Catholic Life and Mission
At St Richard’s RC Primary School, our Eco Council plays an important role in caring for God’s creation.
Made up of a voted representative from each KS2 class (10 children in total), and lead by Mrs Varley, the Eco Council is involved in a variety of interesting initiatives.
Guided by our Catholic ethos and inspired by Pope Francis’ Laudato Si, we work together to make a positive difference, recognising that we are called to be stewards
of the Earth. Through their actions, our Eco Council encourages everyone in our school community to live out the Gospel values of respect, responsibility, and love for the world around us.
The Eco-Council use many different skills whilst working as a team to generate and undertake interesting school-based projects. Our Eco-Councillors are sure to always rise to the challenge with their interesting ideas.
As a result of all the Eco Council’s hard work, as well as with the additional activities and learning opportunities taking place around school, we were extremely proud to
have been awarded the Eco-Schools Green Flag last year. In the coming academic year, we are going to continue our hard work with the aim to renew this award. Our prioritised areas are biodiversity, school grounds and water.
Our amazing Eco-Council has been hard at work with Mrs Varley transforming our Eco-Area! Everything you see has been upcycled or kindly donated — from wooden pallets used to build a Bug Hotel to old tyres now repurposed as planters.
We’ve also received donations of a greenhouse, planters, and seeds to grow our own vegetables — all helping us boost biodiversity and learn about sustainability. The children have loved getting hands-on and watching their efforts come to life!
We’re so proud of the progress so far and can’t wait to keep growing this peaceful space for our school community to enjoy.
Yesterday, members of our Eco-Council and Mrs Varley had the privilege of visiting the Laudato Si Centre, after being shortlisted for a very special award — The Laudato Si Award. This award seeks to reward, encourage, and celebrate the efforts of young people to uphold the Church’s teachings by being responsible and loving stewards of God’s creation. We are incredibly proud to have made it to the final three out of many schools that applied!
During the visit, we attended a special presentation ceremony to find out the overall winner. Although we were runners-up this year, we are honoured to have been recognised for our hard work and passion. We received a beautiful certificate for Outstanding Achievement in Caring for God’s Creation, presented by Emily Cahill (Environment and Learning Officer) and Dr Gardner (Head of Environment).
As part of the celebration, we were also gifted a fascinating book about Saint Ambrose Barlow and a beautiful plant, which our Eco-Council have now proudly planted in our school’s Eco-Area.
We are so proud of our Eco-Council for all their dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work this year. Your efforts are truly making a difference — well done!
#EcoCouncil #EcoSchools #EnvironmentalStewardship #ProudSchool #CaringForCreation #LaudatoSi
Our Eco-Area is thriving thanks to our hardworking Eco-Councillors who have been working hard to make sure that everything is well watered – especially during this heatwave! Can you tell what vegetables we are growing? #EcoCouncil
Our amazing Eco-Council took a well-deserved trip to Heaton Park to celebrate all our work towards earning our prestigious Green Flag!
We had a fantastic day:
We painted a mural for Manchester’s Wildlife Festival We wrote nature poetry We took part in a sensory nature walk We heard inspiring stories from wildlife expert Sarah Roberts.
We’re so proud of all we’ve achieved this year for sustainability in our school! #EcoCouncil #GreenFlagAward #Sustainability #OutdoorLearning #WildlifeFestival
The Eco-Council (with some additional helpers!) were visited today by Jannine from ‘School Food Matters’. We are very lucky to be one of three schools chosen to take part in their ‘Garden Gurus’ programme. Jannine taught the Eco-Councillors all about seed germination and different types of seeds to plant at different times of the year. We worked together to plant a variety of herbs and vegetables in our new greenhouse and planters! We look forward to seeing how our seeds grow.
The Eco-Council were visited by Louise Robson from Count Your Carbon. We were the first primary school to complete a trial run of an educational tool called ‘The Playground’, which helped us to learn about our carbon footprint and understand the potential impact of various actions. We looked at data from our school’s usage of electricity, water and fuel. We also looked at how purchases were made, what types of food was consumed, and how staff and children commute to school. We then voted on the areas we believe should be prioritised for taking action. We enjoyed learning about how we could reduce our carbon footprint and providing feedback about ‘The Playground’ before it is introduced to other schools!
The Eco-Council, Mr Murray, Mrs Varley and Miss Bostock took part in ‘The Great Big School Clean’ by picking up litter on the streets that surround our school. We loved taking pride in our community, caring for our surroundings and making a positive difference. Please help to keep our environment clean by not littering!
Many thanks to our children and families that have been sending resources for our bug hotel. The Eco-Council have been working hard this afternoon with Mrs Varley to start putting it all together. Please keep bringing things in such as sticks, leaves, pinecones etc and we will add them to our hotel.
Members of our Eco Council went on a school trip with Mrs Varley. We took part in a school climate assembly with other Eco Council members from other schools. The children took part in some great workshops that helped plan our school campaigns and activities!
The Eco-Council have been working with Mrs Varley to learn about different types of plants that promote biodiversity. The children created posters including QR Codes to showcase what they had learned. These posters will be used within our developing Eco-Area and published in our School Newsletter.
Our Eco-Council have been on a mission to clean up our school grounds! Each class has been allocated a week to spend litter picking in and around the St. Richard’s school grounds.
The Eco Council members from each class switched up their daily routine and took a trip to the Laudato Si Centre in Worsley. They had a fantastic time learning all about how we can care for our common home and are full of ideas to bring back to school.
