THIS week we welcome yet another new Green team.

Say hello to St Nicholas Catholic Primary School in Ringswell Avenue.

This new green team have already been busy, so much so that they have earned two leaves towards their first branch.

They have found out what makes good compost and set up a composting system across the school to collect the daily fruit and raw vegetable waste.

They have also led a whole school assembly explaining how to use the newly placed compost bins and informing fellow pupils about the importance of recycling.

The compost gained from the school's efforts will be used to grow vegetables on the school's recently created allotments.

Thomas, nine, said: "Our job as a team is to make our school a more environmentally friendly place."

Seven-year-old Gareth said: "We want to stop global warming and make our school better."

Molly, also seven, said: "We want people to recycle as much as possible."

And seven-year-old Raphy said: "We are going to make sure that people put things in the right bins."

Using grant funding for equipment obtained by another Green team member, nine-year-old George, they have also created a twice-weekly litter picking team and will carry out a litter audit across the school to see how waste can be further reduced.

In conjunction with the school gardening club, the team also plan to plant a number of trees and shrubs across the school's new grounds to help to offset the damage to the environment caused by cars and planes.

Teacher Amelia Harding said: "The response from the children has been amazing with a large number wanting to join the Green team.

"They already know quite a lot about the threat of global warming to the planet and they have lots of ideas for putting environment-saving measures into practice across the school. More than anything they are keen to spread their message to the other children and their families, which is great."