In the Classroom

This week in English, the children in Class 3 have been inspired by the COP26 event in Glasgow recently and our unit of work in Geography: ‘Rainforests’.

We read the story ‘There’s a Rang-Tan in my Bedroom’ by James Sellick (in partnership with Greenpeace) and the children were shocked to learn of the beautiful rainforests in South-East Asia being destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations! They couldn’t believe it and felt angry and sad that the orangutans’ homes are being taken away day after day. Did you know that palm oil can be found in almost anything we consume or use in the supermarkets: toothpaste, cookies, chocolate, shampoo, biscuits, just to name a few!?

After this, we decided we needed to take action together as a class. So, we made a pledge to the Earth:

• we want to plant more trees in the school grounds and so have contact the Woodland Trust.
• we want to ask Miss Jane (our school cook) if there are palm oil used in ingredients for our school lunches.
• we want to ask Miss Robey if there is palm oil in our hand soap.
• we want to ask Mrs Walker if there is a way to get solar panels on the school roof.
• and we can make sure we use less electricity by turning off the lights, whiteboards and sockets when we’re not using them.

We felt we couldn’t do this along though. We wanted to know what the UK is doing to help. So, we decided to contact the MP for Energy and Climate Change: Greg Hands MP. We wrote formal letters to him to find out what his job entails and what the UK government has done so far and is planning to do in the future to help the fight against climate.

Mrs Walker and I couldn’t believe how passionate and inspired the children were by this mini-project and the work they produced only proved this – amazing! We hope we get a reply to our fabulous letters (fingers crossed!).