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Sustainability plays an important role in modern life and education is no different. In 2004 the government announced its Building Schools for the Future programme, which aims to rebuild or refurbish all secondary schools by 2020 and includes an aim “to minimise their carbon footprint”. But how much influence do these newly built ‘eco-schools’ have on the way children engage with green issues? And how do ’normal’ schools make green issues part of their everyday teaching?

Children are naturally interested in their environment. Schools have recognised this fact and have built green issues into their lessons and extra-curricular activities. Environmental charities such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) offer support to schools (they, for example, employ 160 people to deliver their education work to around 10,000 schools throughout the UK). The Society’s education team offers schools visits to their 40 nature reserves, and runs a number of hands-on projects including the Big Schools’ Bird Watch which invites children to keep a record of the birds that they observe on their school grounds.

But their main concern is that children don’t get enough chance to experience nature first-hand. “The RSPB believes that all children have the right to experience the natural environment,” says Andy Simpson, Head of Youth and Education for the RSPB. “The problem is that our subject driven education system has moved away from out-of-classroom learning.”

Kingsmead Primary School in Northwich, Cheshire, is a good example of a school that does support outdoor learning. The school’s grounds encourage children to spend much of their time outside. It has an ‘Eco-Walk’, made of willowed domes, a pond, a kitchen garden and orchard plants that provide vegetables and fruit for healthy school dinners. The school has also planted hundreds of trees which will eventually provide a habitat for wildlife and shade for the children.

Indeed the school’s eco-friendly construction was designed with the environment in mind. Opened in 2004 and designed by Bristol-based agency White Design, its eco-friendly features include a butterfly-shaped roof with a central valley gutter which collects rainwater to flush the toilets and a sustainable urban water drainage system. Its classrooms have tall windows and roof lights which provide plenty of natural daylight and reduce the need for electric lighting. Up to 15% of its electricity is supplied by solar panels, while a ‘biomass’ boiler – which is fuelled by wood pellets rather than gas, coal or oil - heats the school.

“ALL CHILDREN HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXPERIENCE THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT”

For Catriona Stewart, Headteacher at Kingsmead, teaching about the environment is extremely important: “There needs to be a strong ethical and moral dimension to education and learning, if you want to have a moral and ethical electorate when they grow up,” she says. “Our mission statement is caring for ourselves, other people and our environment - and everything we do in our school is measured against those three things.”

Extra-curricular activities include the popular Environment Club where pupils tend to the gardens, harvest potatoes, fruit and vegetables, weave the willow domes and look at the biodiversity in the school grounds. There is also an Eco Group which gives pupils a voice on how the school can be run in a more sustainable way. It comprises an elected group of children from Key Stage 2 as well as a teacher, a member of the administration team, a parent and a governor. It also includes the school’s road safety and recycling officers.

Pupils can also bring in their own suggestions for green activities. For example, they came up with the idea to introduce bird feeders to attract more birds into the school grounds. The children like their school and often pass on what they learn to their own family. “It is a really nice school to go to, because the teachers are lovely and the lunches are great and healthy,” says 10 year-old Tom. “Before starting school at Kingsmead, I would probably not have recycled anything, but now I recycle loads. We have a massive box for paper, plastic, cardboard and clothes. I now think about not leaving lights on and saving electricity.”

Another school built to high ecological standards is the St Francis of Assisi Academy in Liverpool. It is situated in Kensington, one of Liverpool’s most deprived areas, and replaces an underperforming high school. Capita Architecture designed the academy which opened in November 2005. Among its many eco-friendly features is a translucent roof, made of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), which is much lighter than normal glass and provides natural daylight. Again, solar panels provide electricity, and collected rainwater is used to flush the toilets. A sedum roof, monitored by the National Wildflower Centre, functions as an outdoor classroom space, and students designed and planted the school’s garden with the assistance of the Groundwork Trust.

“BEFORE, I WOULD PROBABLY NOT HAVE RECYCLED ANYTHING, BUT NOW I RECYCLE LOADS”

Green themes are incorporated in the children’s project work and each year a week is dedicated to teaching sustainability issues. An eco-council, set up by students, helps with the school’s environmental management by, for example, monitoring recycling and suggesting improvements to the governors. Furthermore, healthy eating is part of the school’s green agenda and it organises its own catering.

The students’ feedback on the new school has been very positive according to Richard Woods, Senior Associate Director at Capita Architecture in Cardiff. The pupils’ GCSE results have improved since it was rebuilt and, in 2007, it was ranked number one in the league table of secondary schools that have improved their pupils’ education the most. However Woods thinks that good school design can only go so far: “I think an eco-friendly building without good teaching can do nothing,” he says. “It’s just a support for good teaching. I think an eco-friendly school without good teaching will achieve little.”

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) agrees and has produced a downloadable leaflet with plenty of ideas for eco-friendly teaching that all schools can incorporate into their lessons. Building new sustainable schools or retro-fitting them with alternative energy sources is expensive. While such a building can enhance education, examples of ‘normal’ schools show that engaging children with environmental issues does not rely on expensive architecture, but on good teaching and inventiveness of the staff.

The charity Eco-Schools encourages schools to engage children with green issues by giving out awards each year. One ‘normal’ school that has taken part in this award scheme is Helston Community College in Cornwall. Apart from the installation of a small wind turbine (which was destroyed by a storm in 2008), it does not boast any eco-friendly modifications. However the college has been running other green activities under the name ‘Ecowarriors’. This project was originally set up to raise awareness of green issues across the campus but it was subsequently extended into the local community, working with ‘Ditch the Plastic’ (a Helston-based campaign to reduce the amount of plastic bags distributed by shops in the town) to, among other things, design their first cotton bag. It has also involved activities such as undertaking a litter survey of the local housing estate and then working with the community to determine ways of helping to reduce littering.

“AN ECO-FRIENDLY BUILDING WITHOUT GOOD TEACHING WILL ACHIEVE LITTLE”

The project gained them the Eco-Schools’ Bronze award in July 2008. In the same year each student set themselves a green community target and supported the college’s ‘Green Handprint’ of five projects, undertaking activities such as: conducting litter surveys in the town; producing anti-littering posters for the National Trust at Penrose; and supporting the pre-Flora Day celebration tidy up. The college also raised more than £900 for the Precious Lives Appeal (which is run by the Children’s Hospice South West and raises money for a children’s hospice to be built in Cornwall) by holding a green day and recycling aluminium cans - for which they received the Eco-Schools Silver Award in June 2009. “The commitment of staff and students to the environment has definitely changed since we began these projects and we always encourage students with a positive ‘every little thing we do makes a big difference’ attitude,” say Lesley Content, science teacher at the college.

As the examples outlined in this article show, children are interested in sustainability issues and are keen to learn about the environment they live in. The way a school is built can certainly help, but it is also important that schools integrate their sustainable design features into lessons, making connections, and inspiring and motivating their pupils to get them involved. But, above all, it would seem that it is important to stay positive about the future of our environment and ‘do your bit’, regardless of whether or not you have eco-friendly resources. As William Scott, Professor of Education and Head of the Education and Sustainability research programme at the University of Bath, points out: "What teachers in schools have to enable young people to develop is a sense of hope. They have to work, openly and honestly, exploring the issues, but also pointing to examples of the human species being resilient and creative, illustrating that when we put our minds to something and work collaboratively, then problems can be solvable in a whole host of ways."

Links

Kingsmead Primary School in Cheshire - www.kingsmead.cheshire.sch.uk
St Francis of Assisi Academy in Liverpool - www.st-francisofassisi-liverpool.org
Helston Community College in Cornwall - www.helston.cornwall.sch.uk
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) - www.rspb.org.uk
Friends of the Earth - www.foe.co.uk
Sustainability and Environmental Education (SEEd) - www.se-ed.org.uk
Eco-Schools international award programme - www.eco-schools.org.uk
British Council for School Environments - www.bcse.uk.net
Sustainability and Schools project - www.sustainability-and-schools.com
Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and their resources for schools who want to go ‘green’ - www.cabe.org.uk/publications/green-day

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