St Mary Immaculate School believes that each one of us needs to understand how to care for our environment as well as caring for and helping one another.

We have joined St Mary Immaculate Parish, Warwick, in the challenge to ‘Live Simply’, by living simply, sustainably, and in solidarity with the poor.

Here are some of the ways that we are trying to do this in our school:

We 'Live Simply':

• Our children are taught to appreciate what we have and to say ‘thank you’ to God and others.
• Our children are taught, and shown, that our worth does not come from what we have, or even what we achieve, but simply by being who we are – children of God. As we are all made in God’s image this helps us to remember to respect and show God’s love for everyone we meet.
• Our school meals are meat-free every Friday.
• Our school council have taken the initiative to create a questionnaire about internet usage and how this is affecting us. Our children recognise that spending too much time on the internet and electronic devices is not the best way to live for their physical or mental health.

We 'Live Sustainably':

• We all help to look after our beautiful school grounds – all of our children know that it is their responsibility to make sure no litter is dropped and that care is taken with all outside areas and equipment.
• Over the past few years, several oak saplings have been planted around the grounds.
• Our conservation garden has been developing since 2005 and is a great place to see wild flowers and find minibeasts!
• Each class, and the staffroom, has a red box for collecting paper, card and plastic for recycling.
• Resources that the school no longer needs are often recycled or given to charities, rather than thrown away.
• Our preschool children have made bird feeders to help the birds find food over the winter months.
• Some of our junior children have been involved in planting and taking care of the plants in our Prayer Garden.
• All of our children and staff are encouraged and reminded to take simple steps such as turning off lights, switching off computers etc in order to save both energy and money.

These are some of the oak saplings that have been planted in our school grounds.

We 'Live in Solidarity With The Poor':

• At Harvest festival, each September, we support the local food bank by our gifts.
• In Lent, we collect money for Fr Hudson’s Care to help people in need from around our Diocese.
• We collect money for CAFOD to help development projects in other countries.
• We have supported EVELYN'S GIFT, a charity that provides toiletries for Warwick and Leamington's homeless population.
• All classes take part in activities to celebrate Fairtrade fortnight each year, which helps us to understand the need for farmers to be paid fairly for the food they produce.

Above are photos of the food collected for our local food bank.