![Eco Week at O Castro British International School]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1680233245/globeducatecom/hrcyit6cx5s2zqtxests/EcoWeek_blog.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1680233245/globeducatecom/hrcyit6cx5s2zqtxests/EcoWeek_blog.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1680233245/globeducatecom/hrcyit6cx5s2zqtxests/EcoWeek_blog.png","width":768}])
- Activities
- School Life
O Castro British International School
The week of 20th to 24th March, O Castro British International School joined Globeducate's ECO Week, along with the rest of the group's schools around the world. It was a week of intense learning, both inside and outside the classroom, with environmental awareness and care as the common thread. As a Globeducate school, we are fully aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations. A commitment that we share with all the schools in the group to work together to end poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change.
This was the context for ECO Week, which this year included a wide range of activities, talks and workshops to raise awareness among the entire educational community about the need to act today in order to face the great challenges that our students will have to face in the future, also our Planet. From workshops and talks, to quizzes organised by WWF, to the celebration of special days such as Paperless Day, Thick Jersey Day, Water Day and Eco Activism Day.
Eco Debate
Encouraging our students to become passionate and skilled speakers is vital to us. We took advantage of Globeducate's ECO Week celebration to hold an online debate against a team of students from Cambridge House (Valencia), with the Climate Change Agreements as the topic for discussion. It was an amazing experience for our students to work, collaborate and debate with other schools in the group. You can watch it here.
Solar panels to reduce the impact of our carbon footprint
Among these activities, our Primary and Secondary students participated in a Webinar given by Endesa X, in which they were able to learn more about renewable energies in general and the solar panel installation project in particular and its positive impact on the environment. Globeducate Spain and ENDESA X have planned the installation of self-consumption photovoltaic panels in nine of the group's schools, including O Castro, which will cover 30% of the educational group's energy needs in these buildings and will enable it to make firm progress on its path towards sustainability, as it will reduce its carbon footprint by 293 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to the absorption capacity of 1,755 trees/year.
This initiative, which arose at the request of the Eco Committees of all the group's schools in Spain, will not only reduce traditional energy consumption, reducing the environmental impact, but will also raise awareness in the educational community of the importance of adopting measures that generate a real impact on environmental protection, both locally and globally, while opening up a new educational channel, by involving the pupils in the installation of the panels and in all the monitoring of the impact that this project will have on their local environments.
"There is a great expectation among our students about the installation of the solar panels; and most importantly, this project not only implies an important change towards renewable energies, but it has made our students fully involved and aware of the issue of energy saving from an early age", says Moira Tomé, coordinator of Eco Schools at the school.
Paula Seco, Year 3, explains that she really enjoyed taking part in Eco Week because she has learnt how to take better care of the planet. She loved doing the single-use plastic-free day, which encouraged her to collect plastics at school and even with her own family at the weekend. She really enjoyed learning and singing the song "What a wonderful world" with all her classmates; during our assembly she felt as if the planet was listening to them all singing together and applauding their song.
Iker, from Year 10, tells us that the fact of doing different activities has encouraged a lot of learning about sustainability and ecology. He found it very interesting how the teachers related energy saving or pollution with subjects such as Biology or Physics; he believes that this has allowed students to understand these issues better and give more importance to the changes we must make.
As a grand finale, Early Years and Primary students of O Castro British International School bid farewell to ECO Week with a beautiful performance full of message on the school's football pitch. Dressed in the colours of the earth - blue and green - they made a circle to represent our planet with the word ECO inside. Afterwards, they sang inspiring songs they had learnt during the week, and joined together with a shared purpose to take action to care for the environment. It was an unforgettable moment for the school community!
- ECO Week
- Globeducate
- Green Flag