At the Lingham Primary School, we are committed to educating our children about environmental concerns and the importance of living sustainably. We recognise our responsibility to ensure that pupils have the necessary skills and knowledge to understand environmental concerns so that they can apply this to their lives and adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle. 

We encourage both pupils and staff to think about the environment and how their actions will impact their local surroundings, as well as the global environment.

We are fortunate to have a small woodland which is teeming with wildlife. Our school grounds include a large field and a small forest area. All of our pupils celebrate their affinity with nature with opportunities for outdoor learning. We host an after school Gardening Club in spring and summer for those who wish to be more green-fingered and each class have wellie storage so we are always ready to immerse our learning in the outdoors - this links with our OPAL Play. 

Our pupils participate in specific lessons and regular discussions about sustainability and changes to our climate. We wish to empower our children with emotional literacy and resilience to cope in a changing world. 

Eco Council

It is very important that our pupils have a sense of ownership and responsibility regarding changes to our planet. Every class has an elected eco-representative, who is responsible for overseeing the sustainable approaches in the classroom such as recycling and conserving energy. Our Eco-Reps regularly attend Eco Council meetings to discuss and update our Action Plan and share their thoughts and feelings about sustainability at the school. 

We are a hedgehog-friendly school

Did you know that hedgehog numbers in the UK have declined by around 50% since the year 2000? With this in mind, our school is working towards becoming a Hedgehog Friendly School. We have set up a small group of eco councillors who have been doing a great job learning about hedgehogs, and exploring ways in which we can help them. We have audited the school grounds, looking for ‘hedgehog hazards’, and we have attempted to attract them by leaving food and drink in a secluded area of the field and forest area. We have a number of hedgehog houses donated and built by our children and the community.

How to help hedgehogs:

• Do leave some areas of wilderness where the hedgehogs can snuffle for insects.

• Do put out water for drinking.

• Do put out a bowl of dog food or meaty cat food around dusk.

• Do look to see if your hedgehog is limping or appears to be injured, or in late Autumn look out for underweight hedgehogs

• Don’t put out bread and milk

• Don’t pick up fit hedgehogs

• Don’t use slug pellets or other chemicals, they may poison hedgehogs and other animals.

• Don’t light a bonfire without checking to see if a hedgehog or other wild animal has moved in.

• Don’t fork over compost heaps in case hedgehogs or other animals have taken up residence.

• Don’t spray hedgehogs with dog or cat flea sprays. It will be detrimental to the hedgehog.

We hope that this information will help you to join us in looking after our hedgehog friends.