Sustainability At The Croft
Education of Pupils
The pupils are encouraged to value their local and wider environment through a variety of age appropriate topics, and as a school, we are committed to creating an environmentally-sustainable school and environment, and as such has engaged in several green initiatives,
Biomass Heating
All the school’s heating is powered by biomass heating systems.
PV Solar Panels
The school’s theatre and sports hall have pv solar panels installed.
LED Lighting
Through the adoption of intelligent LED luminaires and control technology to replace existing fixed-output fluorescent fittings, the school has managed to cut lighting energy consumption by an impressive 88% through the adoption of intelligent LED luminaires and control technology to replace its existing fixed-output fluorescent fittings. This adoption of new lighting also reduces the school’s carbon footprint by over 7,000kg per year.
Tree Growing
The Croft continues to plant trees every year.
Insulated Rooms
Rooms are well insulated.
Efficient Heating Systems
The individual rooms have their own controls.
Recycle
Paper, cardboard, clothing and glass.
Next Steps: To improve efficiency of internal heating, ie flush the systems and improve the air tightness of individual buildings.
The Croft is committed to creating an environmentally sustainable school and environment
Curriculum: teaching and learning
The Croft uses sustainable and environmental concepts in many areas of the curriculum, across all the age groups, so that the pupils understand and appreciate the world they live in.
Campus: buildings and grounds
The Croft has and will continue to create a sustainable environment within which our pupils learn. This is achieved by using biomass to heat our building, solar panels to support our electrical usage and environmentally friendly products where possible.
Community: inside and out
The Croft encourages a sustainable world view, acted both locally and internationally.
Culture: caring and respect
The Croft encourages both staff and pupils to:
Reducing waste, especially food and paper.
Reusing items were possible.
Recycling of a wide variety of products.
Eco Club
Eco Club had a busy January and February, planting Hazel and Dogwood trees around the school. We look forward to seeing these grow.
Alscot Park Tree Planting
On Sunday 13 February the wind and rain did not stop a hardy group of children, parents and teachers from planting a small orchard and native hedge on a site belonging to the Alscot estate, as part of their biodiversity initiative.
Mr Genders led the tree planting workshop and pupils from Alveston, Quinton, Bridgetown and the Croft attended, each planting a fruit tree on behalf of their school.
The site is easy to access for the public and therefore Mr Genders and the Alscot team were enthused by the idea that, in years to come, the children will be able to return to the trees they planted with pride and pick the fruits of their labour.
Further information can be found here.
The Croft Launch the First Primary School Environmental Activity Study Day on the Alscot Biodiversity Project Site
On Thursday 28/4/22 all of our year 6 children travelled a short distance to Alscot park in order to learn about their biodiversity initiative that is now in its third year.
The children took part in 3 activities designed to increase their understanding of the range of species in the area and how we can encourage a more biodiverse landscape through careful management.
The activities offered were foraging and bird song, orienteering with tree identification and habitat mapping.
Some selected quotes from the children about the trip:
" I enjoyed walking in the fields with my friends, finding plants for Mr Genders' to eat, listening to birds and eating the delicious, packed lunch"
"I loved the wild diversity and space to enjoy ourselves, it was extremely fun"
"I enjoyed labelling the different parts of the land on a map with our science teacher"
"The freedom and the space of the area was great, I enjoyed following the map and trying to identify the trees"
The Alscot Estate is now looking to involve other schools in the project on similar activity days, The Croft was the first school to try out the trip day and we would like to thank them for this fabulous learning opportunity for the children.
A full account of the day can be found here
