Topic of the month: food and drink.
Join the talk2learn online discussion about food and drink in sustainable schools.
Abroad view of education for sustainability is taken in creating a whole school approach. This includes healthy and safe lifestyles, respect for diversity and tolerance of difference, encouraging participation, interaction with the local community as well as ways of more directly understanding the environment and protecting it .
The previous headteacher was instrumental in developing sustainability in the school. Her role was one of understanding how education for sustainability relates to and informs the curriculum and then enabling appropriate developments to take place using her influence with staff, governors, parents and others in the local community. However, much of the practical development in the curriculum and beyond has been carried out by a Year 6 class teacher.
The environment is used as a vehicle for developing basic educational skills among the pupils and the school is currently working to achieve their 'Healthy School' status.
The links with the Every Child Matters agenda is clear and fully intentional.
Led by the head, the school staff has collectively made sustainability an important part of the school policy. A school improvement plan, using the WWF toolkit for Learning for Sustainability, was devised for 2005-06 to embed the principles of education for sustainability throughout the whole school community, taking into account the eight 'doorways' identified by the DfES. A team of teachers and school management staff worked to advance a whole school learning approach to sustainability taking account of the role of the curriculum, campus and community. Broadly some of the areas of the improvement plan are as follows:
Most of the teachers have participated in professional development to enhance their skills and understanding and already classes are addressing sustainability in their day to day activities.
A project undertaken with the local community was the re-designing of the public children's playground. Here pupils in Year 6 were invited to submit their designs and to discuss these with local councillors.
The pupils are encouraged by example from the staff to adopt practices to help protect the environment. It is apparent when touring the school that pupils are actively participating in managing and trying to understand their environment. The buildings and campus provide an immediate and practical focus for much of this understanding. Pupils are enthusiastic in explaining how they are managing and caring for the environment, whether it is using 'water hippos' in toilet cisterns, setting up and maintaining bird feeding stations or composting food and other suitable biodegradable waste.
Pupils play an active role in the school. The school council is well organised. Senior pupils take responsibility for setting agendas, after suitable consultation throughout the school; for chairing and recording the meetings as well as disseminating the outcomes.
There is a member of the governing body who is specifically responsible for education for sustainability. The Parent Teacher Association also appreciate the value of education for sustainability as part of the whole ethos of the school and are in turn supportive.
One aspect of their work on sustainability is their link with a school in Kenya (originally funded for three years with a grant from the DFID Global Schools Partnership initiative).
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