12 minute read
Eco schools
From putting the lids back on whiteboard markers to installing solar panels and air-source pumps, schools are making moves to tackle climate change. Emily Jenkins reports on the help available.
IN April 2022, the Department for Education released its sustainability and climate change strategy, intended to help the education sector and children’s services system to tackle environmental change.
However, despite recommending that every school have a climate action plan and a sustainability lead, climate organisations such as Let’s Go Zero say that “providing schools with the means to decarbonise quickly is glaringly absent” from the strategy.
Fortunately, schools across the UK are taking things into their own hands. Supported by Let’s Go Zero – which unites schools seeking to reach carbon zero by 2030 – school leaders have been working alongside pupils, parents and the wider community to make their schools sustainable.
Fixed leaks, added insulation and solar panels
“I read somewhere that if you’re head of a primary school with around 400 kids then your reach could be as much as 2,500 people. That really is quite a responsibility,” says Erika Eisele, head teacher at Dalmain Primary School in Lewisham, south London.
Since starting at the school five years ago, Erika has worked tirelessly to make its buildings as sustainable as possible.
“The school was quite badly maintained,” she explains. Due to the age of the buildings, some classrooms were so poorly insulated that in winter staff and pupils would have to wear their coats during lessons. The same classrooms were then “absolutely sweltering” in summer.
Working with Let’s Go Zero and social enterprise Retrofit Action for Tomorrow (RAFT), the school installed solar panels, fixed leaking roofs and insulated the building. It also become the first Lewisham school to replace its old gas boiler with a new air-source heat pump.
Dalmain’s eco council – made up of pupils and teachers – also undertook surveys to monitor water usage. Not only were they then able to make changes to reduce waste, they also discovered that the school was being charged twice for its water use.
Lynne Moore, operations manager at Furze Platt Senior School in Maidenhead, Berkshire, has undergone a similar journey to decarbonise the school buildings. As well as major works such as insulating the roof and the installation of solar panels – which now provide 9.5 per cent of the school’s energy (she hopes to add more panels in the future) – lots of little changes are making a big difference. For example, she has begun replacing the school’s lights with LEDs and software has been installed to automatically shut down computers in the evening.
“We have a big influence. Our school has 1,500 pupils, which means around a thousand families. So in sending a sustainable message to our pupils, and showing that we’re trying to change our school, we can also change our community,” says Lynne, who has even made sure the school blazers are sustainable – being made from recycled plastic bottles.
‘Part of the solution instead of just panicking’
Changing their community is at the heart of the work Wendy ThomasDavies and Carol Owen are doing at their secondary school, Ysgol Bro Dinefwr in Carmarthenshire, south west Wales, where they are dedicated to becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
They have turned an unused piece of land into an outdoor learning centre named Natur, where students grow fruit and vegetables, which are then used in the school canteen. “It’s all about planting the seed of sustainability,” says assistant head teacher Wendy who started at the school last September.
Carol, a geography teacher who has led the school’s eco council and been at the forefront of the school’s sustainability drive, says it’s not just about the environment but students’ mental health and wellbeing: “We’ve got to be very careful about young people’s mental health because they see all this negativity in the media.
“Instead of saying it’s the politicians’ problem, they get a chance to make an impact at ground level and do something for the greater good of future generations. It helps them to become a part of the solution instead of just panicking about the problem.”
This responsibility became crystal clear for Erika at Dalmain during the very first assembly she ran about plastics in the ocean, where children started crying over what was happening to the animals.
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Safeguarding their planet
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“The children were so passionate about it. It quickly became apparent that there was an appetite within the whole community, they were just waiting for someone to take the reins and harness their energy and enthusiasm,” says Erika.
Incorporate awareness into learning
Embedding this work and ethos into the curriculum is a key drive for everyone involved. “It’s all very well redoing our building and making our school more sustainable, but if the children aren’t understanding or empathising with the cause it’s not going to have a long-term impact,” says Erika.
From naming each class after an endangered animal – which the children then spend the year researching – to writing letters to the mayor in English lessons about food waste, Erika and her staff take every opportunity to incorporate sustainability and climate awareness into learning.
While replacing the boiler, they discovered papers from the 19th century documenting the history of the building – including head teacher reports and old photographs. These are now used in lessons, and pupils are encouraged to put on white gloves and examine the documents. “They’ve been fascinated by it,” she says.
At Ysgol Bro Dinefwr, thanks to recent changes to the Welsh curriculum giving educators more freedom over what they can teach, Wendy and her team have been able to put sustainability at the very heart of learning. From theatre performances on their sustainably built wooden amphitheatre, biology in their polytunnel and science and hydroponics using the pond, there’s something for everyone. Design and technology classes have included bird feeder and bug hotel building activities to bring more wildlife into their garden. In the coming year they plan to get beehives to help pupils learn about habitat, and set up a farm that will house chickens, goats and ducks.
“The pupils are so enthusiastic and eager – they’re particularly keen to know when the animals will arrive,” says Carol. There are opportunities inside the building as well: Ysgol Bro Dinefwr’s humanity classes use the computer game Minecraft in a project where key stage 3 students create a sustainable community.
It’s also vitally important to Carol and Wendy to make sure the work they do is “not just a hobby”, and they are looking for ways to provide more accreditations for learners, such as introducing a horticulture module for interested key stage 4 pupils.
Lynne Moore
Whole-community commitment
With school-aged children in 42 per cent of all UK households, educators know how far the lessons they teach in their classrooms can reach into the wider community. And a whole-school approach to sustainability requires not just the school, but a whole-community commitment.
Ysgol Bro Dinefwr has relied on local businesses to donate labour and materials to build its outdoor learning centre, and Dalmain’s nature garden received donations of 100 tree saplings for students to plant.
But, Lynne explains, relying on the time, support and donations of generous organisations and businesses can be a frustrating wait.
Added to that, with school budgets stretched and workload already overwhelming for most educators, finding the time and resources to hunt for schemes and connect with organisations is challenging. Lynne admits it hasn’t been an easy ride: “Finding the funding and support is a big hurdle. You need capacity to research and apply for these grants.
“The only reason we’ve got so far is that I have a supportive team and so I’m able to dedicate a lot of my time to it,” she says.
Erika feels similarly, explaining she couldn’t have got anywhere without an incredibly supportive staff and community: “We’ve had to be relentless to find funding. It’s hard work.” But, she adds, there are lots of pots of money around and organisations that can help that she wasn’t aware of until starting this journey (see Find out more boxout, page 25).
Ysgol Bro Dinefwr has created a new role at the school – the outdoor learning technician – who is responsible for developing outdoor learning and will also be responsible for caring for the bees and farm animals once they arrive.
It has meant committing precious money from the annual school budget but Wendy and Carol are sure it is worth it, calling it “a wholeschool investment”.
Ysgol Bro Dinefwr has also received investments from local companies.
Furze Platt School
Erika Eisele Find out more
n Let’s Go Zero unites and supports schools working to become carbon neutral: letsgozero.org n NEU resources: neu.org.uk/ climate-change and neu.org.uk/ sustainability-and-environmentaleducation n A Good Thing matchmakes schools and businesses with local charities: agoodthing.org.uk n Eco-Schools unites young people to make realistic changes towards sustainability: eco-schools.org.uk n Energy Sparks is an online, school-specific energy analysis tool and energy education programme: energysparks.uk n Green Schools Project supports pupils to learn more about climate change and schools to reduce their carbon emissions: greenschoolsproject.org.uk n Learning through Landscapes is an outdoor learning grant for schools and early years settings: ltl.org.uk/projects/local-schoolnature-grants n Ministry of Eco is a collaboration of teachers working together to place sustainability at the heart of education: ministryofeco.org n Pupils Profit helps set up school-based eco refill shops: pupilsprofit.com n The DfE’s sustainability and climate change strategy: bit.ly/3tZTCNL
SOLAR PANELS, AND RETROFIT ADVICE AND SUPPORT
n RAFT provides education and professional retrofit advice to schools: retrofitaction.org.uk n Eden Sustainable provides solar rooftops: edensustainable.co.uk n Solar for Schools: solarforschools.co.uk n Public sector decarbonisation scheme provides grants for public sector bodies to fund energy efficiency measures: bit.ly/3VlXcxl
TEACHERS AND SCHOOL LEADERS DEMAND BETTER
2nd December 2022 A joint message to all teachers and school leaders from the general secretaries of NAHT, NASUWT, NEU and the TUC
Dear Colleague, Teachers and School Leaders Demand Better Each of our unions is balloting members for industrial action on pay and the TUC is fully supporting these ballots. We are united on the need to protect your pay against current inflation and to restore its real terms value, and for those pay rises to be fully funded by Government. Since 2010, a series of government pay freezes, ‘caps’ and ‘affordability’ criteria have cut your pay by more than 20%. At every salary point across the main, upper and leadership pay ranges the cumulative losses over this twelve-year period run into many tens of thousands of pounds. These losses also affect the future value of your pension. Lower salaries mean lower contributions, which produce lower pensions at retirement. In September, with CPI inflation spiralling to 10.1%, and RPI at 12.3%, food prices soaring and energy costs rocketing, teachers and school leaders are facing yet another real terms cut to their pay. Our unions are continuing to press governments and employers for an improved pay award, highlighting the damage that falling real pay risks to children’s and young people’s education. Today’s disastrous teacher recruitment figures put all of this in very sharp focus for Government. At this is critical moment, now is the time to stand together and send a clear and unequivocal message that the teaching profession demands better. Please complete your union’s ballot paper and get your ballot paper in the post box today to strengthen our demand for a better deal for teachers and school leaders. Thank you.
Paul Whiteman Dr Patrick Roach General Secretary NAHT General Secretary NASUWT
Mary Bousted Kevin Courtney Frances O’Grady Joint General Secretary NEU Joint General Secretary NEU General Secretary TUC
Working in the vegetable garden at Furze Platt
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It recently partnered with Castell Howell, one of the UK’s largest independent food wholesalers, which is based near the school. The company has offered the school investment alongside the support of local chefs and food consultants who will teach pupils to cook the vegetables they grow.
They’ve also managed to get funding from the Royal Society, which has given them £3,000 to spend on a weather station. Carol and Wendy hope it will help them examine energy consumption and determine the viability of whether they could one day become self-sufficient.
“It’s all about networking. You have to get people invested in what you are doing,” Wendy advises. The school, which has now become a case study for sustainability in its local authority, is also being funded by Social Farms and Gardens and supported by orchard specialist Merched Y Berllan to plant a fruit tree orchard on the site. Carol explains that once the apple pressing and juicing equipment arrives, they plan to host community days where people will make their own fruit juices. “In my eyes, it’s as much about community as sustainability,” she says, passionately.
While not all schools will have the luxury of a site with room for a pond, polytunnel, farm and orchard, Erika says that even starting small can make a big difference. At her school, students on the eco council make sure all the whiteboard pens have lids on them at the end of each day. They also make sure that classroom lights are off when not in use, and that the school recycles as much as possible.
The new air-source heat pump at Dalmain
Lightbulbs, boiler, windows, water
Erika and her pupils were also loaned a thermal-imaging camera to see where heat was leaking from the building, and then incorporated that data into the curriculum: “The windows looked in pretty good nick but, when we looked through the camera, they were leaking a lot. It was a cheap and easy fix that made a big difference,” she says.
Lynne recommends some first steps could include changing to energy-efficient lightbulbs and making sure the boiler is set at the right temperature because “even one degree is costing you, and the planet, more”. Thanks to a student-led survey they have also installed two new water fountains to reduce the use of single-use plastics.
All three schools are hopeful they can become carbon neutral but they are acutely aware that 2030 isn’t that far away. Whether they make it or not, Erika says, what’s important is they are taking steps in the right direction.
