Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School Life at Clifton-upon-Teme Primary School

 

Eco Flag             

 Eco- Action At Its Best! - We have recently been awarded an Eco Flag with Distinction 2023.

This will be our 10th Eco Flag.

Thank you to all the Eco Committee for your hard work in helping us to achieve this award.

                          The Eco Committee/Gardening Team will discuss and plan Eco activities on how as a school we can continue to be involved in the local and global community. 

The Gardening Team meet each Wednesday after school.  

The Eco Committee meet Thursday Lunch Time

REGULAR  ECO TIPS

More Eco Tips Here

  • £1.00 meals - -
  • Lower the thermostat by 0.5 of a degree to make a difference on cost but very little change on the heat effect in your home.
  • Alter the timer for morning and night so it starts 10 minutes later and finishes 10 minutes earlier. This will reduce your heat output by 20 minutes a day and over the colder months provide a much bigger saving.
  • Checkout - How to cut your energy bills   on the - BBC cost of living
  • Check out  - Help for households   

AUTUMN TERM 2023

 

Have you met  the gardening team 2023 - 2024

 

SUMMER TERM 2023

They have been busy reusing old play sand for our path - which was increasingly muddy during very wet spells.

   

We have sown a variety of seeds in our three raised beds - potato, snap peas, runner beans, carrots and beetroot. 

 

The mindfulness garden is looking very attractive, encouraging quiet moments for reflection or a space for  conversation with friends. 

We have a habitat of old wood, brambles, and foliage in the mindfulness garden which we decided required some camouflage using our willow. Three of the gardening team set about positioning the willow horizontally and then after a suggestion from another  gardener  they wove thinner pieces into the structure. A very effective finish

Our small pond sprung a leak in this garden so another job we had was to replace it with another liner. It looks perfect again.

 

Our very old water butt has had to be replaced and re-sited . This was a challenge but three of the older gardeners put their heads together and after  many trial and errors, the water butt has water going into it via supported guttering on material.  Brilliant job by all involved.

CREATING MINI COMPOST BINS

 

Year 3/4 spent an afternoon using their collected materials and preparing the mini composting bins which were going home for use. Worms were found to add to the mixture so they could work their magic.

Munch, munch, munch! 

SPRING TERM 2023

A challenge was set for over  the Easter Holidays  which was to reuse waste materials you would have at home from the  recycling bin. Our entries were varied and fun to look at and  play with. The Eco Warriors and staff each cast 2 votes.  The overall winner  won a large Easter Egg with the  runners up having little bags of chocolate eggs and just for entering each child had two mini chocolate eggs as well. 

Thank you to everyone who took part.  
Meet the Eco Warriors - busy with creating our  New Eco Code

  

Waste Week toy swop - Toy - tastic Pledges  was well supported

   

 

         After an assembly on the upcoming  WASTE WEEK and the Toy-Tastic Pledge. A small group of the schools Eco Warriors spent part of lunchtime colouring in the promotional banner. Our chosen day for the toy and book swap is Friday 10th March 2023.

WINTER TERM 2023

Litter picking outside school

 

 

 

 

Robins this term have been investigating the Polar Regions and this week they challenged themselves to building an Igloo! Not with ice but willow and paper. The effect is stunning and a great use of natural materials. 

Click here to see more icy activities

AUTUMN TERM 2022

Preparing the yearly Christmas Tree for Kenelm Church

MERRY XMAS EVERYONE

 

 

Taking cuttings from geranium and lavender plants 

 

 

 

 

SUMMER 2022

Meet the Eco Warriors. They range from Year 1 to Year 6

They meet each Thursday.

Upcycled Miniature Garden Competition - May 2022

All children during May 2022 were invited to take part in 'The Miniature Garden Competition' using anything that could be upcycled.  All entrants received a small treat and the overall winners - of which we had two - were presented with £5.00. Each person in school had three counters to vote with and the winners were...

 

     An upcycled plastic crate and lollipop sticks               A garden ball created from cut back clematis 

Below are the other gardens. It was a very difficult task as they were all fabulous.

   

                              

Mindfulness Garden

     The mindfulness garden is a place of beauty where anyone can sit and talk to their friends. It  was October 2020 that this vision of a garden started to materialise and today in the small pond we spied, quite by chance a frog. What a delight for the children involved.

           

From this to the above in two years

           

The area of wildness below has been protected since early March with green fencing.  ( Stopping trampling by feet whilst the plants pick up in strength and vigour. ) The growth has  been immense and now is the time to  removing the majority of this because it entangles the foliage and doesn't allow the plants to look their best. One small section we have re-planted with wild flower seeds and this requires another couple of weeks to seed and grow so still has protection around it.    

  

Gardening Club have sown marigold seeds in the large white containers and assorted wild flower seeds in some of the smaller pots. The wild flower plants will eventually be planted in the  area around the small pond in the mindfulness garden.

  

Recycling

Recycling is a very important part of school life. These assorted pens and crisp packets  will be delivered to collection points so they can be recycled and reused once more.

  

The battery recycling unit is also due to be emptied.

  

 SPRING TERM 2022


During the Autumn term we planted these bulbs in containers and look at the spring display they have given us. It makes you want to smile.

   

  Filling the bird feeders is a weekly task.

Bird boxes were installed early January after the RSPB contacted us to see if we had space for 6 different styles of birdbox. Year 1/2, after much discussion, decided where the best positions would be amongst our forest school area. We are eagerly awaiting our first visitors. 

  

The gardening team have been busy as usual and here they are preparing a raised bed which has broad beans showing already . They have sown peas, beetroot and  carrots today.  

    

Litter Picking

  Litter picking is a regular weekly activity which most of the children enjoy.

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AUTUMN TERM 2021

We were asked to decorate a tree for the local church as part of the community and also to decorate this free standing Tabloid at the front of the church

  

MERRY XMAS EVERYONE

FINISHED PRODUCT - TWO FOR ONE

 

The leaves are starting to fall and the days are growing shorter but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and our school grounds look ready for an autumn ball. Below are some autumn snap shots.

  

New spring bulbs  are ready to grow and late flowers from a mild autumn will provide nectar for bees.

  

   

Luscious rose hips and colourful hydrangeas, fabulous as dried flowers for in the home. 

  

Food for the birds and habitats for security and long, deep sleeps.

    

New beginnings - Geranium and Lavender cuttings

   

A leaf litter habitat topped with primulas also recycled slate to assist the rain in watering these pots.

After our summer break the mindfulness garden has developed into a beautiful space.

        

        

 

MEET THE ENTHUSIASTIC GARDENING TEAM 2021

SUMMER TERM 2021

Each week the school grounds are seen to be giving more and more to nature and of course as a school for us to take pleasure from. This is either from sitting amongst the flowers, sampling the ripening fruit or just taking a moment to ...

   

    

 This is the wild flower patch which as you can see is full of colour encouraging wild life.

At the back of the image on the right we have a bank of yellow  buttercups.

We have adapted a wider margin on 'NO MOW' around the school field and this is the result.

OUR MINDFULNESS GARDEN

 

   

  

Look at our Mindfulness area now. Lots of colour

It started with an idea and look at the results above.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

 Reusing a rotten seating area 

   

An assortment of plants on the left and on the right a donation of strawberry plants

   

Everything is starting to grow and the strawberries have set fruit.  I think it will be first come first served at breaktime  where the strawberries are growing. I've noticed  two, Yr 1 children have spotted the ripening fruit.  Each day they investigate looking for a red one.  Not long now girls! 

Thank you

REUSING THE BASE OF AN OLD WATER BUTT

  

Putting in a pond - We used an old water butt base - Perfect

An escape route for passing animals should they topple in.

 

  Repairing a fence from old fence panels

 

GYOP - GROW YOUR OWN POTATOES SCHEME

 

Sowing Potatoes from  saved soil  after ground works in school

 

SPRING 2021

 

Our Mindfulness Garden is really starting to take shape. Thank you to all children and staff for getting it this far. 

AUTUMN 2020

It's time to clear the ground for our wilds flowers to re-emerge and for the pond to be ready for our spring guests,  Newts.

 

Getting ready for action

BEFORE                                                                            AFTER

 

            

      

   

 Look what you can do with empty milk bottles

October Half Term. This area is taking shape beautifully. Work carried out at school left rocks which we have repurposed as part of the rockery.  Fabulous effort  gardeners.

Our new mindfulness area is starting to take shape. This is where we were at the end of September. 

     


   

Click here to read all about the school fundraising  

SPRING 2020

  

The gardening team have started to renovate this unused area so that in the following weeks a mindfulness garden can be created that incorporates a colourful flower bed at the front, a bench which has been offered to us upon completion for the children to enjoy outside lunchtime eating and behind this will be a wildflower bed with a new log pile habitat that is generated from some of the wood which will be removed in this area. 

WINTER 2020

OUR, ECO - ACTION AT ITS BEST! - DISPLAY BOARD

          

 

The whole school have promised to SHUT THAT DOOR! during play times.

Also included in the list;

  • Switching standby lights off on electrical equipment
  • Turning lights off when leaving a room
  • saying NO to plastic straws
  • Not to use plastic bags
  • Walk to school where possible
  • Reduce cling film use on sandwiches
THANK YOU WOODLAND TRUST

Our gardeners spent two sessions planting 60 shrubs along the perimeter of the school field after a recent removal of established conifer trees on the neighbours garden.

 

 

 

 THESE ARE LIVING IN AND AROUND OUR POND -  NEWTS

  

The belly of a Great Crested Newt -  A personal fingerprint

We have 3 species of Newt! It's official: we have Smooth Newts, Greater Crested Newts and Palmate Newts!

   Great Crested Newt

 

Fundraising Page Link

We say goodbye to the old and welcome in the new. 

What could I be talking about? 

Our new battery recycling point which will be collected when we require it. To start the school off, all the children were given a  collection box to take home and when full to return to school for recycling in our new collection point. 

Don't forget you can still take them to your local recycling point for your area also in major food stores where recycling points can be found in the stores. 

 

  

OUR PROUDEST MOMENTS !

 

   Malvern Spring Garden Show

WE WERE AWARDED A DISTINCTION!

From deciding to participate in May 2014 as a school and child led we went with the theme 'The Malvern Hills'. Above is the end result of many hours in school preparing for this event.