Eco at Swiss Gardens
Small changes, every day.
Our children's eco team leads the way on recycling, composting and saving energy, and in July 2026 the whole school earned Gold in the West Sussex Planet Protector Challenge.
Our Gold award
Gold in the Planet Protector Challenge.
In July 2026 we earned the Gold Award in the West Sussex Planet Protector Challenge 2025–26, run by Wastebusters, by completing missions that look after the environment.
- Recycling across the school
- Composting our food waste
- Generating electricity with our solar panels
- A pre-loved sale, run by our PTA
We're not stopping there. This year we're working on more missions to earn more awards, and this term we've started recycling batteries too. In the first week of the scheme we collected 1,264.
The eco team
Run by the children.
Every class from Year 1 to Year 6 votes for one eco councillor. Together they make up our eco team.
Eco councillors
Each councillor keeps recycling going in their own classroom (paper, pens, batteries and glue sticks) and checks that lights and taps are turned off when they're not needed.
Year 6 eco ambassadors
Our Year 6 councillors take on a bit more. Twice a week they take the food compost bins to the allotments and bring them back, and they add up how many batteries the school has recycled each week.
Going the extra mile
The eco councillor in Steven Lenton class also collects the milk bottles from our Early Years classes, washes them out and recycles them.
Day to day
What we do every day.
Recycling and food composting are our main priorities, along with saving electricity and water.
- Recycling in every classroom
- Food compost, taken to the allotments
- Battery recycling, new this term
- Lights off when rooms are empty
- Taps off when they're not in use
- Milk bottles washed and recycled
- A clothes bank for unwanted clothes
1,264
batteries saved from landfill in the first week of our new battery recycling scheme (October 2026). Our Year 6 eco ambassadors add up the total every week.
Our clothes bank turns unwanted clothes into money for the school: we're paid for every kilo collected. It all goes into our eco pot, which buys things like new recycling bins, plants for Mary's Garden, gardening gloves for the children and equipment for Beach School. You'll find it in the staff car park: drop clothes off any time the school office is open.
Learning outdoors
Caring for the places around us.
Our children learn about nature in our own garden, on the beach and along the river.
Mary's Garden
Our nature area is looked after mainly by some amazing parent volunteers, who get the eco team, and classes when they can, involved in its upkeep. Southern Water's work to improve the drainage and develop the old pond area began in the summer holidays and is still going on.
Visit Mary's Garden →Beach School
Every year group has Beach School in the warmer months, learning outdoors on the shore at Shoreham.
Friends of Adur
Friends of Adur spend time with some of our year groups, teaching them about the River Adur, its wildlife and habitats, and why it matters for the environment.
Rain gardens
Catching the rain where it falls.
New rain gardens are part of the drainage work on our playground and the Meads, paid for with £275,000 from Southern Water and the DfE.
Instead of running straight into the drains, rainwater from the school roof flows through clear pipes into planters like this one and waters the plants. The children can see exactly where the water goes.
More rain gardens go in over half term. You can read more in our school news.
Eco news.
Our eco news, along with everything else happening at Swiss Gardens, is on the News page.