Bristol Grammar School is proud to be a founding member of the Bristol Education Partnership (BEP), a collaborative arrangement between four state schools, five independent schools, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College, University of Bristol, University of the West of England and Bristol City Council to improve the outcomes of children and young people in the city.
As part of the BEP, pupils from Bristol Grammar School have taken part in a two-day Climate Challenge event, working together with environmental organisations on projects to help reduce carbon emissions and protect wildlife. Students developed ideas to undertake in their schools, including installation of smart meters to measure energy usage, living walls with vertical gardening and the reuse of waste to produce wildlife habitats.
After an opening session at the M Shed on Monday 30 September where the pupils heard from a range of organisations based in the city (Soil Association, Sustrans, Centre for Sustainable Energy, Avon Wildlife Trust, Geneco, Resource Futures and Sustainable Hive), they then worked together to design impactful projects that they can carry out in their schools and communities to address the crisis.
Today (Wednesday 9 October) our pupils travelled to the University of the West of England, to put the finishing touches to their climate projects and prepare their presentations outlining their proposals. The two days have been incredibly rewarding for the pupils involved, with lots of tangible outcomes, from a simple pledge to walk to school every day, to stopping using single use plastics.
Here's what some of the BGS pupils involved thought about the project:
"This has helped me to feel I can make a difference in the world."
"I feel empowered by working with other schools and pupils."
"I feel I can make a difference to changing our future."
"It’s been good hearing about all the different climate projects."
"It’s great we are all coming together to try and tackle this and make a change."