Veolia's Sustainable School's Competition
On Tuesday 1st February, Preston Manor School students were visited by Councillor Krupa Sheth and Councillor Thomas Stephens Brent Council to celebrate the work of Eco Manor.
The Eco Leaders are a leadership group consisting of Preston Manor students who are working with Veoila to see changes in the environment. The event was a celebration of the work that students have been doing to tackle environmental issues. Eco Manor was set up last year to help raise awareness and events to celebrate Earth Day and since then, events have been running since September 2021. Two of the projects have been linked to Veolia's education team.
For the first project, a group of year 12 students entered Veolia's Sustainable School's Competition. Students had to answer the 'What is an environmental problem facing your school or local community, and how could you help to tackle it?'
The quality of submissions was so high that judges awarded our 6th Form students a runner-up prize of wildflowers and expert guidance to grow their own ‘Bee Garden’.
The second project involved Year 9 students who had been working with Veolia mentors in a 12 week program - The Eco Leader's Program. They worked with mentors to create a project to make Preston Manor School more sustainable. They had four mentor meetings throughout the term and the culmination of the project was for students to apply for funding from Veolia's sustainability fund.
Our students were successful and won £300 from the sustainability fund to help bring their project to life. Our students want to help reduce the single use of plastics around the school by promoting the use of reusable bottles and will be using the funding to buy reusable bottles with school designs created by our students.
With encouragement from the Councillors, the students were asked to think on how they could increase the reach of their projects beyond the school. The year 9 students discussed how they would be sending out information to all families at both the upper and lower school on the importance of recycling and the importance of reducing the use of single use plastics.
The Year 12 students were inspired to think about how they could create a guide for other community groups and schools interested in establishing their own bee gardens and bee corridors - reflecting their work. The councillors knew of many groups who would benefit from seeing their work.
The celebration event recognised the students achievements and has inspired them to keep on with their work and are excited to continue their partnership with Veolia to see the project through to their end!