Exmouth Community College is committed to contributing to developing a more sustainable future for our young people and the world. Beyond content delivered within the curriculum, two of our key drivers for contributing towards the sustainability agenda, are through the on-going work of our Exmouth Eco-Group and through our Year 10 'Grand Challenge' Activity Days.

Exmouth Eco's

Exmouth Ecos formed in 2019 and currently consists of a Team of students who are all extremely passionate about protecting the environment and looking after our town, beach and wider community.

Our mission is to proactively inspire the young people in our community to think about their part in reducing the damage to the environment.

In 2022 we completed the rigorous application process to become a Plastic Free School as part of Surfers Against Sewage. For this we had to complete 5 objectives:

• Understanding the problem Pupils from a Plastic Free Action Group and conduct a single-use plastic investigation across the school, recording the results.
• Campaign launch- The Plastic Free Action Group share the investigation results and further research into the issues of single-use plastic in an assembly and school news article.
• Stemming the flow- At least three single-use plastic items identified in the investigation are eliminated from the school, for good.
• Challenging Government - Pupils write and send letters to the local politician outlining their campaign, their findings in the school and asking the politician for help to tackle the issue. Students emailed and then met with local MP Simon Jupp to discuss plastic pollution. We asked him some questions about plastic pollution, the environment, water pollution and recycling. The students took it in turns to ask questions which they had generated themselves. Mr Jupp was very encouraging of the work being done by the Eco Group and answered all of our questions.
• Challenging industry- A 'School Clean' is held and a tally is made of the worst offending brands. The Plastic Free Action Group take pictures and contact the brands to call for change.

Beyond our 'Plastic Free School' status, the Eco Group have engaged in, supported and hosted a range of events and activities including;

• Host visits from Devon Schools
• East Devon Together Month-an EDDC initiative to bring together a range of brilliant ‘eco’ activities across East Devon.
• Reusable period product campaign
• Assemblies to all year groups
• Visit to the Energy from Waste power station in Marsh Barton
• Sideshore Eco Festival - Exmouth (Sunday 9th July 2023)
• Sideshore tour -Exmouth Ecos visited Sideshore, the new development on Exmouth seafront. Simon, the manager, gave the group a tour of the site to show us all the sustainable things they have implemented. This includes a #2minutebeachclean station, a water refill stand, a reusable beach item Treasure Chest, the plant room where there is a ground source heat pump, the solar panels, the electric car charging points and the range of sustainable businesses on-site, where single use plastics are banned and sustainability is at the core of their ethos.
• Low Carbon Lent
• Plastic Free Advent Calendar
• Visit from Lucy Mottram the waste management officer at Devon County Council.
• Supporting The Great Big Green Week
• Supporting Plastic Free July
• World Ocean Day beach clean
• Poster campaign to stop students dropping litter

Please do follow our Exmouth Community College Facebook Page to keep up to date to the amazing work of the College and this very impressive Team of Students, led by Mrs Oakes-Ash and Miss Dugdale.