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Loren Macallister, Head of Ewell Castle Preparatory School commented “We are honoured and thrilled to have been selected as one of a handful of schools globally to be involved in a live stream youth event organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat. The event, held last Friday 5th November 2021 highlighted clean energy and climate change and involved a question-and-answer session involving the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, the Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC.”
Ewell Castle Prep and Senior Schools have leveraged the UN Climate Change conference COP26 and The Commonwealth’s Climate Change Programme to focus the minds of pupils and staff on the dangers of climate change and how this impacts on us all.
Over the last week, Prep School pupils in Years 5 and 6 have enjoyed a special lesson on COP26, they have created lots of themed posters and a workshop discussing clean energy. The highlight of the week for the Prep pupils was the invitation to attend remotely a Commonwealth organised event ‘Harnessing the energy and blue power of Commonwealth Youth: A Presentation of Children’s Books on Sustainable Energy.’
Pupils from schools in different Commonwealth countries including Malta, Singapore, India and Nigeria as well as in the UK had been given access in advance of the event to books by Allan Drummond, Anglia Ruskin University lecturer and author of illustrated children’s books about sustainable energy including ‘The Energy Around Us’, ‘Roads to Clean Energy’ and ‘Energy and me’.
The children had all read the books before the live event and had prepared questions for the Secretary General and Mr Drummond on topics relating to renewable energy. One pupil asked ‘You have a lot of experience negotiating and working with different governments around the world. What tips would you give us to work with our parents and teachers to improve the clean energy and sustainability of our lives?’ The Secretary General’s response was that pupils keep the conversation alive, have discussions at home with their families as well as in school and think about what we can all do to help.
At the Senior School, relevant resources were delivered to pupils via Form time, Assemblies, Enrichment, Geography classes and via a Climate Change Poster Competition, which resulted in over 100 pupil posters being sent and exhibited in Glasgow at the Conference, alongside a ‘Waves of Change’ exhibition display from a previous School Environment Day.
We are indebted to Miss Sally Earthrowl, Head of Geography at the Senior School, who as an ocean advocate, environmentalist and with links to the eXXpedition sailing initiative, was instrumental in the selection of Ewell Castle Prep School as the only UK school to take part in the Youth and Public Empowerment event.
Further details:
eXXpedition are all female ocean voyages exploring ocean plastic pollution and helping people use their skills to solve the problem. Allan Drummond is a lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and author of illustrated children’s books about sustainable energy including ‘The Energy Around Us’, ‘Roads to Clean Energy’ and ‘Energy and me’.