Eco Week
Our Eco Committee organised an action-packed ‘eco week’, galvanising the whole school community to make a meaningful difference.
Each year the Eco Committee run a whole school annual ‘eco week’. This year, the focus was on raising awareness of climate change issues and translating this into positive action. Together they organised workshops on eco anxiety; wrote letters to MPs; hosted documentary and film-screenings; held clothes swaps and second hand uniform sales; made pedal-powered smoothies; sold eco-products and vegan goodies; and held assemblies and form activities on energy, transport, upcycling and sustainable design.
The Junior School joined in with a book swap for pupils, staff and parents; donations of second-hand shoes for the charity Sal’s Shoes; and upcycled plastic water bottles to create bird feeders for the playground. Meanwhile, the school’s parent associations sold personalised, reusable water bottles, as the school removes all single use plastic water bottles for sale in the canteen.
The Eco Committee is headed up by Sixth Formers and our Design & Technology Teacher, Ms Wrigglesworth – one of only a few UN-certified climate change teachers in London. As well as hosting the annual ‘eco week’, the team meet regularly to mobilise a range of initiatives and inspire the community to make a difference – from eliminating single-use plastics and setting up recycling points, to instigating a meat-free day each week and carbon off-setting flights on international school trips.
The girls regularly welcome diverse guest speakers to inform and inspire the wider community; recent visitors include author Ann Pettifor (author of The Case for the New Green Deal); musician and environmentalist, Matthew Shribman; activist Noga Levy-Rapoport, organiser of the UK climate strikes at the UK Student Climate Network; and economist and environmentalist, Diana Fox Carney.
South Hampstead High School’s overarching, strategic initiative, Project Zero, is a pupil-led, whole school initiative that aims to improve the school’s environmental credentials by its 150th anniversary. The project aims to significantly reduce the school’s carbon footprint and contribution to landfill by 2026.