Great Big Green Week festival 2021
From 18-26 September 2021 (part of the run-up to COP26), communities across the country will join together for the Great Big Green Week. It will be the biggest occasion for climate and nature ever in the UK, and a festival of events is coming to Leicester!
Further information
Sustainable Schools Leicester organised a number of events throughout the week.
In the spirit of The Climate Coalition, we aim to engage as many people in climate appreciation and lobbying action as possible, with a focus on those who have not had much involvement with such activities.
Mini-grants
Small grants were available to host events at 60 schools across Leicester City, with a variety of environmental themes. Each school received funding of £100 to spend on resources for an event surrounding the environment and action to protect it.
Secondary school conference
We gave secondary school (KS3 to KS5) students the opportunity to reflect on some of the issues affecting us by climate change!
The secondary school conference was hosted virtually on Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 21 September 2021, 9.30am - 2.30pm. Several speakers shared their expertise, followed by interactive workshops. Students got to be a part of an authentic international conference by taking on the role of party countries from all over the globe!
"Letter to the Future" competition
The Jane Goodall Roots & Shoots "Letter to the Future" Competition took place before the Green Week festival, with winners announced during the week.
We asked school students to answer this question:
"What will the environment look like in 2050?"
The aim was to write a letter to an adult of your choice describing what you think the future will look like in 2050, in a maximum space of 1 side of A4 written or typed. This could be a relative, other adult, councillor or even MP.
In partnership with Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Programme, there were lots of Jane Goodall books to be won for the winners of each key stage category. An overall winner was also chosen to receive a signed book and a personalised video message from Dr Jane Goodall herself!
Schools were required to sign up to the Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots programme to participate in this competition - you can do that on the Roots & Shoots website for free!
Environmental Film Festival
A Film festival, featuring different films with environmental themes, was hosted at the Phoenix Independent Cinema between Monday 20 and Friday 24 September. The full line up was at follows:
Monday 20 September at 6.30pm - I am Greta
Tuesday 21 September at 4.30pm - Ferngully
Thursday 23 September at 4.30pm - The Lorax
Friday 24 September at 6.30pm - 2040
Tickets for school children and their parents to come and view the films were just 50p each.
Eco-Schools/Food for Life Celebration
The Environmental Education Team and Food for Life celebrated all the hard work that schools undertook over the last 12 months. There was a Teams presentation on Thursday 23 September between 11am-12noon including pupils and staff from Abbey Mead Primary talking about their Eco-Schools work and Edible Playground.
Great Big Climate March and Plastic Free Picnic
A Great Big Climate March and picnic took place on Friday 24 September.
The plan was to get the people in power to listen to the importance of our environment, and urge them to protect it. This lead into a climate march from 12 noon at Abbey Park, where pupils showed off their creativity as part of the crowd. Afterwards, we celebrated with a plastic free picnic at Abbey Park until 2:30pm.
A drone camera was used during the day to capture the event including an image of people spelling out "Green Week" to literally send a message!
News Day
An online news day in partnership with DocMedia Centre was hosted on Wednesday 29 September, featuring interviews with school staff and pupils, highlights of all the festival events, and Q&A sessions with the charity behind it all, the Climate Coalition. This was hosted via Zoom and live streamed from 9:30am-2:30pm on our Facebook page.
Want to find out more?
As always, you can also get in touch with the environmental education team at eco-schools@leicester.gov.uk if you have any questions.
Attachments
Please consider the environment.