The Learning Curve

COP26 is a global meeting for the United Nations and stands for the Conference of the Parties. It is the 26th meeting taking place centralised on the topic of Climate Change. It really highlights the importance of the topic of climate change, as the 25 previous meetings never entered the public consciousness so fervently as its 26th iteration. Cop26 has been repeatedly reported in numerous media outlets. It was not surprising that a lot of the students in our primary department have been highlighting its importance in school.

Cop26 at Mougins

At Mougins British International School, we think that it is important to give students a voice and inform them over events that concern their future. The importance of this aligns itself with our values of community and respect. It is important that as a school we aim to develop action starting at a local level before attempting to consider global changes. With this in mind, in Years 4, 5 and 6 our students have been writing a promise of what they will do to reduce the impact of their contributions to Climate Change, writing it on a leaf and sending it to The WWF Website: School of Promises.  

During Thrive our Eco Warrior group have been busy around the school ensuring that all classrooms have access to recycling materials and informing the classrooms on how to recycle properly only providing the recycling bin with the correct materials. 

Furthermore, Year 6 has been researching what facets of Climate Change are being covered at COP26 and about the agreements that have been reached between Global leaders. They then researched on a specific topic of Climate Change and wrote a persuasive letter to a global leader ,attending COP26, providing advice on what policies they should include. They have also made advertisements about the dangers of climate change. 

Making the Connection

As with the many other positive attitudes we wish to instil in our children at Mougins, connecting the environment and kids work best when we start small, hands-on activities and make it fun.

Children love nature. They relish any opportunity to learn outdoors and love to make real connections to help formulate their understanding of the world around them. So how can we as parents translate that seemingly innate love of the outdoors into a life-long commitment to caring for the planet? Here are a few tips to help cement a child’s connection with nature and to lighten their carbon footprints:

1. Conserve water

• When brushing teeth, turn off the water

2. Flick the switch

• Turn off the light and other devices when you leave the room

• Have a device free day. Only do activities that don’t involve using electrics

3. Close the door

• Make sure that know to keep in heat in and the cold out and vice versa

4. Start a Garden

• Start simple, with window-box herbs and  dedicate a section of your backyard to grow broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, and much more

• Let children cook with these ingredients; they will be more motivated to continue

5. Avoid disposables

• Use recyclable containers when packing lunch boxes

6. Recycle

• Teach children what can be recycled instead of becoming household waste

7. Re-use

• Clean out jam or jelly jars and reuse them as drinking glasses

• Use empty paper towel rolls in your kids’ next art project

• Turn empty plastic containers with tight-fitting lids into under-sink compost bins

8. Compost

• Get a food bin and use it to help compost a fruit and vegetable garden

9. Walk or bike

• Lead by example: Not all trips needs to be taken by car

• Go for walks together as a family after dinner.