Waste Education at Landkey Primary School
How one Devon primary school engaged with Resource Futures' Waste Education programme.
Overview
Landkey Primary school in North Devon requested support from Resource Futures after successfully funding and building an environmental/ vegetable garden. They were keen to take their efforts a step further and come up with practical ways to reduce their waste in school and promote a strong environmental ethos that would be taken on board at home too.
Assembly and waste audit
The whole school had a lively start to the day one Thursday in early January 2009 when they had an assembly from Mrs Recycle and Sally Jackson (Resource Futures.) Coinciding with the term's recycling topic which involved learning about waste, landfill sites and how to reduce their school waste, the assembly was perfectly timed and well-received.
The Year 3 Jellyfish class were the motivators behind the day's events, spurred on by their supportive teacher Vicky Cohen. They carried out a waste audit with Sally, examining the whole school waste, hand-sorting landfill waste into categories and looking at ways they could Reduce, Reuse and Recycle by making an action plan. Lesley Isaac, the district recycling officer, visited to offer advice on contamination and the children were able to see the kerbside collection van in action!
They discovered their total daily waste (from classrooms, office, dinner hall and playground) weighed in at 8520g, with the heaviest categories being uncooked food and garden waste (2600g) followed by paper (1950g).
It was “a great day for the kids with an excellent balance of hands-on activities and information” – Vicky Cohen, teacher.
Despite having an active Eco Council who carry out spot checks and are helped along by an enthusiastic, supportive sustainability coordinator, the audit highlighted the need for more waste education and raising awareness.
Learning more about 'rubbish'
Jellyfish class set about sharing what they had seen with gusto and booked in a series of activity days with Resource Futures, helping to spread the waste reduction message across the whole school.
Later in January Sally ran a Mini-beasts in the compost bin workshop with 32 reception children. They loved the movement and drama, pretending to be happy little recycling mini-beasts! Year 3 and Year 6 took part in 3Rs House workshops where they identified differences between two homes and thought about more eco friendly options and waste minimisation, looking at real examples of products in the classrooms.
Just before Easter most of the school learnt about reducing resource use and enjoyed the pleasure and creativity of making beautiful hand made paper from shredded confidential waste paper. The support teacher commented, “As a whole school I have never seen so many children (and staff) happily absorbed and whole heartedly involved in an activity.”
Once spring was underway, Sally visited again to deliver a Habitats and Food Chains workshop to the Year 6, where the children got to meet live mini-beasts and learn more about the amazing process of composting and the complexities of food chains. Year 4 had a similar workshop and Year 3 participated in a Growing Plants workshop where they could learn about plant structure and function, pot on vegetable plants, meet mini-beasts and learn more about composting.
The school have found the Waste Education from Resource Futures to be “Excellently gauged with a perfect balance of activities” and children have enjoyed their workshops and been interested in what they have learnt.
For more information about the Waste Education programme in Devon click here.