hawes side workshop conference 2012

Hawes Side Primary SchoolOn the Path to Sustainability .

Blackpool Children’s Sustainability

Conference 2012

Background to Hawes Side• Hawes side is a large primary School in the south shore area of Blackpool with over 580 children.• We registered with •Eco-Schools in 2009•In 2010 we achieved the Bronze and Silver Awards•In April 2011 we achieved our first Green Flag.

•We are members of the Green Council elected by our peers for this academic year.

Making the First Step!

People often think that you need to make

huge expensive changes to become

environmentally friendly but

sometimes its the small inexpensive changes that can make the biggest

differences.

Today we would like to share with you some changes we have made at Hawes Side to

become a greener, more sustainable school.

This is our TOP 10

10 - Reduce

Reducing the amount of wasted energy by switching off lights and electrical appliances when they are not needed. Opening blinds and using natural day light reduces need for room lights .Appoint energy monitors from each class and Power Rangers to Patrol school. We even gave classes penalty notices for leaving things on.This has helped us to cut our energy bill in the last year by 25%.Reducing consumption of paper through monitoring by the council, naming and shaming high consumers of paper. By taking advantage of ICT opportunities such as texting service for parents , electronic registers and visualisers – all of which saves paper.

9– Reuse materials where ever possible

Not only can you reuse paper and cardboard but have you tried, - changing old shoes, sinks, bottles into plant pots and containers.Last term our year 2 made models from waste materials at home.

8 - Recycle once we have tried to reduce our consumption of materials and re use them where possible we then try to recycle as much as possible. In our school we recycle all of the following. We also ask the school community to help in recycling things you would not normally recycle at home.

7 – Learning TogetherLearn together about the environment by getting involved with some of the fantastic organisations available to schools. These are just some we have been involved with this year.

The POD website linked to Eco Schools– has lots of ideas. This is some work children did following switch off fortnight .

Global Renewables offers free waste education workshops and visits for schools.

Blackpool Council offers free education workshops teaching children about the three R’s

Woodland Trust – learning about the importance and care of trees.

The whole school watched our online chicken camera as they hatched in spring. Children learnt about their life cycle , and needs from reception through to year 6. Children now look after them in their new home in the school quad.

Year 4 learning about Fair Trade and presenting to the headteacher. Before launching Fair Trade fortnight in school.

Keeping the schools grounds clear with a Big tidy up. Graphing the results and creating a whole school litter policy.

6 Embrace Technology

Our Green Council Blog acts as our evidence portfolio, notice board, a place to share ideas, post meeting minutes and log our learning.

Not only that its easy to maintain and paper free.

Just one way technology can help the environment.

5 – Celebrate Together

Celebrate the small steps as well as the big steps together as a whole school.Every half term our council shares its achievements and celebrates with the rest of the school.

Celebrating green day together.

4 – Involve and engage the community

Where ever possible we involve the community in our work. Whether it is involving parents in tree planting days or gardening, Fair Trade or the school travel plan and recycling keeping the community updated is key. We also have parents and governors on our Eco team. We regularly keep in touch with the community through news letters, the blog and online questionnaires.

3 – Devise an eco code

We created an eco code together as a school, one for Infants and one for juniors, so that everyone could understand our aims

2 – Encourage wildlife and grow your own Vegetables

At Hawes Side we actively encourage wildlife through our sensory garden, and our wild life garden. We have a well established pond, bird boxes and feeder areas, dead wood , stone areas for insects. We have set a side part of the school field for trees and wild flowers.

We have a very active gardening club who take care of the growing beds. Food grown is then used in the school kitchen.

1 – Share good practise and learn from othersWe love to learn about what other schools are doing and this is a key feature of today's conference , to share good practise and learn from each other.

We now have a short activity for you to try. In front of you there are some mystery bags. Inside there are lots of ideas on how to be come a greener , more sustainable school. Take it in turns to pick an idea from the bag and think whether it would work in your school. If you have tried the idea and have developed it further please share it with others so we can all benefit.

What’s in the Bag??

What have you learnt?

Please can each school suggest an idea they will be taking back to school to try

Thank you for Listening.