In July we were invited to present our Eco Committee work at the Haberdashers’ Monmouth Schools Climate Change COP Sustainability Conference. This was a three-day event and was the highlight of our year.

Day 1

The opening address was given by the wildlife presenter Kate Humble, setting out the key issues facing us and the ways in which we can all ‘be the change we want to see’. It was an inspirational way to start the conference and get people thinking.

Next, we all took part in a Climate Fresk, learning about climate change and mapping causes and impacts together. Our lunch was delicious and purely vegan, which was a great surprise to some pupils as the burgers tasted just like meat. The food was also packaged in ‘notpla’ packaging, winner of the 2022 ‘Earthshot’ prize and made using seaweed!

Day 2

we were treated to insights from Bryony Bromley of Eco Schools Cymru. We then had a chance to really get ‘hands on’ in a variety of practical workshops such as owl pellet dissection, bug hotel creation and solar oven making.

During the conference we had plenty of chances to explore innovative ideas to increase sustainability and one of our favourites was ‘Snoap’, an innovative liquid-free soap dispenser which eradicates the need for plastic packaging.

We found the conference and hospitality of Haberdashers’ Monmouth Schools totally inspirational and we came back buzzing with ideas to implement.

Our focus next year will be to encourage people to refuse and reduce the use of single-use plastics, which can be achieved by not buying liquids in the first place. We will be encouraging everyone to use body bars, shampoo bars and powdered soaps!