Updates
I've been a bit quiet for the past few months, but things have been happening in the background. Just a few weeks ago we finally received a report WYG, a company working for the Council, with the results from months of data collecting. It’s very obviously very long and detailed, full of stats, figures, graphs. Obviously it cannot be taken as bible, since as we know measuring air pollution is a long and hard process but it does give us a good estimate on the effectiveness of all the measures we've been taking inside and outside the school. - The Airlite paint inside the dining hall, which according to our own reading brought down the levels of Nitrogen Dioxide by at least 76% and sometime as high as 89% , was confirmed to be just as effective as we thought by the independent readings from WYG. The air purifier in the reception class is doing wonders and according the WYG is the best measure when it comes to cleaning the air. Its effectiveness on PM2.5, PM10 and Nox is astonishing, with results around 85%-90% (if not higher) confirmed by their independent readings. Finally the green wall. WYG confirmed the fact that it's working! Data has been collected from tubes spread across the whole playground and proved that the air is actually cleaner. These results come with a caveat: they have been taken during summertime which is usually the most polluted time of the year, given the high temperatures, but also is the time when a lot of people are on holiday, so probably with slightly less traffic. Clearly in oder to have concrete data, readings need to be taken for a much longer period. However the conclusion that WYG reached it that there has been a considerable improvement is the air in and around the school, by 37%. The space is now constantly used by pupils from the school and the Community Centre and everyone seems to love the green wall. Conversation have also started about looking for events/markets and other things to host. More about this soon.
Just a reminder for everyone: this Saturday, the 29th of June, we'll be officially opening our Chiswick Oasis. The event will start at 11am and run until the evening. As most of you know, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, will be joining the celebration. He'll be adding a plant into the living wall with his name on, just like some of our children have already done last week (https://vimeo.com/343989915). Our MP Ruth Cadbury (who started it all), the leader of the Council Steve Curran (who'll help us finish it), our local councillor (source of strength and inspiration) and most of our wonderful donors, sponsors and benefactors (hence you too!) will also be attending and they will all have their opportunity to add their own plant too. It'll be a chance to thank them (and you!) all once again. People from, ANS Global, Arup, Airlite, Hounslow Highways, the London Bike Hub, Trees for Cities, IQAir are just some of those who will be attending and showcasing what we have done and what we can still do. There will be lots of food (put your diet on hold please) and even more drinks. And, given the fact that it's probably going to be 31 degrees, I'm sure there is also gong to be a huge amount of ice (and ice creams!). Tell your friends, bring your family and your children as there will also be games, shows, bands playing, choirs singing and free classes for everyone as well as prizes to win for children and adults alike. I really hope you can all make it and celebrate with us this very joyous moment as we are turning our schools into some of the greenest in London. See you on Saturday Andrea
I am planning to put up a "blue plaque" next to the green. wall with the date of the inauguration (By the way, I hope I’ll see you all there on the 29th of June) but also I wanted to have another large sign (in wood) with the names of all the sponsors and people who have been instrumental in making this wall a reality. We have 365 names. Could you all please take a moment to check whether your name is spelt correctly. Some of you have been pledging/donating anonymously and unless we are told otherwise you will remain anonymous. http://chiswickoasis.com/2019/06/09/the-plaque/ Any issue please contact me ASAP. THE DEADLINE IS THIS WEDNESDAY THE 12TH OF JUNE Thanks Andrea
Most of you have seen it already, but it's time to be official about it. And while at it, to thank you all once again! This could have never been achieve without all your support!! Our green wall is up!! Or at least Phase #1 is up: we are still counting to convince our Council and TFL to help us strengthening the brick wall so that we can actually go as high as the top of the mesh, thus increasing the positive effect that the wall will have on our children. You can see a short video of the making of this wall here: https://vimeo.com/339768407 The right side of the green wall, which we call “Educational wall”, has some empty slots for our children to grow their own plants. We'll also invite people at the Launch to plant something too, so that each of them will actually owe a bit of the wall. I also just wanted to remind you that the wall comes with a 5 years free maintenance. Next term, between September and October, Trees for Cities will inject further £30,000 in more green features (plants, hedges, vegetable gardens etc…). This Thursday (6th of June) we’ve invited West London schools at 7pm at the Hogarth Youth Community Centre, to listen to what we did and how we did it, but also to start creating a bigger network of schools concerns about air quality, so that we can all speak with one louder voice: more than 60 schools have already signed up to the event. Please spread the word and come along if you can. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/breathewest-west-london-parents-calling-for-clean-air-tickets-61862197498 I can't wait to show it to you all. Put the 29th of June down in your diary. Both the Mayor and the Head of the Hounslow Councils will be coming to inaugurate the wall and enjoy the party atmosphere that we are preparing for you. Lots of food, drinks, music, games, celebrities and ... lots of green too it seems.
Hi everyone, A lot has been happening over the past couple of weeks and I can’t wait to share it all with you in the next few days, but this is just a call for help. The dining Hall and the kitchen at St Mary’s have just been redecorated with the special paint from Airlite. The painters finished their job late last night (helped by some volunteers, local councillors, few parents and a professional painter front Enjoy Work): the place looks very good and hopefully the paint will make a difference in the Air our children are breathing. But we now need some help cleaning all the duat, the floors and the windows before the school opens again next week. If you can spare an hour between today (Friday) Saturday morning please write to [email protected] We’ve sent a request for help among parents in the school, but being half term, we only had 2 answers back. Thank you in advance. Andrea
I've been a bit quiet in the last few weeks, but that does not mean things have not been happening behind the scenes: meetings after meetings, emails at the strangest hours in the night, interviews and lots of plans... So we've got lots of good news coming this way: First of all, we finally have a date for the start of the work in the playground: next Thursday (the 16th of May) ANS Global will officially begin installing the living wall along the wall next to the A4. Also on the 27th of May, we'll begin to test Airlite's paint in St Mary's dining room and kitchen. This paint supposedly will clean up the air by 88%. Both the Council and some of the other schools around Chiswick will be watching the results very closely. We've been monitoring the air and taking reading (together with the Council) both inside and outside St Mary's school. We'll keep monitoring the changes after the new paint has been applied and the green wall has been installed. Hopefully the results will show a difference. In the meantime today we are on "the Times" https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/parents-tackle-air-pollution-in-the-playground-mvvqg927s. (or https://chiswickoasis.com/2019/05/09/times-article-9th-may-2019/ for those without a subscription) and last week I was on BBC Radio 2 (https://vimeo.com/333643127) essentially talking about pretty much about the same stuff. To be honest I can't wait for next couple of week so I can start talking about something new as big changes will finally happen. Andrea
A new exciting partnership has been formed between our project and the Enjoy Work at the Chiswick Business Park. The link between Chiswick Park Enjoy-Work and Chiswick Oasis is about sustainability, air pollution and more generally providing a better future to the younger generations. Through this new partnership, Chiswick Park Enjoy Work will offer: - Introduction to 67 guests companies – national, European and international headquarters from the food and beverage, media, entertainment, technology, oil and gas industries. - Over 9,000 guest working on the park - Over 70,000 visitors per year - A network of local retailers and operators - A network of local partners such as Brentford FC, Brentford FC CST, University of West London, Chiswick School More specifically, over the next few 2 months, Enjoy Work will work with us by providing manpower for the work needed to improve the playground and St Mary's School. They will provide engineering and landscaping team to source material and tools either for the maintenance of the green wall, a new improved recycling scheme and the repainting of St Mary's dining room and kitchen with special paint that will make the air cleaner, provided by Airlite. They will put us in touch with their workforce from team members and they will engage other Guest companies to provide workforce from their teams. They will put us in touch with all their companies and let them know about all our plans with periodic newsletters, offering to communicate on the different marketing channels, like Social media engagement via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. This will create more visibility for us not just on the Chiswick Park Enjoy-Work website, but also on local, national and international media. We will be featured in the news on the District App – over 4,000 subscribers, promoted on building reception screens and lift. On April 26th Enjoy Work will hold an event at the World Earth day event attended by hundreds of people, where we'll have a stall and we'll be able to showcase the work we've done up to that point. You can read more here https://chiswickherald.co.uk/chiswick-park-enjoywork-teams-up-with-chiswick-oasis-p9811-95.htm
After careful consideration I had to take a difficult decision and ask for the construction of the green wall to be delayed till next April. I didn’t take this decision lightly, as you can imagine, but there are still few things I’m not 100% happy about. It's because I care about this project and I want to make sure it's pretty perfect, that I decide to move the construction date.This can only happen when the school is closed and the next available slot will be just after Easter, between the 16th and the 26th of April (also this is a longer break and we'll have even more time to make it look amazing). There are still few outstanding issues with the current brick wall (and even though I am assured it will be fine, I want to have it written on a piece of paper), with the design of the green wall and the choice of plants and I just don't feel comfortable in rushing things through: we only get this one chance. By moving the whole thing by 2 months, we should be definitely be in a much better position. ANS have already started planting pallet with the architects and will proceed with plant procurement between now and the construction. They've assured me it will all be fine in April. In fact given that it’s going to be spring time, some of features will look even better then. I hope this is not too disappointing but I also trust you’ll agree with me, this is the better way of doing things. Sincerely yours Andrea
Hello everyone, This message is to all of you who have been involved in the project, but also those sponsors, MPs, councillors and friends who have always supported us. This is not only to thank you once again, but also to keep you all in the loop and in case you might want to spread the world and even join us for what’s about to happen. We’re beginning the work at the Chiswick Oasis in just a few days on the week commencing the 18th of February. The company ANS Global (the people behind the green wall in Westfield) will in charge of the construction of the living wall. The team from Airlite (airlite.com) will be supervising the painting of the interior walls on the ground floor of the school (the whole dining area, the kitchen and the main corridor), with a special paint (offered to us for free) that is going to serve as a purifying system and will clean up to 88% of the pollution inside. At the same time a team of architects, designers and environmentalists from ARUP, who have been working behind the scenes for over 2 months now, will also be on site. St Mary's “clean air” group and the school's PTA are going to be meeting this Wednesday evening (the 13th) at 9pm to work out the details and the schedule of the week: who’s going to be responsible for what, who’s buying what? Who’s going to be taking care of teas and coffees, opening and closing the gates, etc.. I will be posting another message after that meeting with a more detailed plan. But essentially, for the time being, we are looking for people/volunteers who could help us with some of the work inside the building (i.e. people who could paint, or even just help us clearing some of the areas, covering furniture, etc), as well as provide things like ladders or plastic sheets, etc. (There is however some budgets for the main tools, like brushes, etc, but it would be good to know what we can get from people. ). You could just give your availability for a few hours of any given day. Please do reply to this email. The whole event is going to be photographed and videoed by various colleagues of mine who will be in and out during the week. They’ll be easy to spot, so in case you don’t want to be on camera, do let them (or me) kindly know. The plan is eventually to produce a short film documenting "the Making of the Chiswick Oasis”. As you may well know this is only part of a bigger “Clean Air” plan: more events will be announced and happening between now and our big launch on May the 11th (this date is still a tentative one, but it will be confirmed very soon), so stay tuned. It is an exciting time not just for the school and Chiswick, but hopefully for the future of many other schools across London as we’re planning to make this a model for all other to follow. Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible. Best, Andrea
