It is always a pleasure to visit West Lodge School in Pinner. On Monday morning, I was delighted to meet with children in Year 3 and 4 who had lots of interesting questions for me, particularly on the environment and what we can do as individuals to collectively make a positive change.
Something that came up was the impact of idling vehicles on air quality, particularly around schools, and the action pupils at West Lodge are taking to reduce this. I had the opportunity to raise this issue and how we can look at bespoke local solutions, as opposed to Mayor Khan’s unpopular and ineffective ULEZ expansion policy, with the Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, during a recent Transport Questions. You can view his response here.
I was also interested to learn about the school’s focus values, with the emphasis this half-term being on ‘Be Kind’. It was a pleasure to meet with the steering group of children who have been working on definitions for each value and how they have linked the theme of ‘Be…’ with nature and bees. I was impressed by their creativity, especially the ‘bee characters’ they have been working on, which each embody each of the focus values.
I really enjoyed my visit and am grateful to staff and pupils for their time.
