning is at the heart of the curriculum and everything we do at JMPS, with all our half-term topics directly linked to an element of sustainable living. We look to develop energy and environmentally conscious individuals who care about the world around them and understand what is required to sustain individual, team and global well-being.

What’s been going on at JMPS?

Year 1 Visit the Garden

Year 1′s autumn topic is ‘What do I need to be healthy?’ As a result, they visited our garden to learn about healthy, seasonal foods. They have been finding out where fruit and vegetables are grown around the world. For their great work, Year 1 collected food from our school garden to make a healthy dessert for the parents – including apple crumble and pumpkin soup.

Jones Memorial Primary School Stall

Jones Memorial Primary School food stall has grown from strength to strength since it began four years ago. Parents and children from each year group are given the opportunity to avail of food weekly from Fareshare or from our school garden when seasonal produce is available. Fruits, herbs and vegetables from the school growing areas are often available to buy at these stalls at certain times of the year. The monies raised by the Stall is used for growing projects around the school grounds.

How do we approach the different dimensions of sustainability?

Energy

Jones Memorial Primary School is rated as poor for energy consumption when compared to schools with similar buildings – take a look at our Display Energy Certificate. We try to improve this by producing our own renewable energy through our solar panels and taking part in Energy Awareness campaigns. Our Eco Committee monitors take part annually in ‘Switch Off Fortnight’. In our assembly the Eco warriors try to promote good practices in reducing energy consumption per class. There is a strong message in school and at home that we can save both money and the environment if we reduce our energy.

Healthy Living and Food

Jones Memorial Primary School yearly grows a large portion of food on site, which in turn is using by the school kitchen or sold on the eco stalls. We have a garden, vegetable patch and polytunnel. We want our children to see that the food cycle is a closed loop system where all the waste becomes fuel for the next round of food growing. They work out where and how we can reduce the amount we waste before recycling it.

Our food growing programme encourages children to see food as something they can grow from seed, rather than something you have to buy in a shop. We grow a diverse range of food throughout the year. Our caretaker and parents work with the children on growing produce and working with our kitchen in providing school-grown food every week.

Packed Lunches:

Whilst we strongly encourage children to enjoy our wholesome school dinners, we also encourage families who choose packed lunches to prepare healthy.

Biodiversity

At Jones Memorial Primary School we have a bee and butterfly garden which Year 5 pupils developed.

The LSC have chickens which are cared for by the children. They roam around their coup throughout the day and give us eggs every morning. We take great pride in the diversity of food, as already mentioned. A sustainable future is about celebrating diversity in all things.

Recycling and Waste

At Jones Memorial P.S., each class has recycling bins and we do our best to reduce, reuse and recycle. Year 7 are responsible for monitoring our litter and recycling. We annually take part in the Fermanagh & Omagh District Council, Big Spring Clean initiative and we litter pick around our school grounds. For those children who have a packed lunch, we strongly encourage parents to provide lunches free of packaging.

Any food waste we create at school is composted, which is monitored by our eco warriors committee. We have three compost bins on our school grounds.

Water

We ensure that we do not waste water in school. The eco warriors are responsible for checking the meters and monitoring our water use. Year 6 have co-ordinated the blue day Water fundraising campaign in 2017.

Transport

A large proportion of our children cycle, scoot or walk to school – methods embraced by our staff as well. Each year we take part in the Sustrans challenges. A campaign started by our school children in the autumn of 2015 has resulted in a new traffic management system at school and our Gold Sustrans Award.

Global Perspective

Year 7 are responsible for promoting fair trade products in school. The class have a Fairtrade Sale every Easter, where they make their own produce out of fairtrade products and sell them to parents and friends.

Eco Partnerships

Our successes in developing a leading eco school have been achieved through partnerships. We embrace our local community and businesses and realise that to be sustainable, we must all support each other. We use Asda Fairshare where we receive produce once or twice a week and use the produce for our Breakfast and Homework Clubs.