Groundwork North East and Cumbria
Sustainable Schools News Hi!
Issue 1 October 2012
I am Andrea Carling, the Education Programme Coordinator for Groundwork North East and Cumbria, a regional environmental charity. We have a fantastic range of exciting environmental projects we deliver in partnership with schools, take a look! Welcome to the first edition of the Sustainable Schools News, a half-termly publication sent to schools in the North East and Cumbria. We aim to share local success stories, disseminate funding opportunities and raise awareness of how your school can be supported to become more sustainable. Please read this newsletter, pass it on to colleagues and get in touch to be involved!
Spotlight on …… Groundwork’s One World Schools Programme Groundwork’s One World Schools programme aims to save your schools money on your energy, water and waste disposal bills while assisting you to reach tough Local Authority Carbon Reduction Targets, with an added bonus of increasing pupils’ skills and knowledge through a school-wide learning campaign. A specialist IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Auditing) member from our team will come to school to involve your pupils in conducting an audit of your school and making recommendations that will save you money and carbon emissions. Our education team will then work with pupils to carry out an awareness raising campaign in the school, to ensure that everybody is on board with the Be an Eco-School energy saving measures. We will and Save Money lead a staff meeting and an assemon Your Bills! bly that will focus on the small behavioural changes needed to save money. Typically, we can save you at least 10%
on your energy bills with small actions that cost nothing and we can often save you even more. Schools taking part in the One World Schools programme will be contributing towards their Eco-Schools awards, which we can offer on -going support with as required. Many of our staff are Green Flag Assessors and we can work with your eco-schools Action Team and advise you on how to get the coveted Green Flag Award.
CPD Programme— We offer bespoke INSET (Full / Half Day / Twilight) to schools on various topics—Forest School Taster, Taking Your Teaching Outside the Classroom, Growing Food in School, Outdoor Play, How to be an Eco-School / Green Flag.
Case Study—Forest Schools Centre of Excellence Groundwork is working with partners to deliver Forest School activities to 36 primary schools across the North East. Funding from Big Lottery Access to Nature enabled 12 woodland sites to be made fit-for purpose for 1200 children to take part in a 10-week programme of activities, delivered by Forest School accredited leaders. Activities include survival skills such as shelter building and cooking outdoors, nature study such as habitat exploration and species surveys, sensory exploration of the woodland environment through Earth Walks, Themed activities i.e. Olympics, Refugees, Senses, Habitats. Groups also used the forest as a stimulus for creative writing and artwork. The programme is adapted to fit in with topics currently being studied by the participant class and can be delivered to all ages groups and abilities. The project website, where session plans and further details can be found, is www.forestschoolsnortheast.co.uk. We also offer bespoke Learning Outside the Classroom activities for schools—including our programme for Special Schools—”Bird, Bees and Bats” –which can be delivered in your school grounds or a local greenspace. We have access to many sites including woodlands, Forests, allotment gardens, nature reserves and historic sites where we can give your pupils magical experiences with nature at a place local to you.