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03/10/23

A reminder that due to our Open Evening we will close to students at 11.40am tomorrow, with a late start on Thursday at 10.30am - thank you for your understanding. pic.twitter.com/FJPjcjabxn

03/10/23

In Computer Science class, students were working on this terms topic of ‘Producing a Robust Programme’. The Year 11 students were undertaking a programming task to decipher techniques to ensure a strong and robust programme framework. pic.twitter.com/ibifMxl9GH

03/10/23

The 2023-4 Dragons' Apprentice teams preparing for the challenge ahead. They will be fundraising for and pic.twitter.com/hIcp7EzLIu

02/10/23

Diary reminder - OPEN EVENING 2023 - Thursday 5 October, school will begin later to allow for clear-up, with registration at 10.30am. Buses will run at the usual times, any students who arrive in school earlier will be supervised in the dining room.2/2

02/10/23

Diary reminder - OPEN EVENING 2023 Due to our Open Evening taking place on Wednesday 4 October, school will finish for students at 11.40am. The Kimpton bus will arrive at 11.45am to pick up the students who normally use this service. Other buses will run at the usual time.1/2

02/10/23

Diary reminder - OPEN EVENING 2023Due to our Open Evening taking place on Wednesday 4 October, school will finish for students at 11.40am. The Kimpton bus will arrive at 11.45am to pick up the students who normally use this service. Other buses will run at the usual time.

02/10/23

There was thoughtful discussion happening in Year 8 RE lesson, debating whether Moses was a good man and a good leader - helping to strengthen their learning about different religions. pic.twitter.com/RmGNVuPJBJ

02/10/23

Diary reminder - OPEN EVENING 2023Thursday 5 October, school will begin later to allow for clear-up, with registration at 10.30am, then onto period 3. Buses will run at the usual times and any students who arrive in school earlier will be supervised in the dining room.

29/09/23

We've issued 974 books so far in September! Will we reach 1,000 today? pic.twitter.com/GFd7d2qyvi

29/09/23

Year 11 were busy carrying out tests in science lesson today, trying to determine the presence of lipids, protein and starch. The students were observing and recording whether a colour change occurred which would indicate their presence. pic.twitter.com/uzMWeHWT4F

29/09/23

Year 11 were busy carrying out tests in science lesson today, trying to determine the presence of lipids, protein and starch. The students were observing and recording whether a colour change occurred which would which would indicate their presence. pic.twitter.com/icYmdJkOO0

28/09/23

Netball 🏐 Yr 11 and Senior teams played in their district tournament. The Yr 11s made it to the semi finals where they faced a strong STAHS A team and sadly lost. While the Seniors came 3rd in their group, missing out on the semis. After 3 wins and 2 defeats. Well done girls!👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/qvzxT425ZM

28/09/23

Just another normal lunchtime with 100’s of students involved in our co-curricular offer. It’s great to see so many students making the most of this opportunity. pic.twitter.com/7XzKcEF61d

28/09/23

Year 8 Netball🏐Well done to both the year 8 netball teams in their games against Samuel Ryder Academy. Both teams displayed lovely movement around the court.A’s won 17-9 B’s won 10-2Players of the match: Savanna and Melissa 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/sikfZ4gjwU

27/09/23

We had a fun lunchtime planting winter pansies in pots donated to us. Our seedlings have doubled in size in a week and we pricked out more parsley too. pic.twitter.com/L7xNmWDfij

27/09/23

Wonderful new display board celebrating our peachy lower school summer show#theatrematters pic.twitter.com/WTzoPSCCcT

27/09/23

Diary reminder - Year 11 students will have their class and individual photos taken on Thursday 28 September. Please ensure a full and neat uniform.

27/09/23

Year 7 drama class was a hive of activity today as students were creating different shapes as part of their physical theatre learning - each group used their imagination to form objects and scenery such as a cup and saucer, a throne and a volcano. pic.twitter.com/EiKb5cwvUV

26/09/23

Day 2 year 13 geography fieldwork investigating regeneration in Boscombe. Giving students ideas for their own NEA fieldwork! pic.twitter.com/0YOkWxv0cp

26/09/23

With over 36 languages spoken within the SJL community, staff and students gathered in the library at lunchtime to share their knowledge of different greetings to help celebrate the European Day of Languages. pic.twitter.com/jxECsfwBS6

26/09/23

Year 13 geographers have arrived in Swanage and are straight into investigating sand dune succession at Studland. pic.twitter.com/dLoAGVmuG6

26/09/23

KS3 rocking out at the School of Rock auditions this afternoon 🎸 pic.twitter.com/DDE4fdQ9TD

24/09/23

A huge thank you to our prefect team and our yr7 parents as we raised £1700 for our school charities, The Ollie Foundation and MacMillan Cancer Support at our yr7 picnic. pic.twitter.com/TT7a0QeoW8

24/09/23

It’s a pleasure to welcome our new yr7 students and parents to our annual Yr7 Picnic. The picnic is entirely organised by our wonderful 6th form prefects. pic.twitter.com/5kufNps8aD

23/09/23

A great privilege to attend the opening of The Orchard Barn today. This forms part of a community project for gardening, creativity and health, set up by Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith. We can’t wait to visit again with our students pic.twitter.com/tWizY8Z8z1

Sustainability and Ethics

Introduction

Sustainable development is a priority at Sir John Lawes School. We strive to ensure that it is a key part of the curriculum as well as a prominent feature in the way the school is managed. Pupils have demonstrated a keen interest in contributing to sustainable development and have taken a lead on many initiatives around the school. Our Eco-Schools group has made a significant contribution to developing the school’s commitment to sustainability and in 2022 Sir John Lawes became one of the first schools in Hertfordshire to achieve the Green Flag with Distinction award, a reflection of all the hard work completed across the school.

In the classroom

Sustainable development is a core part of the curriculum in Geography, Science, Citizenship and Design and Technology but also features in some way in the majority of subject areas.

Examples of work that students carry out within other areas of the curriculum include:

Technology - Year 9:

Junk sculpture project – students collect junk and use variety of products that would be thrown away as a starting point for a design & make project

Life Skills – Year 8:

Environmental issues unit covering topics such as sustainable development and global warming.

Animal Studies and Conservation – Year 9:

In this enrichment course pupils develop their understanding of local, national and international efforts to conserve the natural environment

Geography – Year 9:

Students investigate how sustainable the town of Harpenden is

MFL – GCSE:

Students learn vocabulary relating to environmental issues

We also have an annual Green Week organised by students from the eco-schools group in which they encourage staff to incorporate green themes into their lessons.

Past activities for this have included:

RE – Year 7:

Students produced posters on how Buddhism promotes green living.

Maths – Year 9:

Comparison of costs of low energy versus normal light bulbs.

Around school

Our eco-schools group and Junior Leadership Team created a school ‘Eco-Code’ to summarise the actions that they felt we should all be taking to improve the sustainability of our school.

Our Eco Code:

  • If you are not using the lights, turn them off.
  • Instead of leaving your TV on standby, turn it off completely
  • When you have finished with the computer, turn it off
  • Close windows and doors to prevent wasting heat in the winter
  • Use as much natural light as you can
  • Think: do you really need to print that? And if so, could you fit it on less paper?
  • Recycle paper and plastic using the school recycling bins
  • Try to walk to school or use the public transport instead of travelling by car
  • Turn off dripping taps - it saves money and energy!
  • Remember to look after the environment you live in

Examples of specific actions the school has taken to ensure greater sustainability include:

Energy: We have an energy monitoring system and use data from this to remind the school community about the importance of saving energy. We encourage students and staff to turn off lights and computers when they are not using them and have a programme to switch off computers at the end of the day.

Waste: We encourage students and staff to reduce waste. One measure we have taken is to allocate printer ‘credits’ to give more of an incentive to think before printing.  Another initiative has been to design our own mugs made out of recycled material which are now used for meetings rather than disposable cups. Our eco-schools group have worked to encourage others to be more responsible with their waste through delivering assemblies and improving the labelling on our bins.

Water: We have installed water flow regulators to the cisterns that flush the men’s urinals which has resulted in significant water saving.

Biodiversity: We have a dedicated biodiversity area behind in which pupils from the eco-schools group have put up bird feeders and are in the process of building a bug hotel. This is an ongoing project and any ideas would be welcome of other things to include.

In the community

We try to make an effort to contribute to sustainability outside our own school. Students have been involved in delivering assemblies and workshops on themes such as climate change and waste reduction in a number of local primary schools. Last year our Sixth Form ‘Green Leaders’ delivered assemblies on food miles to several local primary schools.

Our Leading Practioner for Global Dimension and Sustainable Development spends half a day a week supporting other schools in the county to develop activities in this area. This includes running the St Albans City and District Sustainable Schools Ambassador Programme. Over the last 5 years we have trained over 300 ambassadors from nearly 50 local schools. During their training they learn about what it means to be a sustainable school and explore what they can do to make a difference. They go on to carry out at least one activity a term aimed at making their school more sustainable.

Internationally

We recognise that many environmental problems might have both local and global consequences. We encourage students to think beyond the impact of our actions on our own lives and to think about the consequences further afield.

For example, in 2013, several of our students attended a conference on Farmers Feeding our World run by Oxfam in which they were challenged to think about some of the challenges facing food producers around the world as well as to think about what they could do in response to these challenges. 

Eco-Schools

Eco-Schools is a global sustainable schools programme which helps schools work towards becoming more environmentally friendly and improving sustainability. By attending the Eco Schools club, called Sustainable SJL,  students learn about pressing environmental issues which they care deeply about, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. Eco Schools provides a seven step framework for making a difference in school, in the local community and beyond. Each year schools work toward the prestigious Green Flag award which recognises the efforts made by the school to improve sustainability, which Sir John Lawes has achieved for over ten years. In 2021 a merit or distinction award was introduced for those schools who go beyond the basic seven step criteria. In summer 2022 Sir John Lawes became one of the first schools in Hertfordshire to achieve the Green Flag with Distinction award, a reflection of all the hard work completed across the school. Sustainable SJL meet weekly at lunchtime, and are supported by the sustainability leaders from each form class.

Some of the sustainability achievements that helped us achieve this award are:

  • Running a ‘Switch off’ campaign to encourage students and staff to turn off unused lights and monitors
  • Raising awareness and reducing use of single use masks during the pandemic
  • Sharing tips and recipes for plant based meals
  • Growing indoor plants from cutting to put in each form class
  • Growing our own produce in the Eco-Garden which has sold to staff, and used in the canteen
  • The school planted over 1000 trees at Porters Hill Park
  • Climate Action Group organised climate protests at lunchtime, uniform swap shops and led assemblies to raise awareness
  • Sir John Lawes organised and led the Climate and Environmental Sustainability Conference held at Rothamsted Conference centre with all trust schools attending
  • Sustainability being taught across the curriculum including in geography, science, art, business studies, religious studies and PE

Sustainable schools ambassadors

Sir John Lawes are the hub school for the St Albans and District Sustainable School Ambassador Programme. This is a district wide scheme that aims to make schools more sustainable at the same time as bringing together students and teachers from across the district. All participating schools nominate two ambassadors who will serve for a year. These ambassadors are then invited to attend a training day held at Sir John Lawes, where they learn more about the issues facing us today and what they can do to help. All ambassadors are then expected to undertake at least one activity per term to help make their school and the wider community more sustainable.

SJL also runs a Green Leaders Programme for Sixth Form students for local schools which involves training a group of Sixth Formers to deliver assemblies in primary schools. Last year our Green Leaders delivered assemblies on food miles to three local schools. 

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