Forest take part in FOE Clean Air School Project and feature in the national press

Forest Prep School was featured this week in the Express Newspaper as one of the schools selected to take part in the Friends of the Earth Clean Air School project.

In a two-week test period over 300 schools in the UK tested nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels to assess whether their air was deemed ‘safe’ by the World Health Organisation or whether the levels breeched the recommended limits.

Here is an exert from the Express Newspaper article that featured our case study:

Pupils on the Eco Committee at Forest School put up two test tubes on lampposts near the road leading to the main gates.

As the school is close to Epping Forest in Walthamstow, east London, and is surrounded by green space, they were shocked by the results.

One tube recorded 46.4ug/m3, higher than the recommended annual limit.

Another, placed further from the road but closer to the school, was just 4ug/ m3 below the limit.

Forest’s head of pre-preparatory, Paul Faulkner, 43, said: “It was more than we thought it would be.

“It’s not as if we’re on a busy main road. A lot of the traffic will be school traffic or residents in the area.

“We’re a very big school. We’ve got 1,400 children here and around 300 staff.”

Students are now helping to educate their peers and parents about the dangers of air pollution and how to help cut emissions.

Mr Faulkner said: “We did a poster campaign that will be made into road signs and put up around the school gates.”