Written by Amalie H and Ally T, Year 12
This term, Oxford High School’s Eco Committee has been looking at ways in which we can reduce our school’s carbon footprint. One possibility that we are looking at is collaborating with the catering team in reducing waste – Mr Herreros, regional operations manager at our catering company, has helped us in providing information about where we source our lunches and is currently brainstorming ways to make our meals even more eco-friendly.
Another one of this term’s eco highlights was the annual Big Walk and Wheel, which took place towards the end of April. The event aimed to inspire students and staff to choose more sustainable methods of transport, focusing on cycling and walking, and bringing out everyone’s competitive spirits in the process! This year’s winners were Ares, who covered 1793 kilometres, followed closely by Zeus. This year’s route focused on stunning natural sites, all within the country, highlighting the beauty of the UK and hopefully inspiring people to consider staycations rather than travelling abroad.
As part of the event, we brought back the bike mechanics from last year – who serviced 19 bikes, and will be back in September for those who missed out!
A new development to the pond outside – Biodiversity club have done excellently in adding new oxygenating plants both in the pond and around the edges. We have future plans to bring the prep school up to take part in some pond dipping; hopefully to spot some interesting species such as water clams and hornbeam snails.
Additionally, in other exciting news, Oxford High has been chosen to be one of the pilot schools for a new GDST solar panel initiative. The installation will happen over the 2024 Summer holidays and is expected to be able to generate around 30% of the senior school’s electricity!