Hello and welcome to our ECO  Committee page.

Autumn Term 2021

Each class has voted for their new Eco Council representatives.  Each year group has chosen 2 representatives who will have the important job of attending meetings and feeding back the information to their classes.  

The new Eco Council Representatives are:

Year 1: Zac and Darcie

Year 2: Layla and Miles

Year 3: Dewi and Alex

Year 4: Ethan and David

Year 5: Sapphire and Ruby-Lee

Year 6: Ieaun and Evan

Check back later in the term for an update of the important work they will be doing :-)

                                 Our targets for this school year

• Introduce Thrive Family ECO Reps
• Reduce our energy performance rating from a D to a C (84 to 75)
• Increase the use of pond into curriculum activities
• Introduce new bee colony into the hives
• Gain our Active Journeys Sustrans Award (scooting and cycling to school)
• Achieve Aldi 'Get Set to Eat Fresh' School Kit
• Set up a 'Recycle Toothbrush Station' and start to recycle old toothbrushes
• Recycle plastic bottle tops
• Make school sculptures from recycled materials 

Bron Avon Gardening Competition 2019 - The results are in!!

Congratulations boys and girls! Nant Celyn has won First prize in

'Best School Garden' category (Cwtch pupils) and

Third prize (ASD Base pupils)

See Nant Celyn Twitter Page for lovely photos

Switch Off Fortnight

November 18th  to November 29th

Every class discussed the best way they could save energy and wrote their ideas down to show everyone how they would help. 

Year 6 have got all our meter readings and are ready to work out how well we have done

Our first initiative for September 2019 is Aldi's 'Get Set to Eat Fresh'. To improve our healthy lifestyles. There are stickers to collect from Aldi when you shop and fun activities we will complete in school together. To find out more, please visit Aldi's website.

https://getseteatfresh.co.uk/

November -Ceri Williams (Efficiency Schools Finance Officer) gave a presentation to KS2 children in assembly all about 'Energy Saving in Schools'. 

We all enjoyed participating and sharing our ideas.

We know how to save energy in Nant Celyn to help reduce the amount of carbon generated each year by using electricity

Top Energy Saving Tips

• 1 photocopier left on standby overnight wastes enough energy to make 30 cups of tea

• Turn your lights off

• A computer left on overnight for a year creates enough CO2 to fill a double decker bus

• Every 1oC reduced on your thermostat saves between 8 & 10% of your energy costs

• A fluorescent tube uses 500 times more energy if left on for 5 minutes than the energy required to start it

• Screensavers on your pc use energy, try to turn off your pc whenever possible

• Use the sun wisely; remember to keep lights off in classrooms and offices where there is sufficient daylight

• 30% of the energy consumed in the UK is wasted

Mrs Paula Pippen from Henllys Rotary came to talk to the ECO Committee on 6th November to encourage us to collect our plastic milk bottle tops for recycle.  

The money raised will go to support the 'STOP POLIO NOW' Campaign.

                                   Please start collecting your plastic milk bottle tops

The ECO Committee have been busy making collection boxes in their lunchtime, for the classrooms

Finley has already been collecting his milk bottle tops at home!

September 2018

Nant Celyn has joined the Active Journeys initiative to encourage more children to scoot, ride and stride to school each day.

We have an Active Journeys Crew who meet half termly to help with the project.

Our second Active Journeys event at Easter was called ‘Egg your ride’!

Children could decorate their bikes and scooters at home or in school

Eco Committee went to see Mrs Adams in the nursery to see how the gardens were shaping up ready for summer. We all agreed they’ve worked very hard getting the beds ready.

Our first Active Journeys event was called 'Spook your Ride!'

Check out our spooky bike and scooter photos!

Mr. Bones came on a surprise visit -He was just a little bit scary!!

Year 6 have trained very hard to gain their Cycling Proficiency Certificates this year.  Twenty-one passes. Well done everyone!

                          We are recycling our plastic milk bottles

                                        and other clean plastic

We have all worked together to retain our Platinum Flag. Well done everyone! 

Next year we will be having an assessment visit to retain our award.

Nant Celyn Knauf Insulation Quiz Team.

All the team members worked really hard researching questions and memorising facts. They earned £25 for Nant Celyn to spend on Eco projects Well done!

Our ECO Code

Nant Celyn boys and girls had the wonderful opportunity of taking part in  

Cwmbran Town Centre Sustainability Celebration Day 30th June 2017.

​​​​​​

Below are some of the activities we took part in which all counted towards our Platinum Eco Award.

Global Citizenship

We celebrated Fairtrade Fortnight from 29th February to 13th March 2016.

Students started the project by thinking about what Martin Luther King said:

"Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half the world".

The children studied different aspects of Fairtrade, from researching how many items they could find with the Fairtrade logo, to looking at the journey of food, from the farm to the shop. Children also made posters, highlighting the issue that farmers need a fair price for their harvest.

DEAF AWARENESS

We have all celebrated Deaf Awareness Week together.

We learnt what types of aids, deaf children need to help them hear.

During the week we practised how to improve our communication skills by signing, looking at people when we are speaking, and smiling. 

AUTISM AWARENESS

We have celebrated Autism Awareness as a school.

We are the first school in Wales to be awarded the 'Autism Aware Award!' 

Waste- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce

• We are reducing the amount of waste we send to the refuse tip.
• We are reducing our Carbon Footprint.

Reuse

• We have reused old tyres as planters in the garden.
• Old tyres have been reused to make a Tyre Park for the children.
• We reuse boxes and containers to make junk models.

Recycle

• In the school corridor there is a Recycle Centre used by children and staff.
• We collect whiteboard pens and felt pens which no longer work and send them for recycling.
• We recycle plastic bottles.
• In school we use lots of batteries and are recycling the old ones.
• We have paper recycling boxes in each classroom , which are emptied weekly by our dedicated Paper Patrol Teams.
• As a school (with the help of a talented and amazing mum) we have recycled a huge, old filing cabinet and now use it to store our reading books.

Biodiveristy

• ​We have made nest boxes and bird feeders to provide for the birds in our area.
• In the spring we set up a wild flower hub to attract the bees.
• Dotted around the school grounds are various bug hotels and we are watching who comes to stay.
• Our aim is to have a fruit orchard and we have already planted three trees which have been donated by Cwmbran Community Council..

We are looking forward to being Bee Keepers!

Staff and children have been learning all about bees and how to look after them. 

The beehives have arrived! - 14th July 2016

Stefan  has brought two hives for us, a blue one and a red one.

First we've all got to carry them, in pieces, to the woodland area. 

Next step is putting all the pieces back together again,

in the right order!

The hives are now ready for the bees.

The Bees Have Arrived!

We looked after them through the winter and put sugar in their hives for them to eat over the winter.

We have now harvested our first honey. The two hives produced 5 jars of honey.

Each class had some to taste.

Healthy Living

• All children are able to attend Breakfast Club.
• Children bring healthy snacks to eat at break time.
• There is a healthy tuck shop where children can buy fresh fruit each day. 
• Each day, different classes bring their bikes and scooters to school, to ride around the play yard at lunchtime.
• Every child in Foundation Phase has begun to walk half a mile each day to improve their fitness.
• Children in KS2 are walking a mile a day.

Healthy Schools Award 2016

Nant Celyn has worked extremely hard to achieve the

Healthy Schools Award Level 5

(focussing on the Environmental Aspect)

We are on target to get our Level 6 in July!

School Grounds

As a school we have been developing the grounds so that we are using all of it and making the most of our amazing and beautiful school landscape.

We have a pond where the children have watched tadpoles hatch and develop into frogs. Children take it in turns to feed the fish and scoop out the weed. which has been growing in abundance in the hot weather. 

The children have taken part in gardening activities, planting flowers and bulbs. We have entered our flower and vegetable planters for the Bron Afon Gardening Competition.

Vegetable plots have been set up ready for the autumn plant.

School grounds are kept litter free by our Litter Lion Teams who take it in turns to go out and pick up any rubbish. We have found that a lot of the litter is being spread around by the birds! They have been taking it out of the bins, dropping it and it is then being blown around. This is going to be remedied with the purchase of bins with a lid.

We have done amazingly well in the Bron Afon Garden Competition!

Third place - For Best School Garden

Highly Commended - For Best Potted Plant/Planter

Litter

Together with Tom Board from Keep Wales Tidy, pupils cleaned up the Incline path collecting all the litter. Great fun was had, even though it started to rain and there were lots of stingy nettles about. The best bit however, was paddling in the stream to pull out rubbish!

A big 'thank you' to Paul for providing us with litter pickers, gloves and jackets, also arranging for all the rubbish collected to be picked up. 

Transport

(Walk to school day - Sept)

• Safe cycling Test
• Look how many children bring bikes and scooters to school
• Y2 Kerb Craft

Water

Press taps

(Introduction of water butts - Sept/October

Energy

Measuring our carbon footprint-July

Reducing it Sept(walk to school day)

Measuring weekend energy consumption - reducing it (Autumn Term)

Extra Activities

 All children have the opportunity to take part in environmental activities such as:

• Litter picking
• Forest schools
• Gardening
• Forest Foragers
• Willow weaving