Coventry: Minister for nature praises young ecologists

Mary Creagh MP with pupils at St John Fisher Catholic Primary School. Image: Richard Nelmes

Pupils from a Coventry school have been showcasing their efforts to create a greener future during an inspirational visit from a Coventry MP who focuses on improving and protecting the environment.

St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, part of Romero Catholic Academy, welcomed Mary Creagh MP, Minister for Nature, to discuss the importance of taking care of the environment and tackling climate change.

During the visit, Mary spoke to Year 5 pupils about her experience at major international climate summit COP30, held in Brazil, as well as some of the initiatives she is leading to improve the UK's environment as part of her role as Minister for Nature.

Mary also spoke about how the Department for Education is encouraging schools to focus more on biodiversity, and gave some tips on what can be done in the school grounds to help reduce carbon and support insects and wildlife, including planting hedges and wildflowers.

Mary then joined the school's Eco Team to visit the forest school area and hear more about the efforts being made by pupils and staff at the school to tackle climate change.

These include litter picking in the local community, taking steps to reduce food waste in the kitchen, installing energy-efficient LED lighting, launching a book swap scheme to prevent books going to landfill, uniform recycling and championing education around ethical produce.

Next year the school will be implementing even more environmental initiatives, including encouraging families to swap single use plastics for reusable containers in lunchboxes.

Mary Creagh MP said: "It was fantastic to meet the pupils at St John Fisher and see first-hand how passionate they are about protecting nature and the planet.

"I always encourage people to think local, act global when looking at tackling climate change, and the steps the school is taking are key examples of how small actions locally can make a big difference to our planet.

"I'm looking forward to returning to the school to see all of their exciting future plans come to fruition."

Pauline Finn, Vice Principal at St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, said: "We were extremely pleased to welcome Mary Creagh who is both the MP for our area and Minister for Nature.

"Our Year 5 pupils have been learning about COP30, so hearing about Mary's experiences at the conference was the perfect way to bring this to life.

"Our Eco Team also did an excellent job at showcasing all of the environmental initiatives we have in place at the school and how incredibly hard they work to drive these forwards - they really did us proud.

"We're now going to be taking onboard Mary's suggestions of what more we could be doing, and our Eco Team will be planting wildflowers in the school grounds in 2026."