9–13 May marked the first ever Green Week at BGS. The BGS Eco Teams across the school came up with a range of activities and events based on different themes to try and raise awareness of the ways that we can all be more sustainable.
The theme for Monday was food and healthy eating. The Sixth Form Climate Committee and BGS staff had recommended their favourite vegan and vegetarian recipes to create a Planet Friendly Cookbook that was sent out for form time. Year 9 pupil Tom also created a quiz for form time to raise awareness about the impact of our food choices on the environment. In break time there was a vegan bake off with well-deserved wins to Alexander (Year 10) for his delicious chocolate cake and Hazel (Lower Sixth) for her tasty and beautifully presented Biscoff cupcakes. At lunch time there was a lecture from OB Esther Carter who joined us on Teams from Indonesia to talk about her work for Delterra, where she is working on sustainable solutions to waste management. This provided an insight into pathways and careers in the environmental sector.
Tuesday’s focus was on biodiversity. One of the first steps in protecting biodiversity is appreciating the wildlife around us so Ms Thomas created a quiz for form time about our native wildlife including some sound effects of the different species found in our local area. This was supported by Year 7 and 8 Eco Club with a Wildlife Workshop outside the Great Hall at lunch time where pupils raised awareness of strategies to promote biodiversity such as bug hotels and seed bombs. They also gave feedback about our school site from a recent visit by the Avon Wildlife trust and collected names of pupils who would be interested in helping us increase wildlife on our school site.
Wednesday was about waste and litter. There was a home clothes day where pupils were encouraged to wear vintage or green clothing to support the Avon Wildlife Trust and Survival International. To try and encourage a shift away from fast fashion the Climate Committee created a vintage clothing directory, highlighting the best preloved shops in Bristol. There were some fantastic entries into the vintage clothing competition at break, with stiff competition from Head of Maths Miss Poole and Year 8 pupil Caroline, but the final winner declared as Lower Sixth student Morgan in an actual 1960s Beatles inspired outfit. To try and reduce food waste there was a challenge at lunch time where each clean plate earnt a raffle ticket. Normally the food waste at lunch time fills two bins but we managed to get it down to less than one!
Transport was the emphasis for Thursday. BGS Sixth-former Hazel had worked with Director of ICT Mr Nice to develop an app where pupils and staff could log their commute to and from school using sustainable methods like walking, cycling or public transport. The individual challenge had been running all week but on Thursday there was a Form and House competition. During the whole week over 700 km were travelled by the BGS community with Glenn’s winning the House competition and 8 Scott’s winning the form competition.
Our final day was focused on Global Citizenship. The Year 9 Eco Club organised a vegan bake sale at break time with all money raised going to Survival International, a charity that supports tribal people to protect their lives and land, reducing deforestation. At lunch time the Year 9 Eco Club supported by Miss Hales and Mr Lawrence completed some planting of bee and butterfly friendly plants on the roof of the DT block. To support the initiatives Ms Hutchings worked with pupils from the Eco Committee to create a whole school assembly featuring a message from the BGS Eco Club in 2072, encouraging us to act now and offering suggestions of lifestyle changes to reduce our carbon footprint.