Eco School Project
Mr Hardy started by submitting a proposal to senior management and the governors at the school. His report including his vision and proposal is attached as a PDF to this article if you would like to read it in full.
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Port Regis Sustainability Report
As of 2024 Planet Shaftesbury is no longer in touch with developments at Port Regis School. To see how their Green Vision is now an integral part of their ambition - see their website.
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Their foundational work as an ecoschool is described below.
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The head of Science at Port Regis school, Mr James Hardy, has started a project to make the school 100% sustainable with a carbon neutral footprint by 2025 (to match the Paris Agreement)
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Their first steps were to enter the eco-schools award, with the idea of getting the children involved in making the decisions that will shape the future of the school. Coincidentally they launched their project the week after that 1st meeting of Plaent Shaftesbury, and so far they have achieved a great deal. See the latest project report below.
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If you are interested in getting your school involved in a similar project Mr Hardy has kindly provided his contact details and offered to help get you started.
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Contact him at Mr James Hardy at: JDH@portregis.com
Project Update
Our First steps
We gave a presentation to the children, parents and staff asking for volunteers for 7 main projects,
these projects are:
1) Biodiversity, increasing the diversity of invertebrates, vertebrate and rare plants.
2) Environment, planting trees and growing our own food on site.
3) Waste, focusing on our kitchens 1st but increasing our recycling whilst reducing total waste
4) Plastics. We have signed up to the plastic free schools program and are initially working out how to eliminate single use plastics.
5) Water, looking out reducing the water we use and harvesting the water available to us.
6) Energy Solutions, Looking initially at reducing the energy we use evolving into generating our electricity.
7) Communication. Learning how to let every one else know what we are doing.
We were delighted that 130 children signed up to help as well as 30 staff and parents.
Progress
1) We have ordered 115 trees from the woodlands trust, every child who leaves will plant a tree.
2) We have built a sapling nursery to collect trees on site and cultivate them our selves.
3) We have built a herb garden for the kitchens to use.
4) We have made trackers for the energy use and are looking to display how we fare each month on energy saving.
5) We have consultants coming in to price up a Solar Farm to be built on site.
6) We have planted the starts of an orchard to grow our own fruit.
7) We have increased the numbers of water butts to collect water.
We have loads more ideas and projects that will be completed over the next few weeks / months.
Our Next steps
1) To build solar and increase our capacity
2) I have been looking at us hosting a sustainability fair, inviting companies down that sell products that increase sustainability but also guest speakers to come and give demonstrations.
3) We would like all our food to be sourced within 20 miles of the school and are looking to put our food orders out to tender.
4) We are opening a bore hole to provide the site with water.
5) To finance a build a Bio dome to cultivate endangered plants and invertebrates (initially butterflies).
And much much more!
I have been delighted with the response from parents and children and hope that we are making a difference.
If there are other local schools that wish to start their own project I would be very willing to help, or give presentations etc.
Thanks and well done on the great work.
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Mr James Hardy,
Head of Science
Port Regis School
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