By Alex Pang, Youth Engagement Officer

Year 4 at Cobourg School in South London have been on a journey of learning more about their values, each other, and how they can take action and make a difference to their local community and environment. 

After learning more about the Sustainable Development Goals and the Dirt is Good principles, both classes were moved to do something to improve their local environment and school community.

4P decided to act on raising awareness about rubbish and recycling, and 4C chose to grow vegetables and improve their garden space. 

Both classes challenged themselves and practiced many skills in the process, such as researching on computers, interviewing others, and designing posters!

Having split off into different roles, each group enjoyed utilising their unique skills and talents to help progress the project. 

Students in 4P enjoying researching why stopping littering and doing recycling was important, and even found out where they could buy litter pickers to help clean up their local spaces! 

4C students found out what vegetables they could grow in this time of year and made a list of equipment they would need. 

Naomi in 4P chose the reporter role and interviewed other students in the class, including Eniola, who said, ‘’I feel really happy when I do the project!’’ 

Class teachers Ms Raestrick and Ms Bishop said, ‘’it has been a delight to watch children flourish throughout this project. One child who is usually quite shy has become quite confident and passionate about growing her own vegetables. Throughout the project the children came up with their own ideas and really benefitted from it being child-led’’. 

4P decided to go on a litter pick in their local area and are looking forward to cleaning up the environment for others and wildlife.

Their latest idea of buying a compost bin will also benefit 4C, who hope to one day use the compost that is produced. 4C planted a range of vegetables in their garden space, such as lettuce, rocket, and carrots. They enjoyed getting stuck in, working together to divide up tasks, and learning more about the process of caring for and growing vegetables!

Both classes will soon present an assembly to tell the rest of the school about their hard work and how they can get involved. 

Having enjoyed learning more about nature, the students decided they wanted to do more to improve their outdoors and chose to redesign one of their spaces into a peace garden.

This will be an area which all students can relax in and spend time with nature. They are currently tidying the area and planting flowers and have begun to decorate pebbles by thinking about what kindness means to them and what makes them happy.

They are very excited to maintain and share the space with their fellow students! 

Cobourg Primary School is supported by Youth Engagement Officer Alex, funded by #iwill