Hezlett Primary is an Eco-School. We are working towards our 5th Green Flag. This ethos is embedded in how we function and learn as a school. Our Eco-School Council committee empowers our pupils to sustain and develop this.
Our children enjoy taking part in active journeys to school whether that is walking, cycling or scooting. Every Friday we have a ‘Walking Bus’ from Articlave, Downhill and Castlerock when children, parents and staff enjoy walking into school together. We also have special events throughout the year when we partner with outside agencies like Sustans.
We continually monitor the water, electricity (along with our energy saved through our solar panels), litter picks, healthy eating and recycling in the school and use these records to give the children a real purpose in forming data and graphs and using these to think creatively in how we can make improvements. We are a part of the global Toilet Twinning program to demonstrate to our pupils that the choices they make can have a global impact. Through a joint learning program with a school in Costa Rica on plastics, our school became the inspiration for the Council’s Plastic Smart initiative. We became the first school in N.Ireland to be awarded ‘Plastic Smart’.
Our focus for the past couple of years has been developing an outdoor learning program. We have been developing our school grounds. We have created an outdoor ‘Explore’ area. This contains a mud kitchen, bird-hide, water walls, a campfire area in a sheltered area for the children to enjoy. We have a ‘Create’ area with sand, natural art, a music wall and construction. Our ‘Experiment’ area gives the children opportunities to explore mathematical concepts in a creative and thought provoking way. Our ‘Grow’ area is centred around our poly-tunnel and is a space for children to plant, water and grow a range of flowers, fruit and vegetables. We have set up a whole-school approach to Outdoor Learning. We have a progression table so that each class is taking responsibility for an outside area at school; planting in our new poly-tunnel; and responsible for one area of biodiversity around the school grounds.
