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Our aim is to help you by providing a dynamic, engaging and effective resource for environmental education at school. We would like to promote environmental issues as an exciting part of teaching and learning. We value your feedback on the best ways to engage pupils so that they take what they learn out of the classroom and into the home, making a real difference to the environment in which they live. If you have any comments about the site please e-mail them to environment@spelthorne.gov.uk
Reducing your school's carbon footprint The Sustainable Development Commission has been studying the current carbon footprint of schools on a national level. If the aim is to reduce this we have a long way to go.  Carbon footprint data supplied by the SDC This is because there are a number of trends affecting the sector including:
Younger age groups and primary school children are already very engaged in sustainability throughout the country and it is important to sustain that enthusiasm through secondary school and beyond. It is important to tie sustainable practice into the curriculum so it doesn't just make more work for teachers. Furthermore, it is vital that the wider community be engaged and involved. There is little value in creating a sustainable school in a fractured community. There are several elements of the national curriculum into which sustainability can be embedded including sciences, geography, PSHE and drama. It fits very well into the national 'every child matters' and 'care for pupils' initiatives. Delivering sustainability as an educational tool needs to be done in context. Pupils need to have ownership of activities and of developing strategy for the school. The least effective model nationally has proved to be those staff-led initiatives in which the students do not have an active role. Find out more at www.bbc.co.uk (external website) and www.sd-commission.org.uk (external website) back to top Recycling in school
 Data from a 2007/8 survey by 4S Within the collection scheme, we are able to divert something in the region of 38 - 40% of the primary waste stream leaving us with the need to cut about 20% of the remaining waste, either by further diversion (eg. textiles recycling) or through reduction. A lot of that residual waste is likely to be organic. We have been looking at the prospect of using aerobic food digesters to further decrease waste volume. One school who briefly tried reactivating their existing Green Cone digester to tackle the KS1 Fruit waste, found that it was quickly overwhelmed. Use of these would mean installation of a large number on each site. Research continues. The project is currently in the process of rolling out to other larger schools including secondary and independent schools in the borough. Each school has their own individual challenges to face in adjusting to the new method of collection. All the participating schools have worked very hard with the Council on making this project a success. They have a lot to be proud of in having so effectively reduced their rubbish output from an average of 10,000kg per school per fortnight to an average of 5,448kg per school per fortnight or 17.9Kg per student. back to top Paper retriever
The take up for Paper Retriever has been enormous with demand momentarily outstripping supply. Now nearly all of the schools that applied for banks in November have had them delivered or are waiting for deliveries. There are effectively nineteen new paper banks in the borough exclusively for the use of schools with the income generated by the collection of this valuable resource being returned directly to the schools themselves. Abitibi Bowater runs regular recycling promotions to motivate participation in schools and engage the local community. The company will regularly service the Paper Retriever® container at no charge to the school, weighing the paper at the time of collection and providing them with a quarterly statement and cheque.
back to top Host a Bank: Textile Banks At Your School You can help reduce the amount of textiles sent to landfill by having a textile bank at your school. If you have got free space available, we encourage you to contact a charity such as TRAID or SCOPE and ask them to put a textile bank on your site for students and teachers to put their unwanted clothes, shoes and other textiles in. Charities such as TRAID and SCOPE are good businesses to work with because they are committed to supporting the vulnerable and protecting the environment. SCOPE support people with cerebral palsy and TRAID are committed to protecting the environment and reducing world poverty. Good quality clothing is sent to developing countries, and the more worn textiles are sold for reprocessing and are used to make new products. Payments from this are used to fund the charities' other activities. If you are interested in hosting a TRAID textiles bank please click here: TRAID Textiles bank (external website) |
