Environment
Environment
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Marie Weller Environmentalists
Florence Mason, Harper Wareham and Alice Conway in Year 3 at Marie Weller Primary School designed some bug hotels for their Forest School site ‘Weller Woods’ as part of the Rotary Club of Towcester's Young Environmentalist campaign. They did such a great job that Mrs Parsons, Forest School Lead at the school, asked them to come and help build some on the site. The bugs, slugs and snails are absolutely thriving and the hotels are bringing a lot of joy to the children during Forest School sessions. We even use them to help with our science lessons, learning about microhabitats. Well done, girls!
Their efforts were recognised by Towcester Rotary's Allan Bell in the school's Celebration assembly on Friday, 27th March, when they each were generously presented with a certificate and a Bell Plantation gift card. After the assembly, the girls happily showed Allan the bug hotels in situ and also took him on a tour of Weller Woods.
he school would also like to thank the Rotary Club for donating purple crocus corms, used to publicise their StopPolio campaign. Children in Year 1 planted these in a Forest School session during the autumn term, and they were very excited to see them in full bloom at the start of spring. They were particularly pleased to see how the flowers attracted pollinators such as honeybees and bumblebees, which will help develop the site even more.
Hanna Parsons, the school's Forest School Lead, said: "We are incredibly grateful to the Rotary Club for inviting the children to take part in their Young Environmentalist campaign, as learning to care for nature on a local scale is so important in terms of helping children understand, and look after, the world around them. Getting children invested in their local environment early on will prepare them for a lifelong love of nature. The kind donation of the purple crocus corms also gave the children a great opportunity to watch something grow from corm to a flower in bloom, and provided an added understanding of how vital plants are to pollinators such as honeybees and bumblebees."
Treekly
The Treekly Challenge through March was a great success. Our team of 10 achieved 289 trees planted. The total for the District was 3218 steps with a distance of 19,600 miles !
Schools
At their end of term assembly 3 pupils at Marie Weller School were presented with certificates and plant vouchers as Rotary Young Environmentalists. The school would like to mark Rotary's support with this and planting crocuses for StopPolio with an article they are sending to me.
Litter Picking
Rotary supported the Tombles litter pick by Towcester Primary School.
Environmental News
Textile Waste
Globally, 120 million tons of clothing are discarded annually. Textile production releases 2 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually and uses billions of tons of water.Nearly 10% of microplastics entering the oceans come from textiles. Recycling rates are very low around 10-15%. 80% end up in landfill
The UK has the highest annual consumption of new clothing in Europe (27 kilos compared to the average of 16kilos).
The quality of textiles has reduced making long life and repairing less common.
Fast fashion is growing about 10% a year. Online shops such as Shein and Boohoo use social media and low-cost polyester products to produce high volumes of cheap goods which are quickly discarded. Quite often never worn.
Recycling is complicated due to the mix of materials
Towcester Tidy Up.
6th March saw a WEEK OF TOMBLING COMES TO AN END - The children of years 3, 4 & 6 brought an end to the Towcester CofE Primary School's week of TOMBLING. A week in which the children are taught to care for their environment. A big surprise was Towcester's MP, Sarah Bool MP who joined them for an afternoon of litter picking along the banks of the Silverstone Brook.
During the week the TOMBLING TEAM has been supported by the Rotary Club of Towcester, Towcester Evening WI and a number of the town councillors, a truly community effort.
Carousel of pictures below.
Business Project
We will follow up with face to face meetings, the 4 respondents to the trial leaflets delivered earlier in the year. Hopefully we will be able to establish projects with them and using the feedback consider improvements to the scheme. We will need to design appropriate recognition items such as stickers and trophies.
Rivercare and More
We will follow up contacts and organise a programme to clean-up/improve conditions in the river and water meadows in Towcester.
Consideration will be given to promoting environmental projects and competitions suitable for potential Young Environmentalists.
Plants for Schools and local interest
We will continue to provide plants for interested schools. It should be possible to widen this initiative through our school contacts and take opportunities to present talks.
There maybe other opportunities to provide plants for local locations.
Litter Picking
The Clubs long standing involvement to litter picking around Towcester will continue. Greater direct Club support would be welcomed.
We need to clean the Towcester Brook Urgently Voluteers please.
Crocus’s for Polio Plus
Crocus’s will be purchased to support awareness of the Rotary Stop Polio project.This will focus on “Polio Plus “ day for maximum publicity.
Environmental Awareness
Monthly reports to the Club on current environmental issues and items from the District Environmental meetings will continue. Consideration will be given to opportunities to help raise awareness in the community.
Working with local authorities and Rotary District
Efforts will be renewed to work with local authorities and other Rotary Clubs.
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