This week (9th – 12th May), NHP have been celebrating our inaugural Climate Week. There has been an incredible array of activities for the children to get involved with and to spark discussion about our climate and our environment, what needs to change and what they can do to make this change in their lives, small or big, to support our environment. The whole week, the children were encouraged to walk, scoot, cycle or take public transport to work, receiving a hand stamp for each day they were able to commit to doing this. A great effort by all. Over the course of the week, the children were also asked to bring in a leaf on their walk to school, that had fallen from the tree, and add it to a tree template in their classrooms. The branches of the trees began to fill up with leaves thanks to the children all committing to walking to school and reducing pollution, in turn, saving our trees. Over the course of the week, our staff continued to refer to their tree template as a visual representation of how the children are actively helping to save the planet by making small adjustments to their everyday habits.
The week started out on Tuesday with a welcome video from our pupil leadership team outlining what was coming up, a cress seed planting activity for our lower school children, where they learned about growing your own vegetables and how to look after your growing plant, and a basic lunch where all of our pupils had a reduced lunch menu of pasta, tomato sauce, peas and sweetcorn to save on food costs to donate to the K&C Foodbank, raising discussion around food poverty within our local borough and the issues around food waste.
Thursday saw us welcome an inspiring panel of speakers, organised by a group of mothers from the NHP community who are part of the group Mothers CAN (Climate Acton Network). Our Upper School heard from panellists: Thomasina Miers, OBE – a chef and writer discussing sustainable food and agriculture, Anca Giurgiu – the Senior Climate Change and Sustainability Manager at Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea discussing local initiatives, Tayshan Hayden-Smith – Founder of non-profit Grow2Know discussing re-imagining our urban spaces, Ines Uwiteto – a Wealth Manager at Tribe discussing social impact investment and Laura Vildrequin Roso – Founder of Kids O’clock discussing sustainable fashion and the need for re-circulating children’s second-hand clothes. The panel was chaired by Jake Hayman, a leading social sector consultant and a driving force for social change who previously led a philanthropy workshop at NHP. Our pupils were very lucky to hear these leading specialists in their fields talk about the impact they are working towards to tackle climate and environmental issues within their industries and to ask some brilliant questions and share their concerns around climate change with the panel.
Friday was the turn of the middle school. They had the opportunity to build their own bug hotels, with materials they have foraged during the week. Insects and other minibeasts need safe spaces to shelter, hide from predators and raise their young. All of the children were so excited to build their own 5 star hotels to welcome their bug guests. The completed bug hotels will be featuring around the school site so keep an eye out!
Throughout the week, the children were asked to write their pledge as to what action they will take to help the environment. They tied these up around the playgrounds as a reminder of their commitment.
A big thank you this week to NHP parents Mrs Montgomery, Mrs von Abercron, Miss Connell, Ms Franco and Mrs Rafii from Mothers CAN for all of their support and dedication to NHP’s first Climate Week and being part of helping us to introduce ongoing change throughout the whole school year. And to our NHP staff, pupils and parents for getting so involved to make the week such a success.
