Eco School
A week long focus on creating an Eco-Pledge
to becoming a greener community
Runners up at the 2009 Leeds City Council COMMUNITY AND CITY PRIDE AWARDS
Before launching the idea of an eco based theme week to staff and pupils, we put together a pack of web based resources and signed up to some key organizations such as Eco Schools (to whom we are submitting an application for Silver award) and Green Britain Day. The Senior Leadership Team backed the project straight away and the final week of the summer term would then be known as Eco-Week.
The planning of Eco-Week began in earnest in April 2009 on the following levels:
- Subject Leaders planned eco-based lesson plans
- The Arts Specialism pitched to Leeds artists for eco project ideas
- The Yr10 Performing Arts Work Experience staff and students were given a brief for an eco performance to be performed to all
- Assemblies planned for first day to include a historical context and overview of plans for the week
- Green wristbands were ordered to be worn by all involved and all who made an Eco-Pledge to become greener citizens during the week and beyond
- A teaser assembly a few weeks before where pupils were shown examples of personal eco changes that could reduce waste and energy consumption
- Various carbon-footprint tests were tested for suitability ready for all form groups to calculate their footprints on Day 1
As the weeks went by, we secured the booking of 5 professional artists (from a field of over 30 who applied) who would work with the majority of pupils at points during the week – these included Storytelling, Scrap Drumming, Recycled Carnival costumes, Eco-Robots, Recycled bead animals and more…
On the first morning, all staff and pupils made eco-pledges and these were logged by the ICT department onto a database. During the week, pupils were consulted about their views and opinions on where the school should look to improve as an Eco-School and on the final afternoon, after a fantastic performance by Yr10 students, the Headteacher, David Gurney, shared the school’s Eco-Pledge with everyone and promised to continue to strive to become a greener school. These pledges broke down into 3 main categories of Transport, Recycling and Energy Conservation.
November 2009 saw the next stage of our eco journey as we again teamed up with Eco Schools and The Pod for Switch Off Fortnight where pupils were allowed to explore the Interactive Eco-Week Resource. Previous theme weeks had included a newsletter that documented the week but this year we wanted to conserve paper and printing so the creation of an ICT based newsletter allowed exciting opportunities to revisit the events in a modern interactive way. This resource gives information, videos, photos, evaluation and weblinks.
Eco Week 2009