10 September 2022 Abingdon News Eco Week ran in early May, in which pupils, staff and the wider community (including member schools of the OX14 Learning Partnership) were encouraged to focus on sustainability through a number of events and student-led initiatives aimed at encouraging individuals to help lower their impact on the environment. Led by students from Abingdon’s Eco Committee, initiatives included reducing food waste; pill packet recycling; reducing carbon miles and energy usage; and trying plant-rich menu alternatives, made from 50 future-proof sustainable foods identified by the World Wildlife Fund. Events for the week included an Eco Forum, organised by Abingdon School in Partnership and attended by students from John Mason School, Radley, St Helen and St Katharine and Abingdon. Students brainstormed ideas which their own schools could adopt in order to ensure environmental excellence in: education and student experience; engagement and leadership; biodiversity and the built environment; marine and water; energy; waste; healthy living; and transport. Tony Gray, Head of Abingdon’s Environmental Committee, said of the week: “Initiatives such as Eco Week, certainly bring sustainability firmly into focus, helping individuals to realise the difference they themselves can make. I am very grateful to the Eco Committee for their passion and hard work in making the week such a success; to my colleagues for getting involved; and to our guest speakers David Johnston MP and Marcus Gover, whose guidance and expertise will live with our students, and those of the OX14 Learning Partnership, for years to come; and whose influential positions can actually result in a true difference being made so that ultimately our goal to make sustainability part of the everyday life at Abingdon, can be realised.” The theme of ‘Think BigAct Local’ resulted in the creation of a manifesto which was presented at an Eco debate on Friday 6 May to MP David Johnston OBE (who himself hosted the second Wantage and Didcot Climate Summit in June with COP President Alok Sharma in attendance). Also in attendance was Marcus Gover, the CEO of independent charity, WRAP which works in the UK and internationally to tackle the climate emergency by changing the way natural resources are used and re-used and which specialises in the sustainability of food, plastics and clothing. Putting sustainability at the forefront of debate A group of four A Level physics students enjoyed an engineering lunch at the House of Lords in May. The theme of the lunch was ‘space engineering’ with talks given by three industry leaders, followed by the opportunity for questions from the audience. House of Lords
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUxNTM1