Linnvale Primary School's Eco-Committee organised an entire week of projects focusing on different aspects of Water for the whole school.

Linnvale Primary School’s Eco-Committee chose Water as one of their topics because the school sponsors a boy called Matthew. Matthew lives in Kampala and was homeless and the school pays his fees for him every year so he can get an education.  He has to collect water from the river to wash and bathe with and pupils wanted to find out why he cannot access clean tap water.

The Eco-Committee organised a focus week and every class in the school learned about an aspect of water. Some learned about floating villages, others learned about dams and others learned about the water cycle and how much fresh water is available on our planet. Good links were made to STEM projects, the Sustainable Development Goals and Rights Respecting Schools work too. Pupils each kept Water Diaries recording how often they used water and how much was used. They were amazed how quickly it added up! They then then compared what they had used water for and what Matthew in Uganda used water for and discussed how far he had to travel to get his water.

Some classes left taps trickling to measure how much water was wasted and to see how this could mount up during a day. During Water Week pupils held a Water Bar to encourage pupils to drink more water as part of a healthy diet. Flavoured water was created by using herbs and fruit slices. They also made good links to Waste projects by looking at the life of a plastic water bottle highlighting waste and reusing products. Pupils realised how easy it can be to waste water and how many of us take clean water for granted. They learned that only a tiny percentage of the Earth’s water is driving water and that we should really treat it preciously as all life depends on it.