Glenmoor School - Unit - Waste

The School has a 'Green Club' containing pupils who are interested in doing their bit for the environment. It currently contains about 30 pupils mostly from years 7,8,9 and 10 and meets every week.

The school first heard about the scheme when they attended a Citizenship conference at the Town Hall in Bournemouth organised by Neil Short the borough's environment co-ordinator. They were given £250 from Marks and Spencer at this event . The school were able to choose what to spend this money on and although paper recycling was popular, the final decision was that the money should be put towards picnic benches.
Paper recycling didn't get forgotten however, and Sam Temple, the teacher who runs the Green Club contacted Canford Environmental who gave the school £300 towards purchasing paper recycling boxes (made from recycled plastic) for all the classrooms and offices. Now every classroom and office has a paper recycling box. These are emptied each week into the large blue paper wheelie bins of which there are 2 and which are then emptied by Perrys.

The Green Club put big bright signs on the boxes to draw people's attention to the box. They also put up signs in each classroom, office and area to encourage people to recycle their paper.

Photo Disc (pupils putting labels on recycling boxes)

The scheme has been running for a year and the number of ordinary waste paladins has been reduced, thereby saving money for the school.

The school recycles ink cartridges for charity.

The canteen currently sells cartons of drinks rather than cans having looked into can recycling.

The school has also tried to reduce the litter around the school. The school had litter duties. The Green club undertook a survey of where the bins were and how many there were. Following this survey the school council decided that more bins were needed in the hope this would reduce the need for litter duties which were not very popular! The school purchased 20 more litter bins and the litter has been reduced.

Having made such a good start already, the school decided to do the 'Waste' unit of the Green Schools Award Scheme. The Green Team has been set up and comprises the Green Schools Co-ordinator Sam Temple, Chair of Governors Mrs Coy, Governor Mr Dymott, Mr Temple of the school SMT team, several interested teachers and 1 representative from each year school council. It also includes the caretaker Craig. The green team meets once a term. The team decided to undertake waste first because of the work they had already undertaken. They also carried out the waste audit.
The team have chosen their practical and curriculum targets for the unit. Curriculum work includes work in Geography within the 'Value of the Environment' work and also in the Sustainable Development unit in year 8. It is also important in the GCSE Geography . In Design and Technology they students are also encouraged to undertake individual projects looking at how they can contribute to recycling. The environment is also looked at in RE and in Citizenship and PSHE.

There have been regular slots in the School Newsletter about the Green Club and the Green Schools Award and the work they are trying to do.

Sam's aim is to encourage the team to get the portfolio ready for accreditation in July.

The School then intends to do the Water Unit. After Easter they will record how much water is being used. Then over the 6 weeks summer holidays, they will be placing hippos in the cisterns. They will then be able to compare water useage after the summer holidays. The school also recently were awarded £250 from Marks and Spencer, and have used the money to purchase self closing taps. A brand new building has just been completed and although these do not drip, self closing taps were not put in when built.!!
There will also be a competition for signs and phrases which could be used to encourage water saving.

There is a year 8 visit to the Eden Project arranged for October which will be a cross curricular project to raise awareness of the environment to support the geography scheme of work where the focus of the term is Environmental Concerns in Geography.