Students spark creativity and environmental action in 'Great Big Green Week'

Sidmouth Church of England Primary School and Highweek Community Primary School in Newton Abbott joined hands with Taking Care Personal Alarms to celebrate 'Great Big Green Week.

The week saw students and employees come together in a series of engaging activities designed to raise awareness and inspire sustainability action among students and the broader community, with a theme of ‘Taking Care of Our Future’.

Throughout the week, students from 21 classes across both schools engaged in recycling projects and learnt about protecting animal habitats by reducing litter.

Taking Care celebrated 'Green Week' by educating their employees about environmental sustainability and how they embed sustainable practices into their corporate social responsibility strategy.

As part of this initiative, Taking Care, along with their Green Team, a dedicated group of individuals who led the activity organised a recycled litter art competition encouraging children to express their creativity while raising environmental awareness.

Taking Care employees visited both primary schools, working alongside the children to create stunning art pieces using recycled materials inspired by their class named animals and rivers. This hands-on experience not only sparked creativity but also underscored the importance of reusing materials that might otherwise be discarded.

Winners of the art competition received vouchers from local Sidmouth businesses Winstones’ Bookshop and Browns’ Kitchen Bakery.

Mrs Coombes, a teacher at Sidmouth School said: “Thank you to TakingCare for providing us with such an invaluable opportunity.”

Hannah Barnard, HR manager at Taking Care, added: “It was incredibly rewarding to engage with the students about the environment and assist them in transforming their ideas into creative artworks. We awarded the competition winners with book vouchers for local shops and bakeries to promote local shopping. Thank you to both schools for welcoming us, and to our employees who volunteered their time.”

Taking Care also launched several internal initiatives at their own sites to further promote sustainability, ranging from encouraging employees to exchange books, participating in a lunchtime litter picking competition to clean up their surroundings, and setting up a toy library to promote reuse and reduce waste.

In a broader commitment to sustainability, Taking Care has recycled 3.2 tonnes of confidential paper since the start of 2024, saving 49 trees in the process. This initiative emphasises that impactful actions do not always require large-scale efforts; small, everyday actions such as reviewing product packaging, educating young people, and engaging with the community can make a significant difference.