In September 2006 Ferryhill Primary was awarded its first green flag. We gained our second flag in 2009, in February 2012 we achieved our third, in April 2015 we earned our fourth, in October 2017 we were earned our fifth and in January 2020 we were awarded our 6th Green flag. This is fantastic! To see our Green Flag journey, please click here.
We are currently working towards our 6th Green Flag and the areas that we are concentrating on for this are litter, food and the environment and water.
LITTER
Primary 5 children continue to monitor litter in the playground as litter pickers. Monitors regularly weigh the amount of litter collected and they helped update our graph that is on display on our Eco Board.
Litter still continues to be an issue at Ferryhill. We challenged the whole school to create their own anti-litter posters. There were lots of entries to choose from but we finally managed to pick our top 3 and these are displayed on our Eco Board.
We have noticed recently that seagulls are picking the litter out of our bins and this is causing a problem throughout the school grounds. We held an assembly highlighting the problem and showed pupils this video.
This highlighted how litter could be potentially dangerous for other animals in our school grounds and as a result more pupils have volunteered to carry out litter picks at break and lunch times. Classes have been timetabled to clean up various parts of our school grounds and this is making a big difference.
We carried out a litter audit at the same time as litter picking and found that most of our litter is not recyclable. The litter that we have in our Rainbow Garden was split into the following groups.
We discussed what we could do with the litter that we could not recycle. We decided that we could start making Eco Bricks to either donate to other organisations or make our own structures in our school grounds. Here is a picture of our first mini Eco Brick been made.
Our new paper and cardboard recycling bins arrived recently and the Eco Committee have started to collect recycling boxes from all the classes.
We continue to raise money for our school fund through the Rag Bag scheme and we have manged to raise £187 over the last 2 years.
FOOD AND THE ENVIRONMENT
The Rocket Club have been working hard in the garden, looking after and planting our raised beds. Last year they had a fantastic crop of potatoes and Mrs. Bannerman worked with all the classes and made potato soup which they could take home with them.
Making Potato Soup
Harvesting Carrots
The Rocket Club have been working hard again in the garden and this year we had a great crop of carrots. Mrs. Bannerman came in to work with all the classes and helped them to make carrot cake which they could take home.
Making Carrot Cake
Harvest of apples
We had lots of apples again this year and we gave parents the chance to take them home.
The Rocket Club have been working so well in the garden and this year they helped us gain our Level 1 School Gardening Award, well done.
WATER
The Eco Committee have carried out a survey across the school to find out who had reusable water bottles and non-reusable water bottles.
We are always looking for new ideas to improve our environment.
Ferryhill Primary School 