Eco School
Hetton Lyons Eco Team
We are proud to have an active and enthusiastic Eco Council, made up of pupil representatives from every year group. The Eco Council meets weekly to share ideas, discuss environmental issues and explore ways to make our school greener and more sustainable.
Our Eco Council members play an important role in promoting environmentally friendly practices throughout the school. Their responsibilities include encouraging recycling, ensuring unnecessary lights and electrical equipment are switched off, and inspiring pupils and staff to make positive changes.
The team also helps to develop and promote exciting new initiatives that raise environmental awareness and encourage everyone in our school community to take responsibility for protecting our planet.
Sunderland Low Carbon Charter Mark
As part of our commitment to sustainability, our school is also taking part in the Sunderland Low Carbon Charter Mark, an initiative launched in March 2025 and managed by Sunderland City Council's Low Carbon Team.
The Charter Mark encourages schools across Sunderland to reduce their carbon emissions, develop environmentally friendly practices and promote sustainable behaviours both within school and the wider community.
Through our involvement, we are working towards making sustainability an important part of everyday school life. Our Sustainability Lead supports this work by helping to raise awareness of climate change, sharing ideas and encouraging positive environmental action across our school community.
By working towards the Sunderland Low Carbon Charter Mark, alongside the fantastic efforts of our Eco Council and gardening team, we hope to make a meaningful contribution towards a greener Sunderland and a more sustainable future.
Our School Garden
We are also fortunate to have our very own school garden, which provides a wonderful opportunity for pupils to learn about nature, sustainability and the importance of caring for our environment.
Our dedicated gardening team, led by Ms Etherington, takes great pride in looking after the garden, planting and growing a variety of vegetables throughout the year.
A weekly gardening club gives pupils the opportunity to get involved in planting, watering, weeding and caring for the garden. Through these hands-on experiences, children develop valuable gardening skills, learn where their food comes from and gain an understanding of the importance of growing their own produce.
Our school garden also encourages teamwork, responsibility and a love of the outdoors, while helping pupils appreciate the natural world around them.
WOW Travel Tracker – Active Travel to School
As part of our commitment to becoming a greener and more environmentally friendly school, we take part in the WOW Travel Tracker, an exciting initiative that encourages children and families to make healthier, more sustainable choices when travelling to school.
Through the WOW Travel Tracker, pupils record how they travel to school each day, helping us to monitor and encourage active travel. We promote walking, cycling and scooting to school wherever possible, helping to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality and lower carbon emissions around our school.
To celebrate their efforts, children who regularly choose active ways to travel to school can earn a different collectable WOW badge each month. These colourful badges are a fantastic way to recognise pupils' achievements and motivate them to make environmentally friendly travel choices. Our Eco Council plays an important role in managing the WOW Travel Tracker. Eco Council representatives are responsible for collecting and collating travel data from across the school, helping to monitor how pupils travel to school and celebrating their efforts to make greener choices. They also take responsibility for organising and distributing the monthly WOW badges to pupils who have achieved their active travel goals.
We understand that walking or cycling the whole way to school is not always possible, so we also encourage families who travel by car to park a little further away and walk the final part of their journey.
By taking part in the WOW Travel Tracker, we are helping our pupils develop healthy habits, become more active and understand how small changes to their daily routines can make a big difference to our planet. The initiative also provides our Eco Council members with valuable opportunities to develop their leadership, teamwork and organisational skills while taking an active role in making our school more sustainable.
Every step, scoot and cycle helps us towards a cleaner, greener future!
Mrs Houghton is our Eco Lead.
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