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Youth and Education Stories:
Solar for London has been helping schools across the capital install solar hot water and photovoltaic systems, project managing funding applications for education materials and the installations themselves. Schools for all age groups, from nursery to secondary, are becoming involved with solar technology in order to reduce fuel bills, create clean electricity and even heat swimming pools. The installations provide a useful practical demonstration unit for science lessons, helping to bring environmental issues to the centre of school life while demonstrating that positive action can be taken. Solar systems help schools tackle their carbon footprint, and, when combined with energy efficiency lessons, they encourage the whole school to save
its energy. Tamworth Manor, a secondary school in South London, installed a five kilowatt photovoltaic system and six metres Solar systems can be integrated into a school design. At Sydenham High School, the new music hall has been designed to incorporate a solar roof made from photovoltaic tiles. Solar for London provides a full consultancy service to help schools go solar, from an initial survey to finding out if your site is suitable. They offer a wide range of services including system design, identifying sources of funding, assisting with applications and managing all the installation from start to finish. Contact: High Ham is Top Straw
A brand new classroom with straw bale walls will soon be in use by the children of High Ham CE Primary School, near Langport in Somerset. The ‘eco’ classroom, the first to be built in Somerset, uses the latest in sustainable building methods. The classroom, which was recently completed, replaces a condemned pre-fabricated unit. It was designed by ARCO2, an architectural firm that specialises in sustainable design and construction. It was built by Dorset Centre for Rural Skills, an organisation working to provide training and education in sustainable building and rural skills, as well as offering a specialist construction service. The eco-features of the classroom include a timber frame on a ‘pad’ foundation to minimise the use of concrete, high levels of insulation using sheep’s wool and walls packed with straw bales. The roof is planted with sedum to reduce water run-off and enhance insulation. There is a low flush toilet to save water and the building uses natural and local products including lime renders. Jane Rosser, the Headteacher at High Ham Primary School says: “It has been a long process. Everyone has worked very hard to make it a success. The children have benefited from an enriched curriculum as they have seen the project from every stage and have even got involved in some of the decisions.” The project has been fully supported by Somerset County Council’s Sustainability Group, the School and its teaching staff, parents, pupils and the Governing body. The Chair of Governors, Janie Dromgoole said: “We are delighted our efforts to improve the school have been achieved sustainably. The Governing Body believes that it is important for all children to see the benefits of caring for the environment at a young age. Our classroom provides a wonderful calm, inspiring teaching space that is even better than we had imagined. All we have to do now is raise the funds to replace our remaining two portakabins to a similar standard!” This classroom offers a wonderful chance to bring sustainable building techniques and materials into a mainstream construction project and it demonstrates how it can be achieved with minimal damage to the environment. As one of the first sustainable classrooms in the area, High Ham’s new building has attracted national interest from educational and building sectors, including interest from Kevin McCloud, from the Channel 4 series, Grand Designs. Contact: Making Cuts on CO2 is a Winner Cassop Primary School, a school serving two former coal-mining villages in County Durham, is set to become a model sustainable school for the UK and further afield. Stimulated by growing international concern about climate change, in the late 90's the school decided to expand its environmental initiatives, and aim to become as carbon neutral as possible. Over the last eight years, a dedicated team of pupils, teachers, caretaker, parents, energy companies and members of the wider community have transformed the school into a pioneering Eco-School inspiring others to follow. Pupils at the school have become the driving force promoting sustainable energy use in their community, acting as Energy Monitors in the classroom and Eco Ambassadors demonstrating their impressive knowledge and approach to local and overseas visitors. The school has drastically cut its carbon emissions by using a host of renewable sources and energy efficiency measures. A third of electricity needs are met by a wind turbine erected in the school playing field, with surplus electricity going back to the grid. In the classroom, teachers have closely integrated energy theory and practise into the school's curriculum by analysing their energy consumption figures in maths lessons, producing posters with 'green' messages in art classes etc. Cassop has inspired many schools in the North-East and other organisations to come and see renewable technology in action and learn from the school's experience. As Head Teacher, Mr Jim McManners explains: "The ethos of sustainability is embedded in our school's work and life. We have attempted to 'live' sustainability rather than to simply talk about it". The wind turbine was installed in the school field as a joint project with Durham County Council and Northern Electric. Afterwards pupils led a consultation process in the two villages the school serves, resulting in an astounding 90 percent support for the installation, despite attempts from outside the area to influence the community against it. The wind turbine installation produces 50,000 KW per annum – saving 122 tones of CO2. According to David Ford, Chief Inspector, Durham County Council Education Department: "The Local Authority considers that Cassop, as a practical test bed illustration of what can be achieved, is a vital part of our drive to improve energy sustainability across our community of schools." Cassop School's energy initiatives:
Cassop hopes to use the Ashden prize money to help extend the Environment Extra programme: providing demonstration models of other renewable technologies; producing new interactive displays and converting a classroom into a laboratory dedicated to sustainable energy teaching. Mr Jim McManners, Head Teacher, is available for interview, as are some of the children involved in the school's energy initiatives. It all started with a tireless campaign over four years to get solar panels fitted to the school roof. Beating off many bureaucratic hurdles along the way, Eastchurch Church of England Primary School was relentless in its mission. In 2005 it finally got what it wanted, and since then has strengthened its commitment to energy sustainability. The school has an Energy Policy, energy teams (E-teams) of dedicated pupils acting as energy stewards and excellent energy education which thrusts climate change solutions right into the classroom. Next on the list they hope will be a wind turbine. Despite serving an area of high deprivation and low literacy, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, in 1998 the school became the first in the county to achieve Eco-School status. Pupils are at the centre of these achievements. An eco-code devised by pupils - "We Use Energy Wisely" – has become the overriding school ethos. E-teams of pupils in Year 4 (age 8 and 9) work with the school caretaker to record gas and electricity readings via LCD displays located outside the school canteen. The teams also go on patrol at break-time to check doors, windows and lights. Each week they award certificates to the best class. Every class also appoints Energy and Recycling Monitors to check that agreed measures are applied. The pupils are full of enthusiasm for these initiatives, as one of them describes: "We only get fifteen minutes play time before lunch because we're E-Team, but it don't bother me because it's so important." On the technical front, the solar PV panels on the school roof have generated around 1500 kW hours and saved a tonne and a half of CO2, there is low energy lighting throughout the school, solar-powered path lighting, covered areas to limit heat loss and old fridges and freezers have been replaced with energy efficient ones. The teachers at Eastchurch raise awareness in imaginative ways, teaching about broad issues like food miles and running a regular competition to design a leaflet on energy saving tips, with a prize of low energy light-bulbs going to the winner. What's more, the best leaflets are then sent out into the community to spread the ideas. Regular community Action Days, plays and assemblies are used to involve parents and locals. Beyond the school gates, parents who can are encouraged to walk to school by providing covered areas where they can drop off and pick up their children. Since half the school's pupils come from two communities some six miles away, the school opted to become one of the first to use low energy "Yellow Buses" introduced by Kent County Council in 2005. In the kitchen, there is also an effort to reduce food miles by sourcing local produce wherever possible and an effective recycling scheme on the premises also acts as a community recycling point. Many observers and teachers within the school remark on the high levels of self-esteem among pupils, which they believe is due to the participatory school ethos, encouraged by Deputy Head Paula Owens, the driving force behind many of these initiatives. Some pupils have even made presentations in other schools' assemblies to share their experience. A strong shared vision has brought out the best in the children who are full of commitment and brimming with ideas on what they want to achieve. Eastchurch School plans to use the Ashden prize money to contribute to the installation of a wind turbine on the school premises. Contact: Cob is an ancient building method, used since people first started to create shelters. It is made from clay sub-soil, sand, straw and water all mixed together, often by stamping on it with feet. It is forked or hand placed on to a stone footing to create solid, long lasting walls. Using cob in building is excellent practice, as it requires little energy to extract the raw materials, make or build with it. Getting children and young people to work with cob teaches them about teamwork, builds their confidence, encourages empowerment through being engaged in both a practical and creative activity, but, most of all, it allows them to have fun. Since April, we have been building a bus shelter from stone, wood, cob and thatch with local pupils from Helston, in Cornwall. These young people are having trouble with their normal school work so we hope this will inspire them to learn new skills while also taking pride in what they are creating. Ironically, bus shelters in the area seem to be the favourite gathering spaces for young people, so this one will be used by those who have helped build it. We hope that this project will set an example for other schools and local authorities, who we are working with to make this project a reality. We have had such positive results from other projects with children that we feel strongly about getting them out of the normal classroom setting, getting their hands dirty and creating a beautiful structure. Later on in the year we will be in Newquay, building a whole secondary school out of cob with the help of some of the students. It will be the first school to be constructed entirely from cob and, with 20 rooms, it is to be the largest earth building in the western www.cobincornwall.com ‘Building with Cob: a step by step guide’ by Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce is available from Green Books Website: www.greenbooks.co.uk (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.) |
