A successful Eco-School
At the end of June 2010, Yarrells School was awarded the highly coveted Eco-Schools Green Flag Award. Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey and encourages them to embed green principles into the heart of school life. After two years of focussed activities and the help of the whole school community, Yarrells became the first local school and one of only seven in Dorset to achieve this status.
Numerous projects have been undertaken including the development of the school allotment, composting, recycling and the installation of environmentally friendly devices around the school to reduce energy consumption.
Every pupil has been involved in the eco activities undertaken at Yarrells, but special mention must go to Years 7 and 8 who undertook a full environmental review at the beginning of 2010. This required them to collect data from around the school on water usage, biodiversity, energy, global perspectives, healthy living, litter, the school grounds, transport and waste. Their findings informed us how to move forward and were included in the schools action, an important part of the application process.
Everyone has played their part: pupils, teachers, parents, kitchen staff, cleaners and grounds men. Thank you all, and well done!
The school's eco logo is by Year 6 pupil Jasper Stiby.
Our new eco code is based on our eco logo
RSPB Big Schools Bird Watch
On Tuesday 17th January, Year 4 took part in the RSPB Big Schools Bird Watch.
We made sure all the bird feeders were topped up so that the birds had a variety of different foods. We also made sure water was available.
The birds we saw were blackbird, robin, blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit, crow, magpie and, of course, wood pigeon.
We noticed that the birds we saw were not visiting the feeders. The RSPB think that this is because of the mild weather. There are plenty of berries available in the wild and the ground has not been frozen, so the birds have not yet needed the extra food we give them. We hope that as the weather gets colder the birds will come back to using the feeders.
We sent our results online to the RSPB. On their website we were able to show our results as a table, a bar chart and as a pie chart. You can see these on our display in the hall.
We also researched many different garden birds and we each wrote a page for our class book. Of course we had to include the Green Woodpecker, who is very special to our school!
Monitoring Energy Use at Yarrells 
On the 19th January 2012 the Eco Action Team met to discuss energy usage in school. We began by meeting Mrs Scrivens, the bursar and looking at the electricity meter in the boy’s changing room, where she explained how it worked. Next, we went to the stairs under Puffin and looked at the meter there. Finally we went outside the front gates to look at the gas meter. The numbers were going round really fast as the kitchen staff were cooking. Then we went back to 
the dining room where there is a bar chart showing our gas and electricity usage since September. We will be working with Mrs Scrivens each month to read the meters and then mark how much energy we have used on the chart. Please look at the chart in the dining room regularly so you can see how much energy we are using at Yarrells.
by a Year 5 pupil
Yarrells Christmas Eco-Stall raises over £50 for Oxfam
Year 4 organised and ran an Eco-Stall at the recent Christmas Fair. Items on sale were made by pupils from across the school community out of recycled, natural, homemade and home grown materials. On sale were jars of Yarrells Apple chutney, homemade paper and pressed leaf calendars, flower and vegetable seeds collected from the school garden and repackaged, hyacinth and daffodil bulbs in pots, Christmas tree decorations and present tags. The money raised will go to buy an Oxfam Christmas gift.
Yarrells Flower Garden at Upton Library
Yr 1, their teachers, Mrs Quinton and Mrs Erylene Andrews, from Upton in Bloom have been working together to create a flower garden outside Upton Library. Regular visits have been made, to clear, expand and compost the dedicated bed. It has already been planted with spring and summer bulbs. Other flowering plants will be added to the bed after Christmas. The idea is to create a colourful display, lasting throughout the year and for Yarrells to be represented as part of the Upton community. Year 1 will make regular visits throughout the year to maintain the bed.
Switch off Fortnight at Yarrells
Yarrells pupils have been switching on to switching off at Yarrells!! Switch off Fortnight ran from 21st November-2nd December 2011. This is an initiative promoted by Eco Schools to raise an awareness of the ways in which energy can be saved in school. This is done by encouraging simple actions. The fortnight kicked off with an assembly and encouraged practical ways to reduce energy use. The Eco Action Team completed an audit, recording where energy was being wasted by leaving lights on, doors open and electrical items on standby and their findings were shared with the school. Posters and stickers were displayed around school to encourage good practice. There will be regular spot checks by the Eco Action Team throughout the coming months. Hopefully, habits will improve and energy usage reduced.
