Environment
Going greener
Your children are never too young to be eco-aware. Big Green Switch looks at ways parents, teachers and pupils can get involved in environmental projects at school
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Schol is a great place to introduce environmental suggestions. Not only can you help to cut the pressure on natural resources by recycling schemes and car shares, but you can also introduce children to eco-awareness at an early age. Whether you’re a parent, teacher or a student, you can start to get the people at your school involved in environmental projects and schemes. These ideas are just a starting point . . .
Cut out individual school runs |
It has been calculated that the school run is responsible for a third of all traffic pollution, contributing 3.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air each year. It has also been shown that the majority of motorists blame the school run for road congestion and that many parents feel vehicle overcrowding at the school gates is unsafe and annoying. Try to encourage parents and pupils to think about different ways to get to and from school each day. Consider promoting walking or cycling at your school for health and environmental reasons, or try to persuade more students to use public transport or become involved in a local car share scheme.
You may want to think about improving cycle-storage facilities at the school or have an “Environment Week” to get pupils and parents reflecting on how they can cut carbon emissions by changing their daily transport plans.
Be paper-conscious within your school
Schools are a haven of paper products – from books, writing paper and art materials to paper towels and toilet rolls, schools in the UK get through a large volume of paper every year. With such a volume being consumed, it makes sense to use products made from recycled materials. Recycled products have come a long way over recent years and no longer carry the higher-cost, lower-quality stigma of old. It’s also important to make sure you are getting the best out of all the paper materials in your school. Ensure writing paper is being used on both sides. Consider whether assignments and projects need to be printed out from computers or if they can just be viewed/marked on-screen instead?
Put used paper to good use in other areas of the school, and if you can’t think of anything else to do with the paper, make sure it goes into a recycling bin instead of being thrown in with the main rubbish and sent straight to landfill.
Collect and recycle litter
Many schools traditionally have litter problems around their buildings and grounds with research suggesting that this is mainly due to the attitude of some children, particularly teenagers, towards care-free littering. Addressing the issue of litter around your school can lead to a more appealing environment for all concerned and help to return suitable waste for recycling.
An important step in reducing waste is to ensure pupils are suitably educated as to the need to dispose of litter correctly. Encourage this by ensuring there are sufficient bins around the school and its outdoor areas for pupils to dispose of all their rubbish. Why not set a school-wide challenge to see how many recyclable materials can be collected over a term? A safely organised litter pick can be a good way of gathering litter together and, for younger pupils at least, is often seen as a fun event, particularly if rewarded by drinks, biscuits or perhaps merit points for their efforts. Again, use the litter pick as an opportunity to reinforce the important issues regarding litter and recycling.
Discuss environmental issues
Getting children interested in environmental issues from an early age is a good way to introduce them to the subject and encourage them to think about the future of the planet. Projects of this nature can also be quite practical and interesting for students, meaning that they are more likely to want to be involved in the assignments.
Try to keep pushing an environmental message throughout all lessons, reminding students not to waste paper or other natural resources. Getting children used to thinking in this way will help them to be more environmentally aware at home and in later life. Why not consider getting involved in the Eco-Schools scheme? By registering with the scheme your school will become part of an international group working towards education for sustainable development and a better quality of life for local and global communities
Becoming an Eco-School can enhance learning styles, raise the school profile and has potential money-saving benefits. It’s a great way to get your students interested in, and focused on, the environment and what it means to them.
Run recycling schemes for old clothes, mobile phones, books and more
There are many ways to run recycling schemes. You could get students and staff to bring in their unwanted goods for a giant jumble sale, or maybe donate items to a local charity or recycling agency. You could even offer a swapping service where students can swap books, CDs, DVDs and computer games they no longer want, although you would need to get parental permission to run schemes of this type.
The less we consume, the less pressure is put on natural resources to make new goods. By educating children that second hand really is just as good as new and shiny, you’ll be helping to decrease the amount of demand for new items, also cutting packaging needs and the transport of goods. A scheme like this can teach students the value of items, putting less pressure on parents at Christmas and birthdays. Getting young people used to buying second hand is also likely to help them save money in later life.
Plant trees within the school grounds
 Put paper to good use in school |
If the layout of your school permits, try to include trees or a wildlife garden somewhere within the area. Trees give pupils a great, shady place to sit and relax at break times. They can be used as quiet areas or places to read on a warm day. You’ll obviously have to wait a while before the trees have reached maturity, but investing in planting now is a great way to make a happier, greener environment for future generations. Also, trees consume the most carbon dioxide while they are growing, so you’ll be helping to suck carbon out of the atmosphere.
Building a wildlife garden will help students to understand how ecosystems work. You will be able to attract local wildlife and, if you are lucky enough to be able to have a pond, may also have tadpoles, frogs and fish to study. Teaching children about wildlife is a great way to encourage ecological respect in later life.
Although the initial outlay for such environmental projects can be quite high, the overall benefits to staff and student wellbeing will be huge.
Switch computers and other electrical equipment off when not in use
Don’t waste energy in the classroom: switch computers and other electrical equipment off when not in use.
Kill the evil standby plague and always remember to turn electrical items off when leaving a room. This is one of the easiest switches you can make; when you’re not using a TV or computer, simply switch it off. That’s really all there is to it, and it can make a huge difference to the amount of carbon dioxide your school is chugging out into the atmosphere.
Some appliances will use a quarter of the energy in standby mode as they do when they’re on as normal. Yet, for this energy expenditure, they do absolutely nothing. TV’s will use around seven watts when in standby, and computers can use up to 15 watts. This means that a classroom of 20 computers and two TVs will use 314 watts per hour in standby mode. If you leave these systems on overnight, you’ll be burning up nearly 4,400 watts every evening. Over a year this would cost £160 extra on your electricity bill, with absolutely no benefit coming out of the energy usage.
Reduce waste in the school canteen
Encourage students to only take the amount of food that they need, rather than piling their plates high and leaving most of it. Also try to cut down on the quantity of food being prepared, especially if the canteen staff are throwing a lot away at the end of lunch.
Think about investing in a compost heap or compost bins as part of a council recycling scheme. This is a great way to reduce the amount of organic waste produced by a school, as well as giving students a fun way to learn about nature.
For more information, visit:
Website: www.biggreenswitch.co.uk
