Pope Francis has written a letter addressed to every person on the planet, asking us all to protect the earth. 

Dear Children of St. Joseph's 

The earth is God's gift to us, full of beauty and wonder.  And it belongs to everyone. But what we see today is that our common home has never been so hurt and mistreated.  We have developed at a greater speed than we could have ever imagined, and have treated the earth like it has an unlimited supply of resources.  We have taken more than our fair share from most people on the planet, as well as future generations.  We have cut down the earth's natural forests, polluted the earth's waters, its land and its air. 

The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.  We are using more and more polluting fossil fuels which is contributing to climate change.  Climate change, one of the biggest challenges we face today. Climate change will affect us all, but it will be the poorest communities who will suffer the most.  And despite these problems, we are not slowing down on how much we consume and throw away; leaving a trail of waste and destruction.  We cannot continue like this.  We can change, and we can make a new start. 

The whole human family needs to work together to care for our planet earth, so that we sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.  So let's put love for the world and love for our neighbours, into action, by living together in harmony, and caring for nature.

• Will you play your part to look after our common home?
• Can you take simple everyday eco-actions to care for the earth, like turning off lights, reducing water waste and recycling?
• And will you live more simply, reducing the amount of things we buy and throw away, so that we don't take more than our fair share?

The world can't wait! So let's make that start today.  Play your part to protect our common home. 

                                                                   Love Pope Francis

CAFOD Resources

Click on the link below to see a video all about Laudato Si' and how we can make a difference

Laudato Si' at St. Joseph's

After watching the video we asked ourselves;

• What is the Pope asking us to do in this letter?
• What do you think Pope Francis means by 'common home'?
• How does the Pope say we have treated the Earth?
• What has happened to the Earth because of this?
• Why do you think Pope Francis wrote this letter?
• Who is suffering because of our actions?
• What kind of  world do we want to leave for future generations?
• How can we play a part to look after our 'common home'?

How Our Eco-Champions & CAFOD Club are Promoting Sustainability 

Our Eco-Champions have been discussing how they can ensure that our school becomes more sustainable so that we can follow the suggestions in Laudato Si. 

At our last meeting we discussed what we are already doing.  

1. We have paper only bins in every classroom so that we can recycle paper 
2. We donate our pre-loved uniform to the school so that it can be sold on to other famiilies (50p per item)
3. We donate clothes that we have grown out of, to charity twice a year
4. We have a battery recycling box in school 
5. Eco-Champions turn off the lights every time we leave the class.
6. Eco-Champions turn off the whiteboards when the teacher has finished using it
7. Walk/cycle or scoot to school

We have decided that as well as these things we are going to also do the following;

1. Bring reusable bottles into school for our water, rather than buying single use plastic bottles
2. Change our VIP bands, which are plastic coated and disposable, to VIP badges that can be reused 
3. Promote recycling of batteries by putting the recycling box in a more prominent place
4. Repair and repurpose more things, rather than disposing of them
5. Encourage each other to replace lids on glue sticks, pens and whiteboard markers
6. Find stationery items that are more sustainable e.g. zero plastic Sellotape or eco-line highlighters 
7. Donate old toys to charity or school rather than throwing them away 
8. Turn of lights in rooms not being used. 
9. Turn off lights in the Year 6 corridors when it is a bright day.
10. Open blinds in classes and turn lights off when the whiteboard is not being used
11. Plant more seeds/plants in school 
12. Donate unused food items to the foodbank
13. Make people aware of deforestation 
14. Have a compost bin in school