A General Introduction to Sustainable Schools

As you may know, the Government wants every school in the UK to be a Sustainable School by the year 2020.  We are very pleased to say that Woodheys has been making steady progress towards this ambitious target thanks to successful teamwork and the development of a very forward-thinking approach!  

What does ‘Sustainability’ mean? Here’s a long definition …

“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

(This definition was created in 1987 at the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission).)

But we prefer the short, snappy one invented by Australians…

“ENOUGH FOR ALL, FOR EVER”

because we think it sums it up beautifully and memorably. 

Becoming an Eco School

 Our work on environmental projects and sustainability began as far back as 1997, when we began work on some murals to improve the back of the school.   

This led to the development of garden areas, composting, recycling and eventually to the award of our first Eco Schools Green Flag in 2001.  We were re-accredited with a second flag in 2004 and we are now very pleased to announce …

Exciting News – We will continue to keep the Flag flying!

We are delighted that, following a successful assessment at the end of May 2010, we have been awarded our third Eco Schools Green Flag! In order to gain our third award, we had to prove that we were still involved to a greater or lesser extent in all nine of the Eco Schools topics.

The Eco Schools’ programme covers nine sustainability topics:

Water     

Biodiversity      

Energy     

Global Perspectives

Healthy Living  

Litter      

School Grounds     

Transport

Waste (including Recycling)       

Our website contains information about our work on all of these.

We also produced an Eco Code and from this, an Action Plan for the whole school. 

We are so proud to continue to be part of the family of Eco Schools Green Flag owners, an elite band of schools which is growing steadily not only in the UK, but internationally as well.

If you are reading this and want to know more about getting started as a sustainable school, then why not look at the Eco Schools website www.eco-schools.org.uk 

for more information and lots of inspiration!

´Doorways´ to becoming a sustainable school

Another helpful starting place is through the DCSF website:

 www.dcsf.gov.uk/aboutus/sd/doorways.shtml which gives details of the Government’s Sustainable Schools Strategy.  This comprises eight sustainability ‘doorways’, i.e. eight sustainable issues which schools can tackle one by one, or a few at a time.

A truly sustainable school will aim to do as much as possible to address each of these issues, thus reducing its carbon footprint radically and becoming a centre of good practice.

The eight ´doorways´ cover the following topics:

Energy and Water

Food and Drink

Travel and Traffic

Purchasing and Waste

Buildings and Grounds

Inclusion and Participation

Local Well-being

Global Dimension

These are very similar to the Eco Schools categories (see above), but at Woodheys we have added a ninth ´Doorway´ of ´Biodiversity´ to the list, because we feel that it is also vitally important to care for animals and plants in our environment. 

Our Eco School Council

 When we first become involved with the Eco-Schools programme, we set up an Eco-Committee of pupils, staff and parents, who met regularly to discuss environmental issues. As time has gone on, however, we have decided that we should widen their remit to include all sorts of issues, including the environment, and have renamed them our ´Eco School Council´. This new name reflects our commitment to citizenship and sustainability and the importance we place on giving our pupils a voice and a chance to participate in decision making at Woodheys.

Each October we hold our annual Eco School Council election and pupils in every class from Year 3 – 6 choose two new representatives for their class.  These twelve pupils consult together at regular meetings, which are also attended by adults including Mrs Daniels (Headteacher), Mrs Eyden (Staff Governor/Higher Level Teaching Assistant/Environmental Projects Co-ordinator), Mrs Gowen (Teaching Assistant) and Mr Flynn (Site Manager).  Other adults from our school community are always welcome to come along as and when they can.

The results of this year’s election were as follows:

Well done to them all!

How the Eco School Council Works

 The Eco School Council meets at least once every month and reports back to everyone at the whole school assembly following each meeting. Each representative makes sure they regularly ask their classmates for ideas, suggestions and problems to discuss at meetings. Anyone can use the ´Eco Suggestions Box´ on the main corridor if they have an idea or suggestion to share or a problem to be discussed. The Eco School Council members consider the contents of the box as part of the agenda at every meeting. From time to time, the Eco School Council works with other pupil groups in school, such as the Energy Team, Junior Road Safety Officers, Recycling Team and Eco Monitors, to make sure that we are all working together to make the school a more sustainable place.

You can read all about the work of these other teams elsewhere on our website.

Solar Panels

We are delighted that a proportion of the electricity we use is generated by means of our solar panels, originally fitted by Solargen Ltd. We received a grant from the Department of Transport towards the initial installation cost. They are a visible sign of our commitment to sustainability and, as well as making free electricity for us, they also reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. The children are able to see how much electricity they generate on a daily basis via an LCD display board on the main corridor. We feel it is really important to try and practice what we preach!

Spreading the word

We continue to welcome visitors to our school and members of our staff also visit conferences and other venues to give talks and learn from others. This year, we have given presentations at two major conferences and our Eco School Council has been very much involved in consultations about the new extension to the school.  We have welcomed a wide variety of visitors, including the leader and Chief Executive of Trafford Borough Council.

Our pupils are also involved in a joint project based on improving our local area and have been meeting up with pupils from two other local Primary Schools to discuss potential improvements, such as the siting of  more litter bins and the creation of more ´child-friendly´ signs near play areas.