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Earthship Assembly / Presentation

Over a period of four years Green Up Your Act worked with the Low Carbon Trust organising school visits and providing environmental workshops in the award winning Brighton Earthship.

Earthship Brighton is an off-grid building that heats, cools , powers itself from the sun and harvests its water from the sky.

Through interactive presentations, we take pupils on a virtual tour of the building’s impressive range of sustainable technology; including solar panels, a wind turbine, rainwater harvesting and the eye catching recycled materials used in the construction of the building.

The Power of Trees Assembly / Presentation

Trees play a huge role in storing carbon from the atmosphere, which makes them vital in the fight against climate change.

We need to increase tree cover in the UK to meet targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In this presentation, pupils will learn about the environmental benefits of planting trees. As well as understanding that as we return trees to the landscape, we improve our habitats for wildlife; with mammals, insects, birds, and butterflies becoming abundant as nature takes hold.

Food Miles Assembly / Presentation

Food and its relationship with the environment is often overlooked. 

50% of the food we buy is imported to the UK and 1/3 of it never gets eaten. As part of this presentations participants learn how far food travels by tracing the journeys of different varieties of fruit and vegetables.  As a school we discuss together how food is grown, the benefits of fresh food and the responsibility we all have, to reduce the huge amount of wasted food and excess packaging which is produced every day.

Plastic in our ocean Assembly / Presentation

In this assembly on marine litter, we learn at and discuss the use of single use plastic and their alternatives.

Plastic is a part of our daily lives, whether it be a bottle, a straw, or plastic bag, it makes up a large part of the materials we regularly use. When carelessly discarded plastic reaches our seas, it poses a threat to the animals that live there and depend on the oceans for food. To a dolphin, a floating plastic bag looks like a jellyfish and small pieces of floating plastic look like fish to seabirds. Drifting nets entangle birds, fish and mammals, making it difficult to move or eat. As our consumption of plastic mounts, so too does the danger to marine life.

Rainforest Assembly / Presentation

The destruction of the rainforest is one of the largest environmental issues facing mankind. In this assembly we take a look at some of the causes of deforestation.

The presentation starts by listening to the sounds of the rainforest. We quickly discover that rainforests are one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. They contain two-thirds of all the world’s plant and wildlife species. For example a single hectare of tropical rainforest may have as many as 200 species of trees. Large areas of rainforest have been cleared to make way for cattle farming and soya bean production. The removal of commercially valuable hardwoods such as teak and mahogany have accounted for most of the lost species.

  • The activities linked to the ideas and kept the children interested and on task by breaking them down into small manageable steps. The pupils all have a lovely keepsake to take home from the experience. The activities and slides you chose were appropriate to ability and you delivered the lessons at the right pitch, the children were interested and engaged and you made sure they understood. The two days were a success and made the pupils think about recycling and wider issues.
  • "We really enjoyed our workshop with Philip Hunton it was thought provoking. The students were engaged to think about, food waste, packaging, nutrition, and global perspective. They thoroughly enjoyed the workshop this will be a good reminder for them to think green."
    Mrs Diane CalvertChichester Cathedral School
  • In our School of conservation, we have been learning about our local area and recycling, and next term will be looking more closely at minibeasts and their habitats, so this was a super introduction!  We enjoyed learning about different habitats and looking at lots of pictures and information. We went outside and collected leaves and twigs to make our very own bug barns.  We are going to place them in our playground and investigate if they attract any minibeasts!  Thank you Phillip for your interesting and fun workshop!
    Julie BremnerSunnyside Primary - Glasgow
  • "Thank you so much for today. The kids reported back very positively to their classes and were very proud of their wallets.  I think everyone was suitably impressed by the Earthship assembly ideal and we’re looking forward to telling the whole school about it in our energy assembly, and asking the right questions about our new sustainable school building. We have a lot to think about in school now, and I know what they learned today will give them a confident start to making an energy plan and putting it into action."
    Anna FrendoSustainability Co-ordinator
  • "Our Eco day was a thoroughly enjoyable day for all the girls at Streatham and Clapham. We were really lucky to have the company Green Up Your Act come in to carry out some fantastic workshops that encouraged the girls to think about the environment, and supply them with ideas on how to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle at home and school. The workshops were educational, hands on and lots of fun! The up-cycled juice cartons were a particular favourite. They were quick and easy to make and certainly sturdy enough to start using at break time for the tuck shop!"
    Kate Webber Streatham and Clapham School for Girls
  • Our Year Two class has been studying mini beasts and life cycles this term, so we were really delighted to have Phil Hunton with us for the day to share all his expert knowledge about biodiversity and to help us to build a specially designed butterfly cafe. We started the day in the classroom, learning more about butterflies and their habitats and Mr. Hunton answered lots of interesting questions. We then went outside and he showed us how to measure a perfect circle using string around a stake, soon we were weaving the walls of our cafe. We planted butterfly friendly seeds that we will enjoy looking after for the next few weeks. The whole day was really well and informative and also great fun. Everyone learnt something new and the cafe is a really lovely attractive addition to our school grounds. We hope it will increase the biodiversity of our local area and we are really looking forward to seeing how many butterflies visit our garden.
    Alison HadfieldBrighton and Hove High School – Butterfly CafeGreat activity
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