Written by Divyam and Viraj from the Eco-Committee
During the Easter term, spanning from 11th March to the 22nd of March, Birkdale hosted its second Eco Fortnight, featuring Birkdale’s first sustainable transport week alongside some favourites from last year. Additionally, we also had a very exciting visit from the Sheffield Hallam MP, Olivia Blake, which included an engaging Q&A session.
This year we held another Battery Race, hoping to beat our total battery count of 2139 from last year. Amazingly, we smashed it, collecting an incredible 3721 batteries for recycling. Asterley secured the win with 896 points. Furthermore, our writing, art and photography competitions maintained their high standards with many reaching a professional level. Congratulations to Will (S1), Bertie (S5) and Zack (L6) for winning their respective age categories in the photography competition, and to Will in S1 (again!) for winning the art competition.
Seven students were involved in delivering 4 assemblies over the first week to all of their peers from P1 to U6 (Y3 to Y13). These assemblies were written collaboratively by all members of the Eco-Committee, aged between 12 and 17, and focused mainly on the theme of Sustainable Transport.
A notable addition this year was Sustainable Transport Week occurring in the second week of Eco Fortnight. For this we asked the school community to fill out a form stating their transport method for that day, helping us to monitor public transport use, and encouraged them to use public transport or walk or cycle to school when possible. To further encourage this we held form time sessions for S2 pupils discussing how to be more eco-friendly by our means of transport, particularly the issue of idling.
On the second Thursday of Eco Fortnight, we were delighted to welcome Olivia Blake, Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam, to have lunch with members of the Eco-Committee and participate in a Q&A. Many brilliant and challenging questions were asked, breaching topics ranging from public transport to energy security, and everyone who came really enjoyed it.
We would like to say thank you to everyone involved in this effort and making our school and the world a better place.