Thursday 2 December saw our school community come together to learn about sustainability and what we as individuals and a school can do to help. The students spent the afternoon watching a documentary called 2040 by Damon Gameau, this documentary looked at how life may be in the year 2040 and what sustainable swaps could be made, focusing mainly on what we already have created to combat this problem. Students watched the video with their tutors and discussed ideas regarding what they were learning from it, this helped bring innovative ideas into motion with students discussing what they’d like to do and how they would do it.

The rest of the afternoon was used to give everyone a sustainable activity they could do. Year 7 planted trees to look at the growing need of tree vegetation in our world today to restore biodiversity and clean air to counter climate change. When in conversation students told us how “by doing this as a school it may have a positive impact on Bath” which is a very true statement as we hope to inspire others and help our environment.

Year 8 split into two groups and looked at the benefits of up-cycling with one group making macrame plant hangers and the other making vinyl clocks, both let the students have an insight into how everyday items such as old rope and old vinyl can be reused into interesting and modern items. Year 8 told us they found it interesting and one student said “I think it’s great that we are doing this as a school because one person may do something but the change wouldn’t be as great as change done as a group” it just shows how our students can understand how important this day was to everyone. The items will be sold to raise funds for our partner schools in the developing world, The Crane Academy (Kenya) and Keo Ropov Village School (Cambodia). We learned from the film that increasing the level of education, particularly for girls, is one of the most effective ways to bring about more sustainable population levels.

Year 9 and 10 looked at the effect of fast fashion which started with a great talk from Scarlett England (Sustainability Prefect) who spoke to the students about the problem with fast fashion brands and the environmental impact of the clothing industry. This highlighted problems of waste, production of cotton and carbon emissions. The students found this really inspiring and gave them a new outlook on how much goes into the things they wear and how they would shop more consciously in the future. Ms Hollingsworth really wanted the students to learn about this topic and take it forward into a new school project to create a second-hand boutique which will accept second hand donations and reuse or up-cycle them into new items every half term, this is something that wants to be student lead and light the students imagination with new ideas. Year 9 and 10 students got an experience of this from a mock up version of what will be, which required girls to bring in clothes they didn’t wear any more for a clothes swap. The students got to get new articles of clothing for their wardrobe and give away old ones, helping to improve our school’s ecological footprint.

Our Sixth formers also got involved by supporting activities with the younger students as well as analysing the school’s energy use using our new Energy Sparks programme with our facilities manager, Mr Peacock to explore ways of making the site more sustainable.

The items made on sustainability day were sold at the Frost Fair to raise money for our partner schools in Cambodia and the Crane academy, the same goes for money made from the selling of the left over secondhand clothes. As a school we hope to achieve sustainability in every aspect of our school so raising money for the Crane Academy means we can help them also on this road to a cleaner future. Overall RHSB hope to inspire everyone to play their part in creating a sustainable future for everyone and to spark new ideas and help together because if we work on our own we can only amount to the work of one person but collaboratively we can create something great together

Written by: Jessica Rood

Photography by: Izzy Stone