Sustainability

At Montrose Primary School, we have an ambitious green vision: to provide our children with an outstanding environmental education which empowers them to protect our precious planet, now and in the future. There are three core areas we focus on to achieve this aim:

Environmental Education

Environmental education is a golden thread which runs across many of our core and foundation subjects. For example, children learn about the concept of interdependence in science so that they are able to appreciate the connections between living things and the impact that species losses can have on wider ecosystems.

We also work with external organisations to enhance the environmental education children receive at Montrose School. This has included:

• Biffa/Leicester City Council
• Wombles (Litter Education)
• Severn Trent

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Environmental Action

The children are heavily involved in the environmental projects at Montrose. In the last few years, we have engaged in a range of projects, including:

• Installing bee posts with the Leicester City Council Tree Wardens.
• Installing SuDS planters with a generous grant from the Severn Trent Community Fund (https://www.stwater.co.uk/news/news-releases/school-children-in-leicester-turn-to-suds-to-help-protect-local-/).
• Renovating the Year 2 Eco Garden and creating microhabitats such as rotting log piles.
• Monitoring our energy usage using the Energy Sparks program.
• Litter collection by prefects at lunch times.
• Recycling: pens; batteries; mini whiteboards; crisp packets; toner cartridges; and glue sticks.
• Developing a sustainability policy.
• Campaigning to cut the amount of laminating we do as a school.
• Cutting our baseload energy usage by switching off appliances at the wall.

Projects such as these resulted in us achieving the Green Flag with Merit in the 2022/23 academic year, as well as ‘Plastic Clever School’ status.

Environmental Systems

We have considered how to manage the site in environmentally friendly ways, with the aim of becoming a 'Net Zero' school. For example, we have installed solar panels and an air source heat pump in order to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. In order to manage green waste effectively and keep the carbon on-site, we have built leaf litter bins and dead hedges. This has also created valuable habitats for a range of wildlife.