Rose Hill School is delighted to announce that they are finalists in the coveted Talk Education Awards for Innovation in Education. Awarded in the Environmental achievement category, Rose Hill School has been recognised for inspiring and encouraging eco-awareness in pupils.

Over the last few years Rose Hill School has worked hard to reduce its environmental impact and improve its environmental performance. The School Eco-Committee is an active pupil group who meet monthly, they have a number of initiatives running across the school and have representatives from different year groups lead by the Head of Geography, Amanda Wren.

There are a number of initiatives and projects that ran across the School in the last academic year including a welly swap – pupils were encouraged to bring in their wellies and swap for another pair to prevent them going into landfill, 31 pairs of wellies were swapped in total.

At Christmas the Eco-Committee shared their sustainable Christmas tips in the newsletter in the 4 weeks leading up to the Christmas holidays. Later in the year Year 5 spent the day on a beach clean at Cuckmere Haven collecting 10 bags of rubbish.

At school, plants were grown in the school garden and served in the school kitchen for lunch. All the classrooms have propagated spider plants in the classrooms to act as a natural air filter and microgreens were grown and a herb planter created from recycled material for the School kitchen.

The Committee has planted fifteen native trees in the school woods with plans to plant many more. Bird feeders were built from natural materials and hung in the woods and the Bug Hotel was rebuilt. The Eco-Committee were also crucial to the refurbishment and reopening of the school pond.

The Maintenance Team have changed their mowing patterns to ensure there is longer grass around the edges of the playing fields for insects to live in and wild flowers have been planted in these areas.

The Eco-Committee were also responsible for the School getting Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free status.

Amanda Wren, Head of Geography and the Eco-Committee said “It is fantastic to be recognised for the Eco-Committee’s hard work, we have lots more planned for the next 12 months so watch this space!”.

Talk Education winners will be announced on Thursday 7 September 2023.