Eco-Schools

Parsons Down Partnership takes part in Eco-Schools - a global environmental programme with 19.5 million involved. It is a pupil led programme, run by an Eco-Committee comprised of children and staff. There are ten Eco-Schools topics for the Eco-Committee to consider:

Biodiversity

Energy

In 2025-26, we chose Healthy Living, Marine and School Grounds as our Eco-Schools topics.

To find out more about our eco achievements, please read our blog posts towards the bottom of the page.

Our Eco-Committee 2026-27

Our pupil Eco-Committee members are: Bella W (Zebra Class), Cara M (Woodpecker Class), Harper W (Sabre Class), Alice H (Badger Class), Rosie C (Jaguar Class), Olivia J (Eagle Class) and Zunairah W (Raccoon Class).

Our Deputy Eco-Committee members are: Dougie B (Zebra Class), Prim F (Woodpecker Class), Luca R (Sabre Class), Hannah K (Badger Class), Lux D (Jaguar Class), Ryder R (Eagle Class) and Lyla B (Raccoon Class).

Our Eco-Code

Paperwork

Eco Action Suggestions

Eco-Committee Meetings

Eco Assemblies

Please let us know if you would like to help or contribute in any way to our Eco-Schools work. If you have any suggestions that you would like to share, please contact our Eco-Coordinator directly: EcoCoordinator@pdp.w-berks.sch.uk.

Eco-Blog

We Did It!

We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag with merit this year! Thank you to the Eco-Committee and everyone who has helped along the way. We are really proud of this achievement.

Jul 16

An Impressive Year of Eco-Schools Actions!

This year, our Eco-Committee selected Healthy Living, Marine and School Grounds as their Eco-Schools topics and we have had a truly action-packed year! Healthy Living We launched the Good Grub Club, providing pupils with the skills to cook a healthy meal. We grew and harvested healthy snacks in the Pod planters. We had an assembly on healthy eating, including vegan diets, seasonal eating and whole foods. We are in the process of putting together some PDP recipe cards, which w

Jul 10

Plastic Free July

For their last eco action of the year, our Eco-Committee would like to encourage everyone to take part in Plastic Free July. https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/ Thank you for all your support this year!

Jul 3

Radish Salad

Some of our children have been growing a variety of vegetables in our new pod planter this year. They have already picked some radishes. One of our Year 4 children was delighted to take some of them home and made this delicious looking salad with them! Great work!

May 19

It's Time For No Mow May!

It's that time of year again. Say goodbye to your lawnmowers for (at least) a month. No Mow May is here! At Parsons Down, we have dedicated areas in our school grounds that remain unmown during May and beyond - our roundabout, the back of the playing field and, of course, our wildflower meadow. Allowing natural wildflowers (such as, dandelions, daisies and clover) to grow during the month of May provides a great boost to our pollinators. Our Eco-Council would love it if our f

May 1

Healthy Plastic Free Snacks!

Harrison and Freddie enjoyed planting radish seeds in our raised beds. They made shallow holes in the soil with their fingers, dropped a small, round, radish seed in each hole, waited 4 weeks, watering the soil when it hadn't rained, and then pulled DELICIOUS radishes! They had to top and tail the radishes, wash the mud off them and then they were ready to eat. The perfect healthy, plastic free snack.

Apr 23

Wildflower Seed Sowing on the Roundabout

This morning, with some help from the office team, the Eco-Council sowed wildflower seeds on our roundabout. As you can see, the daffodils are now doing really well and we have some tulips coming on too! Well done eco warriors! Fingers crossed for a beautiful display of wildflowers this Summer!

Mar 10

Creating Our Orchard

Yesterday afternoon, we planted 5 fruit trees in the meadow area at PDP - one cherry, 2 apples and 2 pears. We're already looking forward to harvesting from them in a few years time! Thank you so much to George, a past PDP pupil, Mrs Dickie and some very helpful Twilighters, for their hard work digging and planting.

Mar 10

Badger Class Minstead Day 3 🦡

Everyone woke up far more refreshed this morning and ready for our final day of our fabulous adventure. Beds were stripped, bags were packed and hopefully everyone's belongings are with them! We checked our mammal traps and were so lucky to have caught a bank vole, a wood mouse and a yellow necked mouse. We then levelled up our orienteering skills with control points and played the much loved Minstead Goshawk game! We are now safely on the coach on our way home, ready to sha

Mar 6

Badger Class Minstead Day 2 🌳

After a night of very mixed levels of sleep, we tucked into a hearty breakfast. Towers of toast, bulging bowls of cereal and mountains of melon were consumed in preparation for our full adventure day. We ventured off in the gorgeous sunshine for a 3 hour walk to fully explore the New Forest. There were some very tired legs but we had so much fun! We were treated to lots of nature and wildlife, including the highly anticipated New Forest ponies. We enjoyed celebrating World B

Mar 5

Badger Class Minstead Day 1

What a wonderful first day in the beaming New Forest sunshine we have had! After our first challenge of learning to make our beds and a delicious picnic lunch we spent the afternoon exploring the Minstead site and venturing into the river. We were so lucky to be greeted by some donkeys which was very exciting. We found lots of interesting creatures in the river and had fun identifying them. Dinner was sausages which was gobbled up quickly and we have spent the evening being a

Mar 4

Eco Christmas Ideas

The Eco Council led last Monday’s assembly and gave us some top tips for how to have a more environmentally friendly Christmas including: making homemade gifts and decorations, reusing decorations, shopping locally and trying to minimise food waste.

Dec 18, 2025

Cut Your Carbon Results 2025

Thank you to all families who took part in Cut Your Carbon this year. We had 12 children complete the checklist, resulting in 143.71 kgCO2 e of carbon savings. This is roughly equivalent to driving an average car about 350-400 km (around 220-250 miles), powering an average UK home's electricity for 1-2 months or making 14,000 cups of tea! We would love to encourage even more families to take part next year. Please let us know, via our Facebook page , if you have any ideas to

Dec 12, 2025

Year 4 Letters About Deforestation

Year 4 have written some very passionate letters to Luiz da Silva, President of Brazil, about deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. "I am writing you this letter because I am not very happy. I would like you to stop chopping down the trees." - Freddie "The rainforest is home to indigenous people - if you destroy it, where will they live? We are losing 5000 species a year due to deforestation. Cutting down trees creates more carbon dioxide, droughts and a rise in global temp

Dec 9, 2025

Eco Committee Meeting

In our Eco Meeting this week, we talked about how we can have an eco friendly Christmas. The children had lots of brilliant ideas which we have put into a PowerPoint to share in assembly next week. We also made some environmentally friendly Christmas crackers which the eco councillors were able to take home to enjoy over Christmas!

Dec 4, 2025

The Good Grub Club Recipe 2: Tuna and Tomato Pasta Bake

Pupils have really enjoyed cooking Sausage & Bean hotpot this term and have been excited to take the ingredients home to re-create the same recipe! Our next recipe is Tuna & Tomato pasta bake which, again, is budget friendly, easy to make and provides a good balance of vegetables, protein and carbohydrates. You can substitute the sweetcorn for fresh veggies or other tinned vegetables. We would LOVE to see what children are making at home so please send any photos through to..

Nov 28, 2025

Planting daffodils on the roundabout

Yesterday, with the help of Mrs Dillon, our Eco-Committee planted over 100 daffodil bulbs on the school roundabout. They had great fun finding the pre-prepared holes and dropping the bulbs in. We then covered each one up with a handful of compost. We can't wait to see the daffodils flower in the Spring! We have already planted some verbena and rudbeckia around some of the trees on the roundabout. We also plan to put bluebells and forget-me-nots around the edge and sprinkle so

Nov 25, 2025

Week 4 of Cut Your Carbon

This week, for Cut Your Carbon, we are focussing on "Cool It" and "Ditch The Drive". Lower your washing machine temperature to 30°C for three washes across the month. Washing machines are energy-hungry! Drop the temperature to 30°C for three washes this month and cut carbon without sacrificing clean clothes. Make any three journeys ‘active’ across the month. Transport creates nearly a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions. Active travel - such as walking, scooting, wheeling, o

Nov 24, 2025

Week 3 of Cut Your Carbon

This week, for Cut Your Carbon, we are focussing on "Veggie Vibes". Make 3 evening meals plant-based across the month. Meat production is responsible for around 14% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, so make three evening meals plant-based and discover how delicious cutting carbon can be!

Nov 17, 2025

Reverse Advent Calendar Challenge

West Berks Foodbank Reverse Advent Calendar This is a lovely idea that is great for teaching the value of giving at Christmas. Pick one item a day to donate to the Foodbank and deliver to them on or before Monday 22nd December. See the West Berks Foodbank website for further details: https://westberks.foodbank.org.uk/2025/11/02/reverse-advent-calendar-challenge/ West Berks Foodbank 12 Gifts Of Christmas The Foodbank are also asking for Christmas food parcels to make sure ever

Nov 14, 2025

Week 2 of Cut Your Carbon

This week, for Cut Your Carbon , we are focussing on "Device Free" and "Drop It Like It's Hot!" . Have a device free day - this is a tricky one for many of us! However, electricity makes up about 25% of your home’s carbon footprint so not using your devices for a day can make a big difference to the environment as well as saving you money. To complete this action, simply power down non-essential devices for one day — no gaming, no streaming — and rediscover the joy of offl

Nov 10, 2025

The Good Grub Club Recipe 1: Sausage and Bean Hotpot

This half term sees the official launch of The Good Grub Club, a joint initiative delivered by Parsons Down and supported by the West Berks Foodbank designed to educate, empower and inspire pupils to get cooking! Our first recipe is Sausage & Bean hotpot: All our recipes use budget-friendly ingredients and are nutritionally balanced, often providing 2 or 3 portions of vegetables. Ingredients usually come dried, in tins or jars, which means they are PERFECT for the days yo

Nov 7, 2025

Can You Cut Your Carbon?

The Eco Council would like to challenge families to take part in "Cut Your Carbon" during the month of November. This is a carbon-cutting challenge encouraging young people and their families to complete six simple actions to raise awareness and reduce their carbon footprint. Children from years 1-6 will be provided with the following checklist as a 2Do on Purple Mash: This can either be filled in on Purple Mash or printed out (please let us know if you would like a paper cop

Nov 4, 2025

Foodbank Total

I am delighted to let you know that our Harvest Festival collection for West Berks Foodbank weighed in at 106.8kgs . More importantly, it represents the equivalent of 224 meals that Parsons Down Partnership has provided for local people who are currently experiencing extreme hardship. It was so kind of you and our support was very much appreciated by the team at West Berks Foodbank.

Nov 4, 2025

Harvest Festival Donations

A huge thank you to everyone who supported this year’s Harvest Appeal for the West Berkshire Foodbank. Your generosity will make a huge...

Oct 10, 2025

Flourishing Herbs in the Pod Planters

Despite a very hot and dry summer, The Pod Planters have continued to flourish with hydration from our newly installed water butt. The...

Sep 9, 2025

Badger Class Minstead Day 3 🦡🥰

Their bags are packed, beds stripped and Badger Class are all ready for their final morning at Minstead. They’ve had a fabulous 3 days...

Mar 7, 2025

Badger Class Minstead Day 2 🦡☀️🌳

After a mixed night’s sleep, the children awoke ready to explore the New Forest. They had so many questions about the New Forest it was...

Mar 6, 2025

Tree Planting at the Nature Discovery Centre

Today, we took members of the eco-council to the lakes to plant trees in the area next to the car park. This area was affected by ash dieback and the ash trees sadly had to be taken down. The children behaved beautifully and were very proud to be giving back to nature. With help from BBOWT Senior Learning Officer, Grace, as well as volunteers Mark, Steve and Kevin, the children helped to plant 21 hazel, apple and dogwood trees. There's a chance this weekend for members of the

Mar 6, 2025

Badger Class Have Arrived! 🦡☀️

Badger Class have arrived safe and sound at Minstead Study Centre. They’ve already been put to work making their beds and lunch. They...

Mar 5, 2025

Hedgehog Class Wave Goodbye to Minstead 🦔🥰

After a fabulous three days exploring the New Forest in the spring sunshine, Hedgehog class are making their way back home. The weary...

Mar 5, 2025

Hedgehog Minstead Day 2 🦔🌳☀️

Day 1 finished with songs around the campfire in the impressive roundhouse. Everyone woke this morning to another beautiful day in the...

Mar 4, 2025

Hedgehog Class Have Landed-Minstead Day 1

What a beautiful day to explore the New Forest! The children arrived mid morning, made their lunch which they ate in the sunshine and...

Mar 3, 2025

Our Year of Eco Actions

Well, I think it's safe to say our Eco-Committee smashed it again this year! They've been an informed and enthusiastic bunch with lots of great ideas! Back in October, we had our first meeting and chose our 3 topics to cover: Energy, Marine and School Grounds. In March, we had a fun-filled Ocean Protectors Day, where the children took part in various marine themed activities in class, including creative writing and crafts. Each class was also given a cardboard template to wor

Jul 12, 2024

PDP Wins Environmental Champion Award

We were so proud to be joined today by councillor Mark Lillycrop, Mayor of Thatcham. The Mayor joined us for a special assembly to...

Apr 25, 2024

A Successful Year of Eco Actions

Wow! What a year for our Eco-Committee and what superstars they've all been! Back in September last year, our new Eco-Committee were formed and we got to work quickly, choosing Biodiversity, Marine and Transport as our Eco-Schools topics. One of our first actions was to share our Anti-Idling Policy with parents and carers. This was further reinforced by Iris and Victoria's fabulous poster that was displayed at Parent's Evening. We also got to work planting 10 trees which now

Jul 18, 2023