The children who are driving change at Sussex primary school

‘History will judge us by the difference we make in the every day lives of children’ – Nelson Mandela

There’s a famous quote from Nelson Mandela about history judging us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children.

Today the difference is certainly being made at one primary school in Sussex where daily learning about the environment means the children will protect the future of our extraordinary planet.

The children at St Peter’s Church of England School, Cowfold, are passionate, informed, determined and working together as a team, united in their approach to tackling climate change.

Of course, it is a monumental task and like all of us, the children know they have no time to waste. Climate change is the biggest issue of our time, and the world has already heated up by around 1.2C in the last century.

However, the children at St Peter’s seem to have a clear sense of responsibility, of duty and of helping one another.

However, the children at St Peter’s seem to have a clear sense of responsibility, of duty and of helping one another.

These enthusiastic young people are the politicians, scientists, artists and football players of tomorrow – each one has a key role to play in how we preserve the earth, for today and for tomorrow.

And in school today, the children are learning about how to protect our environment every single day. 

New ground source heat pump

Along with the whole school community, the children are delighted with their new ground source heat pump installed in summer and autumn 2023. 

It has been paid for largely from funds from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme. The scheme is run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and is delivered by our teams at Salix. For full news story see here.

It means they no longer have to rely on their dirty old oil boilers ‘made in West Germany.’ The ground source heat pump is busy taking heat from the ground underneath the school playing field transferring it to the school radiators.

When we visited there was little visual evidence of the underground heat pumps as the playing field grass is growing back. But deep beneath the earth are two linked ground source heat pumps, where 15 x 100m deep boreholes were dug. 

A visible reminder of the work is the now levelled channels laid into the ground through the school entrance and a remarkable room of associated pipework, electrics and meters. 

The children may have ‘big picture’ ideas about saving the world – but on a practical basis, they are crystal clear of the things that matter day to day. They fully appreciate how the new energy-efficient ground source heat pump has impacted their building.

“We now have hot water and it’s lovely,” says Heidi from the school’s Eco Council. “It was freezing before,” she quietly adds.

“And the radiators are warm so we can learn better, yes it’s warmer here,” beams Charlie.

As well as replacing the old boilers, a large proportion of the grant was also used to insulate the school building, so that the heat pump would be more effective. The re-insulation element of the project involved St Peter’s replacing the felt surface of the entire flat roof; as insulation was placed beneath it. 

The work has breathed new impetus into the whole school community, and the children’s Eco Council is taking the lead.

Inspired by all their sustainability learning, the children have a whole list of green tasks to complete. This includes daily litter picking patrols, composting of all fruit waste from break-time snacks, daily water saving checks and a daily electricity saving inspection which is conducted every lunchtime by the school’s youngest pupils.

The children may have a personal stake for the future, but today adults are ‘in charge.’

Commitment and expertise

St Peter’s took on a mammoth project and vast commitment for a small village school when they signed up to the government funded scheme.

School governor Gareth Mackinder said: “This was the biggest financial commitment the school had ever made, and we all recognised this at the start.

“But look what we have done, we have future-proofed the school and created something better for our community.”

How did they manage a project so successfully? How did they take a grant of £670,000 from government as well as a contribution from the Diocese of Chichester and make sure they delivered?

Headteacher Giles Kolter said: “None of this would have been possible if it were not for Gary Dimmock our premises officer. It was he who had the knowledge and passion to complete the grant application.”

Gary has a degree in physics, qualification in astrophysics and is a qualified project manager having worked for the police force for many years. His work at the school as premises manager has been part-time.

However, he committed to the project from the moment he submitted the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme application, ensuring that the school would get the best deal possible. This expertise has proved invaluable to this project.

Sharing the knowledge and learning

Giles added: “These are complicated projects, and we were lucky to have Gary to guide us, we couldn’t have done it without him.

“Where there is a will there is a way and we have proved it, but this has not been an easy undertaking.

“We are happy for people to come to us and ask us about how we have worked this through, we are happy to share our learning.

“Our school is now set up for the future and we are delighted with the work achieved. The school will provide a sustainable venue for education in the years ahead, with the pupils of Cowfold able to have a unique understanding of how people will need to live in the future to ensure humanity survives on our wonderful planet.”

It's always inspirational to visit projects and talk to the people behind the scenes who are driving forward change. And St Peter’s has no shortage of enthusiasm and knowledge.

In fact, when the children are not turning the lights off to conserve on energy, it provides a bright, happy environment.

We look forward to visiting again some time – to see how they succeed in spending the outstanding sum of around £50,000 on further energy efficiency measures. We would love to know what the children think about the next steps. 

We’re fortunate at Salix, to meet so many incredible people, working to achieve ambitious net zero goals. We are facing some tough timelines and tremendous challenges. 

And it is always a special privilege to talk to our younger generations about climate change and to listen to their thoughts about what we should all be doing next. Afterall, it is their future.

It’s clear to see how St Peter’s, driven by passionate leadership, inspired by the future generation – will truly succeed.