St Mary’s students celebrate Sustainability Day

St Mary’s Senior School students came together on Friday 1 July to take part in a dedicated Sustainability Day – further extending the school’s eco initiatives and demonstrating its continued commitment to making sustainable, environmentally-friendly decisions, to benefit the school community.

The Sustainability Day was meticulously planned by Harriet Whiting, St Mary’s Sustainability Coordinator, and included a range of themed activities for students to take part in. These activities replaced the school’s normal academic lessons, giving pupils the chance to really immerse themselves in the day.  

One of the eco activities on offer was the ‘Sustainability Pledge Tree’, where students and staff wrote a pledge on a leaf detailing how they will aim to become more sustainable. The Eco Committee will be putting these leaves on the tree next week. Other activities included a sustainability quiz, a talk for Year 7, 8 and 9 students from Lara Adamczyk from Greenpeace and a talk from Clare Anderson (Clare’s Refill Station) for Year 10 and 12 pupils. 

Students from Year 10 and 12 also had the chance to take part in a ‘Sustainability Entrepreneur Project’ competition. This gave students the chance to work in teams to design a service or product based on circular economics that tackles a current sustainability issue. Year 10 students, Rebecca C., Isabella W., Amelia McA., Lizzie S. and Rose V-H. won the ‘Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize’ for their Happy Turtle project – a more sustainable online supermarket which cuts out plastic packaging.