Pupils at Willow Tree Primary School had an exciting treat when Power Down Pete paid them a visit following the fantastic work the school’s Eco Warrior Group have carried out over the last academic year. The Eco Warrior were set up to help raise awareness of the importance of saving energy and their work has been instrumental in supporting a significant decrease in the school’s electricity bill.
The day started with an assembly not quite like any other, with the children being greeted by Power Down Pete wearing a bright green cape and a blue hat –the front of which were a solar panel and a fan powered by the solar panels – something that got the children engaged immediately.
The main assembly focused around what is happening to Planet Earth when we waste energy, don’t recycle or re-use and don’t take care of the planet.
Ben said:
The assembly was really interesting; I learnt a lot about the different ways I could help the environment!
After looking at the 10 different ways we could help save the planet, the children were tasked with creating a ‘Promise Carbon Footprint’. Each of the children wrote down a promise that they made to Earth to help protect it and how they can reduce their carbon footprint.
Year 3 classes were lucky enough to get specific sessions with Power Down Pete demonstrating different way to help save energy in their homes. This sparked lots of discussion in class later with the children clearly appreciating the different uses of energy and potential damaging effects, as well as what they could do to reduce their carbon footprint.
In the Year 4 sessions Pete introduced the children to a place called ‘Eco Island’. He had drawn a map of this island and labelled all the different places on it, all of which had an ‘eco’ link. Biomes Tree, Eco Village, Hydro Electric Power Stations and the Organic Farm. The children were split into groups of 4 and one member of each team had to stand behind Pete and they were given 30 seconds to look at the map and remember what they could. After this, they ran back to their teams and write down/ drew everything they could remember.
Daniel said:
I loved having to try and draw all the different parts to the map! It was quite tricky trying to remember it all!
To end the session, Pete spoke to the children about what the different parts of the island meant, explaining the meaning of organic and any other terms the children were unsure about.
Eco lead at Willow Tree, Helen Winter commented:
The children all had a fantastic day and most importantly Power Down Pete gave them lots of practical ways they can help contribute to taking better care of the planet. We want to thank him for taking the time to come and visit our school and help educate our children on this ever-important topic.
