Thanks to a Tesco Community grant on 8th July we took our Bright New Future Roadshow to Kingslea School in Horsham where we worked with 60 children from Year Two who had been studying Our Blue Planet.
Our original plan was to attend their school summer fete, but owing to covid this was postponed, and we were unable to attend on the new date.
However, this alternative arrangement gave us a wonderful opportunity to work directly with the children and their teachers. They spent the day learning about how we can all help to take care of our world and create a bright and sustainable future. The children participated in five different activities and we held an assembly at the end.
The children enjoyed exploring our Inspiration Eco Station (retrofitted 1974 milk float) full of colourful displays showing how we can reduce the environmental impact of our homes by saving energy and recycling and how we can make our gardens more productive and wildlife friendly.
The children also enjoyed an activity where they magically transformed a plastic milk carton into a bird using art and upcycling in one go.
There were lots of games and activities at The Mobile School Woodland Theatre. This is a retrofitted 7 tonne horse box fuelled by Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil and covered in paintings about the evolution of Planet Earth. Here the children learnt all about the wonders of woodlands, food chains, mycelium, and about the opportunities that nature offers.
We led Woodland Walks around the school grounds where the children learnt more about the trees and plants and discussed ideas about how they could enhance the grounds for the benefit of wildlife.
Alexis Green, the BBC presenter and cameraperson attended. Alexis is producing a series of short videos about solutions to climate change. She was keen to film our roadshow in a school to show our unique approach to environmental education. Some children volunteered to be filmed sharing the knowledge they had gained through the roadshow and studying Our Blue Planet. This can be seen in the video at the bottom of this page.
The day ended with all the children, teachers, Roadshow facilitators and volunteers singing a song called ‘Be the Change’ and they were given a ‘take home action plan’ to share with their families and help them to make changes to reduce their carbon footprint. As seen here. Teachers, the children and their families were encouraged to start recycling through our single use plastic recycling scheme, learn more here.
We are launching a Sussex Green Hub in Horsham on 25th September. This is an environmental pop up centre in we encouraged everyone to attend and take advantage of the services and information we provide. We invited parents to volunteer for Sussex Green Living and we have already recruited one new volunteer as a result!
Learn more about our Bright New Roadshow here. If you have any questions or would like to book the roadshow contact us here. We offer assemblies, lessons and workshops for schools and children’s groups, read on here.
Supported by
We are grateful to Horsham District Council and Sussex Community Foundation for grants to help us get our Inspiration Eco Station on the road! And to Tesco Community Grant which enabled us to take the roadshow to work with Kingslea School. Learn more about this grant here.
And finally to Universal Trailers in Coneyhurst for lending us a trailer when we need to transport the float beyond its range.
