Wellbeing Wednesday - Empowering Children Through Environmental Education
07 Jun 2023
World Environment Day, celebrated annually on 5
th June, plays a vital role in shaping the minds of young learners by raising awareness about environmental issues and promoting sustainable practices. This global event provides an excellent opportunity to empower children to become responsible citizens of the planet as they learn about the environment and nurture their love for nature.
- Fostering Environmental Awareness
At Ecole Jacques Prévert, through interactive activities, presentations, and discussions, the children learn about pressing environmental concerns like climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction. Some classes have watched and discussed extracts from the documentary "Bigger than us". By understanding the causes and consequences of global issues, we wish for students to become more aware of the urgent need for action and develop a deeper appreciation for the natural world. In cycle 2, during their English lessons, the pupils will find out more about the importance of rainforests, about threatened species and their habitats to understand the interconnectedness of all living beings. This will also help children develop empathy towards the natural world and all its inhabitants as they grow a sense of responsibility and compassion, realising that their actions can have a profound impact on the well-being of the planet and its ecosystems.
At school, we are enabling children to actively engage in hands-on activities related to environmental conservation. In MS, as part of their learning about plant life cycles, the children planted and grew cress, harvested it, and tasted it with their lunch which they all loved (almost)! They also made puffer fish art using recycled plastic materials. In GS, the children enjoyed making bird feeders to look after local wildlife.
- Cultivating Sustainable Practices
At Ecole Jacques Prévert, thanks to the ideas and actions from our Eco Comité, the pupils are encouraged to adopt eco-friendly habits like recycling, reducing plastic usage, and composting. Through one of their actions, the Eco Comité organised the drawing competition “Let’s Keep our School Tidy”. The whole school voted for their favourite poster and the Eco Délégués announced the 20 winners of the competition to all year groups. They congratulated the participants and gave a special green sticker to the winners, whose drawing will be displayed around the school.
Congratulations to all children for their participation and to the winners: Louise CPA, Charlotte CPA, Emily Rose CPB, Adelaide CPB, Ilyan CPB, Mark CE1A, Bronwyn CE1A, Lise CE1A, Apolline CE1A, Mathilde CE1A, Sienna and Fleur CE2A, Léo CE2A, Leya CE2B, Lucie CE2B, Raphael CE2B, Emilie CM1A, Eleanor and Apolline CM1A, Cora, Mia A and Joséphine CM1/CM2A, Isaure in CM1A, Théa CM2A.
- Fostering Active Citizenship
As they learn about the environmental challenges, the students develop an understanding of the importance of collective action. In CE2, the children will visit the Steam and Water Museum where they will learn about the importance of water filtration and conduct their own experiment in order to clean dirty Thames water. In addition, the children will be looking at the benefits of steam as a sustainable source of energy. In CP, the children have worked on a recycling project and upcycled waste to transform it into everyday items. They also created and wrote their very own book on how to recycle waste entitled: “
Recyclez ! Manuel pour réutiliser vos déchets".
As for the CE2, they created recycled musical instruments out of rubbish and waste brought from home! They also had the opportunity over the course of the year to go visit the Recylcing Centre in Wandsworth.
Well done to all our budding engineers!
Best wishes,
Mrs Weber