Embedding sustainable development
successfully
School incorporates sustainable development in all areas of the grounds and
curriculum with enormous success.
Organisation Name:
Crispin School
Region:
South West
Topic:
Sustainable development
Type of Organisation:
Secondary school
Size of Organisation:
1,001 to 1,500
Brief description of the project
There is a long history of teachers in the school who are committed to
environmental and sustainability issues. Sustainable development in the
school received a boost when it won a WWF Curriculum Management award
and staff find it helpful that sustainable development is explicit in the
National Curriculum.
The project is made sustainable by a number of things;
Success produces evidence that encourages others.
Sustainable development is incorporated in the structure of the school
through the school aims, values and ethos, responsibility and
commitment to Sustainable development at senior management level
and encouragement of enthusiasms.
It is a coherent set of values to which everyone in the school can
subscribe.
The culture of the school means that things are not compartmentalised.
The head recognises that sometimes it is necessary to take risks.
Governors and the school bursar are very supportive and involved.
Sustainable development is not an additional burden, things just need
adapting.
Funding and grants for specific projects and Beacon funding.
Practice: curriculum
Subject areas contribute to sustainable development
in the school. For example:
In Mathematics pupils look at angles of the sun for work on the Sundial
project, which is being done in conjunction with the partner school in
Kenya.
Modern Foreign Language pupils use ecological footprint data from
Francophone countries.
Art undertakes a wide range of activities, including involvement with a
project run by a local development education centre.
The PSHE/citizenship programme promotes waste management and
health.
Sustainable development is delivered though assemblies and collapsed
days. Assembly themes include: Rights and responsibilities,
involvement, making decisions, World food day, United Nations day,
World children's day, valuing human rights, stewardship and human
diversity.
Practice: decision making
There is a school council, in which four pupils
from each year meet every two weeks and a small subgroup of the
committee meets with the head. Pupils elected to the school council receive
training in, eg chairing, minute taking and agenda setting. Sometimes pupils
will go out of school to research specific issues, for example bullying and
restorative justice. There is also a year council, which meets every two
weeks and feeds into the school council.
The school has a Green Committee, which coordinates a range of initiatives,
including energy, purchasing and transport issues and actively takes the
message further afield. Members of the committee also go to local primary
schools and do presentations.
Other activities include Youth Watch, which aims to reduce local crime, while
prefects are ‘form friends’, provide Year 7 learning support and operate 'Oi,
Listen 'ere!', a mentoring scheme to help Year 7s settle into their new school.
There is a Year 11 social committee, oversubscribed school choir and a
regular school play. Purchasing and waste
The green committee organises the recycling of mobile phones, paper,
Christmas cards from local residents, print cartridges and cardboard
from the canteen.
A recycling store is allocated. Pupils manage the collection in return for a
free lunch.
In Art, materials are recycled and reused, eg bubble wrap and cartons and
leather from the local shoe factory. Pupils also bring things in from
home.
There is a food cone in the playground to recycle and compost food.
The gardens provide science teachers with plants for starch testing.
Recycled paper and exercise books are often purchased for use by all
departments.
Energy and water
The school has a wind turbine.
Food and drink
The school garden has a greenhouse where pupils grow plants for
classrooms. Pupils grow their own food, which they are then able to
cook and eat in school.
Rather than provide bins for recycling cans the school replaced the vending
machine selling canned drinks with one that sold bottled and healthier
fruit drinks.
The school has no say in the purchasing policy of the canteen as it is run
by the neighbouring college and commercial interests are prioritised.
Pupils campaigned to get rid of a chocolate company's vending machine
and had it replaced with one that included fairly traded chocolate.
The Green Committee runs a fair trade products stall at parents' and open
evenings.
Travel and traffic
How pupils get to school has been audited and an aerial
photo, annotated to show this, is displayed in the corridor. Cycle sheds have
been provided to encourage staff and pupils to cycle to school and the school
is now looking at providing showers. The school has won a grant from Young
Sustrans on the basis of its travel plan.
The school campus
There have been a number of developments. Two seats have been designed
and built in the school playground using recycled timber and an apple and a
plum tree have been planted following a survey to see what would be most
popular.
Using crushed recycled glass as glaze, pupils in Year 9 made tiles decorated
with insects, which were used for a pathway in the school garden. They have
also created a fair trade garden with a mural, which was opened by a banana
picker and planted with drought resistant plants. Inclusion and
participation
Involvement in sustainable development is inclusive and
accessible to all pupils. The school aims encourage pupils to respect and care
for each other; and pupils do not ridicule each other when they stand up and
make a contribution. PSHE lessons support this: pupils look at social issues
such as racism, ethnic diversity and human rights and a Kenya link focusing
on diversity.
There is a lift in the tower block and teachers swap rooms to ensure that
pupils with access problems can be taught on the ground floor.
Local well-being
The school has a good reputation locally and people from
local organisations and businesses are willing to allow visits or come to give
talks at the school.
A grant from DFID/British Council Global School Partnerships scheme
facilitates a partnership with a school in Kenya which has several benefits:
There are curriculum links with Art, Geography, PSHE, Drama, Mathematics
(comparing data on transport, water and waste), English and Sport.
Both schools are currently focusing on HIV/AIDS.
Pupils look at Kenyan wildlife, collaborating with two primary schools and
the RSPB.
The partnership involves peer education where UK pupils apply to go to
Kenya to work with Kenyan pupils on developing school councils.
There is also the sundial project on which the two schools will be working
together.
Crispin works with national organisations including the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF), RSPB, the British Council, and Learning through Landscapes.
Outcomes of the project
Positive attitudes - it is rare for any pupil to be ridiculed by another pupil
for 'having a go, due to the general ethos of school where pupils
participate in so many spheres.
High levels of participation - there are many varied opportunities for pupils
to become involved at a range of different levels.
Resources and staffing
The deputy head teacher has responsibility for sustainable development
but it is viewed as the responsibility of all teachers in meeting the
school aims.
Sustainable developmentis explicit in the aims of the school, 'pupils should
be equipped to contribute to a sustainable common future' and
includes 'being committed to social justice'. This is a vehicle for
promoting the school values that are the basis of all school activity.
There is also an environmental education coordinator whose brief is moving
towards the inclusion of social justice.
Staff from the school are often asked to provide professional development
sessions at training events.
Time is provided for staff to develop schemes of work.
External support and information has been provided by WWF, RSPB, the
British Council, the Glastonbury Festival, Learning through
Landscapes.
Challenges
Difficulties in influencing purchasing policy in the canteen as it is run by the
neighbouring college. Discussions are being set up to discuss certain
issues.
Much sustainable development provision happens outside the formal
classroom. There is concern whether those not directly involved still
receive a good education in sustainability.
Sustainable development is very pupil driven: how can this be continued
and what happens if enthusiasm diminishes?
Young people are very ambitious - and sometimes impatient - and have to
learn that things take time. This can be demotivating.
There are conflicting pressures between sustainable transport and parents'
views about the personal safety of their children. This is a difficult
issue to resolve.
The school has been unable to find an organisation to take low-grade
waste.
There is not enough time to do everything.
Lessons learnt
A school needs to be prepared to take some risks.
Things happen slowly - a lesson that pupils need to learn as well. Things
have happened in the school through evolution rather than revolution.
What's next?
A new classroom block is proposed. The school community is keen that it
should be a sustainable building. This will cost more to build but be
cheaper to run.
The school is looking at creating opportunities for pupils to take more
responsibility for their learning, self-discipline and the welfare of other
pupils.
The school hopes to develop stronger links between senior school pupils
and feeder primary schools to ensure that pupils look after each
other's welfare more.
In terms of the partnership with the school in Kenya, the school is looking
at ways of extending its collaboration with local schools so that the
neighbouring 11-16 comprehensive and feeder primary schools are
involved.
Context
Crispin School is a comprehensive school of 1,142 pupils aged 11 to 16 in the
town of Street in Somerset. It is a technology college with Beacon school
status and has been selected as a Leading Edge school. It is also an Eco
School. Pupils come from the town and the surrounding rural, agricultural
area. 30% travel to the school by bus. The school is high on the county
council value-added tables; judged 'very good' by an Ofsted inspection in
2001.