Heartwood Heroes
Making a Difference!
Our school council are named the Heartwood Heroes as they work hard to Make a Difference to Heartwood Primary and our surrounding community.
We have two school council representatives from each of the KS1 and KS2 classes, which meet weekly, with Mrs Butters who leads the Heartwood Heroes and is the Eco co-ordinator.
The Heartwood Heroes have worked hard towards the Eco-School award to make sure we are reducing our impact on the environment and that we individually and collectively make a difference.
The Eco-Schools programme provides a unique opportunity that empowers pupils to lead change within their school and have a positive impact in their wider community. The programme encourages pupils of all ages and abilities to work together to develop their knowledge and environmental awareness. Independent research into the Eco-Schools programme in England found evidence of the positive impacts on pupils, including increased confidence, development of leaderships skills, improved pupil well-being and behaviour and greater motivation at school.
Keep re-visiting this page to see what the Heartwood Heroes have been up to and the impact they are having.
Voting for the Heartwood Heroes
The children in each class present why they would be the best candidate for the Heartwood Heroes. The class then vote for their representative to join the team.
Eco-schools 2024/2025
We have been awarded our Green Flag Award with Distinction, earning 240 points. This is an amazing achievement for our Heartwood Heroes, School, families and local community. A massive thank you to everyone who has supported the Heartwood Heroes over the past academic year. Please read the feedback we received:
Your Greatest Overall Success:
You should be super proud of your whole school communities achievements across the year. Not only have they improved children's safety, promoted healthier lifestyles, and created a better learning environment, but they have also improved the environment by reducing your overall environmental footprint, and encouraged a stronger community.
We also loved...
• It was fantastic that your Action Plan was guided by your Heartwood Heroes, who were passionate about connecting with nature, protecting the environment, and improving transport. Their comprehensive plans led to significant improvements in transport around your school, fundraising for charities-£614 is amazing! and you have reduced litter in your area.
• Thanks to staff members incorporating environmental issues into the curriculum, pupils at your school are becoming more aware of sustainable living and the importance of being active in protecting our planet. We love that your students got to visit a local recycling education centre and the impact it will have for your journey going forward in becoming ambassadors is amazing!
• Wow! Your Heartwood Heroes are master collaborators! They clearly understand that a job as big as climate change needs as many people as possible. You have involved a comprehensive list of groups, organisations, charities and individuals in your hard work to protect the planet.
Next year, why not try...
You have had fantastic achievements this year. Keep doing what you are doing to continue making a difference to the environment and your community.
Protecting our planet takes collaboration, and we will raise awareness, including in our school and the local community, truly making a difference!
Eco School 2025/2026
With the school year well under way, our Heartwood Heroes have been extremely busy, planning for the school year ahead, researching into ways we can make positive changes, being empowered to build a better world, making a difference to the environment and our community. We have completed our Environmental Review, choosing three topics: Energy, Water and Transport to focus on throughout the school year.
We invite families to join us in 'Cut Your Carbon' month throughout November 2025 and 'Switch off Fortnight' 10th November - 23rd November 2025.
Mini COP - Empowering Young Climate Leaders
Mini Cop is a long- term sustainability initiative empowering primary schools to lead the way in climate action and environmental responsibility. Why it matters?
- Climate education helps children understand the science and urgency of climate change through real-world learning and creative expression.
- It gives young people a voice in shaping a more sustainable future, encouraging leadership, collaboration, and critical thinking.
- Schools and families are inspired to adopt greener practices, creating ripple effects that benefit the wider Norfolk community.
- There is an industry collaboration with RWE, connecting industry and young people to explore the economic application of climate action.
The Results are in...
We have been awarded our Green Flag Award with Distinction, earning 247 points. This is an amazing achievement for our Heartwood Heroes, School, families and local community. A massive thank you to everyone who has supported the Heartwood Heroes over the past academic year. Please read the feedback we received:
Your Greatest Overall Success...
We're so delighted to hear that your children got so involved in their eco-schools journey. We loved hearing all about the progress you have made towards cleaning up your school street and ensuring that safe and sustainable travel is available to all students. Ensuring that your young people have access to sustainable choices makes being eco-friendly that much easier for them at a young age. This will go on to inspire them to be more eco-friendly later in life and take up eco initiatives to make the world a better place.
We Also Loved:
• We're so pleased to hear that your transport topic has had such a positive impact on promoting active and sustainable travel across your school community. The more children can walk cycle and scooter to school the better our planet will look as there is less carbon emissions going into the atmosphere from vehicle travel. On top of this the more students walk cycling scooter the better their cardiovascular health will be and thus the better it be for the plant in the long run as they are putting less strain on the environment.
• We were absolutely thrilled to hear that through raising awareness of the importance of conserving energy and helping your children and families understand how energy use impacts climate change your children have shown a greater interest in preserving our environment. We love that you have given additional responsibilities to some children in your school in making them energy monitors to ensure that classes switch off the lights in interactive whiteboards when they are not in use. Keep up the fabulous work!
• It was lovely to hear how this year your children focused on raising awareness of the importance of conserving water. The more we can protect our precious resources such as water the better our planet will look in the long run as only 3% of the Earth's surface is drinkable water. The more we can do to protect our environment the better it will look for years to come.
• We're works static to hear that your year five students took part in a mini COP time capsule project. The more we can teach our children about how to protect the environment and have them imagine what their future would look like the more likely children are to take up the fight to protect our environment later on in life. We are so proud of all of your year fives for all their wonderful suggestions.
• We're absolutely blown away hearing all the things that your heartwood heroes have done. We're especially delighted to hear that they have spoken at the royal Norfolk show and explained what your school is doing to become more eco friendly. It takes a lot of courage to stand up in front of your peers but even more courage to stand up in front of adults. They should be so proud of themselves!
Next Year, Why Not Try…
You should be so proud of all you have achieved this year especially despite the setbacks you have faced. With great power comes great responsibility, which you have found out once again this year. Keep up the amazing work!
Earth Day
This year at Heartwood we celebrated Earth Day which is an annual event to demonstrate our commitment for environmental protection. This year we focused on Planet vs Plastics, setting up our own recycling station for empty crisp packets, showing our support of a 60% reduction of plastic production by 2040.
Heartwood took an Earth Day Pledge to make everyday an earth day by doing the following:
- I promise to do my part to take care of the earth by picking up litter when I see it
- I promise to reduce, reuse and recycle
- I promise to help care for growing things like trees and flowers
- I promise to encourage my families members, friends and staff to learn about ways to get involved and take action by taking care of our community
Look at all our previous Eco-Schools achievements...
We have certainly made our school environment more sustainable, increased environmental learning and awareness which has benefited our local community.
Eco-school Project
The Heartwood Heroes have been busy making sure that our school is as eco-friendly as we can be. They have been awarded the Eco-school Bronze and Silver Awards. In 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 we achieved Eco-School Distinction!