Case Study 2 - Tithe Barn School, Stockport

Tithe Barn Primary School is a single form entry school of 236 pupils in an education authority area that has been actively promoting energy, waste and water conservation. The initial impetus was a publicised presentation about resource conservation issues that attracted the deputy headteacher, Alistair Blackburn. He attended the session with one of the school governors and they came away convinced that they should involve the children in trying to reduce waste arising, and the school's consumption of water and electricity. Year 5 was selected as the core class, and they had the waste issue introduced to them as "our caretaker is having trouble with the amount of waste he has to store". Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council is actively supporting the Waste Watch initiative, 'Schools Waste Action Club', and the children made contact with the Stockport based development worker, Sally Scorer, who went to the school to discuss the issues with the year 5 class. Sally introduced the pupils to the idea of a waste audit. This was carried out by the children, and was based on all the school's waste collected over three days. They identified paper and organic wastes as the two largest categories, which resulted in a plan to collect paper in separate sacks for recycling (through the Stockport Council scheme), as well as scrap paper boxes in each class for storing paper that has been used on one side only. The Year 5 class informed and involved the rest of the school through presentations in assembly, and through the provision of scrap paper trays.

The rapping robot - Cycler also visited and spoke to the whole school about the need to reduce waste. Waste paper 'hot spots' were identified (e.g. headteacher's office, photocopy room) and paper-collection sacks placed there. Pupils continue to monitor the amount of paper collected in these sacks. A subsequent waste audit revealed that the amount of material going to the bins has fallen by between 30 and 40%. Since the second waste audit the pupils have instituted a scheme to reward those who regularly eat all the food they take at lunchtime. Initial assessment suggests this has reduced organic wastes by nearly a third. Pupils are now considering compost bins to reduce further the amount of organic waste going into the waste stream.

The headteacher, Tim Buckley, worked with the Year 5 class to examine electricity and water use. The Stockport Home Energy Efficiency Officer came to the school and trained the pupils to gather data on their domestic energy use, and housing type. The officer used this information to produce advice for each household on ways that they could reduce their fuel bills and consumption. Mr Buckley used the experience to encourage the pupils to examine simple ways of reducing electricity and heating oil consumption at school. The pupils act as informal monitors during breaks, and in their own class, making sure that lights are only on if needed, doors are kept shut, and electrical equipment is turned off when not in use. The pupils have also monitored the use of taps, ensuring that they are not left running, presenting the need to save water to the whole school through assemblies, and reporting dripping taps so that they can be repaired promptly. Monitoring water and fuel bills indicates that the school saved about £500 in the first year of the project.

Ann Coffey, MP for Stockport, visited the school to hear how they had been working to reduce their resource use. This helped reinforce the message to the whole school.

The active involvement of both headteacher and deputy head certainly ensured the project had a good start. The fact that the local authority was actively recruiting schools, and offering a range of support - in partnership with the voluntary sector - helped to drive the project forward.

Taken from "Greening Britain's Schools". Downloadable from www.e4s.org.uk