ECO-SCHOOLS WITH ENERGY

Evaluation Report of a Project Led By Solway Heritage

The Project

was funded by:

The Project was managed by:

Solway Heritage 7 Church Crescent DG1 1DF Tel/Fax: 01387 247543 Website: www.solwayheritage.co.uk Email: [email protected]

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 2

CONTENTS

1 Background 4

2 Project Summary 6

3 Project Budget 7

4 Activities 8

4.1 Working with School Children 8

4.2 Training Courses 9

4.3 Fluffville Saves Energy 9

4.4 The Litter Project Calendar 10

4.5 Fluffville Films 10

5 Impact on the Community and Feedback 11

6 Lessons Learned and the Future of Eco-Schools with Energy 13

Appendix 1 – Eco-Workshop for parents at Whithorn 14

Appendix 2 – Design Brief for the Litter Project Calendar 15

Appendix 3 – Fluffville Films Secondary School Puppet Project 17

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 3 1 BACKGROUND

The Eco-Schools Award Scheme is an international award programme that rewards environmental management, action and sustainable development education in schools and educational establishments. It has a participatory and holistic approach with a combination of learning and action that provides an ideal vehicle for schools to embark on meaningful improvements to their school environment and local community. It also provides pupils with the confidence and detailed information on issues to allow them to influence the lives of others, such as school staff, families, local authorities and other young people.

In there had been a five year history of organised Eco-Schools development, managed and led by Solway Heritage, which had greatly impacted on the levels of awards achieved by schools in the region and the attitudes and knowledge of young people about the issues facing them with regard to sustainable development. Over those five years the Eco-Schools Programme had provided support to schools on composting, waste education, ‘Global Footprinting’, cycle skills and ‘Travelling Green’, in addition to Eco-Schools support and development training. Schools were requesting additional support in the Eco-Schools topic area of Energy. With the developments in footprinting tools for schools and the new Eco- Schools topic “Sustaining Our World”, schools were keen to develop energy reduction or even energy generation projects. In Dumfries and Galloway there was an opportunity to support schools to develop an innovative project through the network that had been built up over the past five years. The Eco-Schools Steering Group and Solway Heritage decided to apply for funding to help the schools to access this specialist support.

The aim of the “Eco-Schools with Energy” project was to provide schools across Dumfries and Galloway with a support network to reduce energy consumption in schools; give access to resources and funding streams; and give lessons in schools to assist them to take part in the “Energy” and “Sustaining Our World” topics of Eco-Schools and the WWF Schools Global Footprint project. They were also provided with information on local energy projects such as the gas management system at Lochar Moss which generates energy from the methane gas at the local landfill site and the solid recovered fuel which is produced at EcoDeco from municipal waste in the region and used by industrial companies to make energy. These activities were used to demonstrate and promote a greener lifestyle to children in school and encourage them to take this message home to their families.

A full time Project Officer was employed to provide a consistent service, based on the Eco- Schools topics ‘Energy’ and ‘Sustaining our World’, to all schools across Dumfries and Galloway. This included:

• providing advice and practical solutions to schools to help make changes to their day to day activities to reduce energy consumption.

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 4 • visits to Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools to assist them to undertake school energy reviews.

• providing support to schools via a number of medium e.g. telephone, internet, GLOW network, Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Intranet, video conference call etc.

• providing a resource library with appropriate age specific learning tools for schools.

• running teacher Continuing Professional Development training sessions.

• providing schools with information and contacts to enable them to investigate their energy consumption and ways to reduce their energy use.

• undertaking training to ensure the Project Officer keeps up to date with current practices in sustainable development education.

• maintaining an up-to-date website for the Eco-Schools programme.

• providing termly newsletters.

• servicing the Eco-Schools Dumfries and Galloway Steering Group.

• maintaining good relationships with Eco-Schools Scotland (the national parent body).

• liaising with relevant groups and organisations.

• supporting schools with a range of Eco-Schools topics and with their applications to Eco-Schools Scotland for awards.

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 5 2 PROJECT SUMMARY

The “Eco-Schools with Energy” project ran from April 2009 to March 2011. The aim of the project was to provide schools across Dumfries and Galloway with a support network to reduce energy consumption in schools; give access to resources and funding streams; and give lessons in schools to assist them to take part in the “Energy” and “Sustaining Our World” topics of Eco-Schools. Information was also provided on local energy projects. These activities demonstrated and promoted a greener lifestyle to children in schools and encouraged them to take this message home to their families.

The project achieved the following outputs and outcomes:

 Over 6,000 children participated in the Energy Roadshow or the Sustaining our World presentation.

 91 schools took part in the Energy Roadshow.

 213 training sessions were run at those Schools.

 Seven training courses were delivered.

 The Fluffville Saves Energy book was produced by the Project Officer, launched at Mouswald Primary School and distributed to every primary school in Dumfries and Galloway.

 A litter calendar was produced in partnership with the People’s Project and designed by school children from St Josephs College and .

 Partnerships were established across Dumfries and Galloway which helped to ensure the smooth running of the region-wide project.

 Awareness of the need to reduce energy was raised throughout the time of the project through press releases, attendance at events and information being passed through children onto families.

 The project was selected as an example of best practice in the Leader Rural Awards.

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 6 3 PROJECT BUDGET

The project was anticipated to cost £81,666 with Leader providing 50% of the funding (£40,833 awarded). The remainder of the funding (50%) was provided by E-ON, the windfarm company. The costs incurred by the project during the two years were on target.

Additional funding was provided by Dumfries and Galloway Council for two additional projects - the production costs of the book, ‘Fluffville Saves Energy’ and a short documentary ‘Fluffville Films’.

The total actual project costs were £81,552.68.

The actual amount claimed from Leader for the project was £40,776.34, with £40,833.00 paid by E.ON UK Ltd.

Project Officer, Liz Gunby, working with Park Primary School,

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 7 4 ACTIVITIES

4.1 Working with School Children

Over the course of two years the Project Officer, Liz Gunby (Sarah Turnbull for the first three months), has worked with over 6,000 children from 91 schools. This was achieved by delivering the ‘Energy Roadshow’ or the presentation on ‘Sustaining our World’ to the children and working with groups within the schools to help them achieve their Green Flag status. There were always teachers sitting in on the presentations and so 213 teachers were also trained in these topics.

The Project Officer would often gear the presentation to the specific needs of the school giving a much wider range of talks on Energy along with the basic Energy Roadshow. A number of age related presentations were developed for the topics and the Project Officer also created a number of other shows. For example, she developed a presentation to look at the pros and cons of Electricity versus Clockwork and worked with some schools in more detail helping them to create their own characters and ways of saving energy, such as at Troqueer Primary School.

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Pow! SSSccchhhoooooolll Zap! Boom!

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Electricity v Clockwork Presentation Troqueer Primary Presentation

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4.2 Training Courses

A number of training courses have been run as part of this project. A CPD (Continuing Professional Development) session was held for teachers in Lockerbie on Energy and an Eco- Workshop for parents was held at Whithorn. The parents had requested the session so they could find out about leading a greener lifestyle and support the children in the Eco-Schools Group. The choices for the Eco-Workshop given to the parents are outlined in Appendix 1. A Sustainability Day was also held in partnership with the Crichton Carbon Centre at Creetown Primary School with CPD Sessions for Teachers.

The Project Officer attended the World Oceans Day Events at Rockcliffe and Port William with a separate day attended with a live link to schools on GLOW, the Scottish schools on-line education community. This was the first time that this had been attempted in Dumfries and Galloway and proved to be really successful with the children able to chat to the Project Officer and Dumfries and Galloway Council Rangers on the beach about what they could see over the link such as the rock pools with crabs and seaweed.

The Project Officer also attended a number of educational and environmental events where she was able to provide training for teachers, parents and other adult groups. This included twice attending the annual Environment Fair at DGOne and the University of Glasgow Science Mayhem Day.

4.3 Fluffville Saves Energy

The Project Officer wrote, designed and produced ‘Fluffville Saves Energy’ to provide a teaching resource for primary school age children. The book covers the topic of Energy and shows children what happens locally with recycling and waste treatment. The book was launched at Mouswald Primary School and has been distributed to each primary school in Dumfries and Galloway. The production of the booklet was funded by Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 9 4.4 Litter Calendar

The Project Officer was approached by Mark Jardine of the People’s Project to set up a competition for secondary schools in Dumfries to produce a calendar for 2011 which raised awareness of the problem of litter in the environment, especially in the Dumfries area. The Design Brief is attached at Appendix 2. Although there was a short timescale involved, there were some great designs with the winning entries coming from St Josephs College and Maxwelltown High School. The calendar was launched at the end of 2010 with the school children of the winning designs.

Litter pigs from Maxwelltown High School

4.5 Fluffville Films Secondary Schools Puppet Project

The Project Officer was keen to set up a film project working with secondary school age children. This took the form of a puppet show which was filmed from the starting point of making the puppets right the way through to putting on the puppet show. The film was then launched at the Robert Burns Film Theatre in May 2011, during Film Festival Week. Fluffville Films has worked with young people from Maxwelltown High School, , and Dumfries and Galloway Befriending Project. The aim of the film was to promote an energy-saving message and develop the self-esteem and team-working skills of young people. The design brief is shown at Appendix 3.

Tiddles, the puppet in production

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 10 5 IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITY AND FEEDBACK

This project has been really successful in engaging with large numbers of children and schools across Dumfries and Galloway through the innovative presentations and workshops that the Project Officer has led. Some of the comments from participants are given below:

From Andrew Brown, a teacher at Maxwelltown High School, “We have been delighted with the input from the Eco-Schools Dumfries and Galloway into Maxwelltown High School, both in mainstream and particularly in the Learning Centre, working with pupils with learning and/or physical disabilities. The Eco-Schools Coordinator is enthusiastic, capable and knowledgeable and we are enjoying her input in many ways. I am absolutely delighted with the work we have achieved with Eco-Schools over the past term and look forward to continued partnership working in the future”.

From Fiona Boyam, a Teacher at Mouswald Primary School , “Staff and pupils at Mouswald School would like to say how highly they value the service provided by the Eco Schools Coordinator. Liz Gunby is always willing to help with any query and has come out to our school on several occasions to carry out the Energy Roadshow, Sustaining Our World and a Recycled Christmas Card Enterprise.

She also launched the children’s book ‘Fluffville saves Energy’ book from our school, which was an event enjoyed by everyone.

We are working towards our fourth Green Flag and appreciate the partnership we have with Eco Schools Dumfries and Galloway.

Thank you”.

From Evelyn Steele, P7 Class Teacher and Eco-School Coordinator, Whithorn Primary School , “The Eco-Schools with Energy Coordinator has been an Invaluable asset to our school. She is always available to give advice and regularly comes into school to help and work with classes when asked. We are in the process of attaining our first Green Flag and have been highly motivated as a school by Elizabeth Gunby's enthusiasm for Eco-Schools. The pupils enjoy her visits and have learnt a great deal while looking at the three areas of Energy, Litter and Transport. Every class in Whithorn Primary is involved from Nursery to P7 which I think is due to Elizabeth encouraging and working with all stages. This is a fabulous resource for the region and Whithorn Primary fully support its continuance and hope that funding is forthcoming for schools to further benefit from inputs”.

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 11 From Julie Turner, Volunteer Coordinator (Stranraer Area), Dumfries and Galloway Befriending Project , “Just wanted to say thank you so much for the fantastic opportunity you gave our young people, befrienders and staff (Fiona and I certainly enjoyed ourselves), with the puppet workshops. The whole experience of being involved with Fluffville Films has given the young people so much self-confidence, team-working skills and above all else – great fun!”

From Brenda Proctor, Learning Support Teacher, Maxwelltown High School ,”I would just like to say what fun everybody had working on Fluffville Films (apart from my speech - mind you, the others all thought that was fun!) You were really great, full of enthusiasm and super with the kids. Stuart made a great impression and his approach was wonderful and helpful to everyone. You both fitted in with our learning centre very well indeed. I'm sure it will be as successful at your other schools.”

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5 LESSONS LEARNED AND THE FUTURE OF ECO-SCHOOLS WITH ENERGY

The biggest challenge of the project was that the first Project Officer running Eco-Schools with Energy left to go back to teaching after the first three months of the project. The lesson learned from this was to ensure that future projects have a recruitment budget that would cover this eventuality. A speedy recruitment was very important so that the project programme was not delayed. However, the recruitment process produced several high calibre applicants and Solway Heritage was very fortunate to employ Elizabeth Gunby, whose enthusiastic approach not only achieved but exceeded the target of schools visited with the Energy Roadshow.

The future of Eco-Schools with Energy has been secured albeit in a slightly different format. Funding for another two years has been secured from Leader, E-ON UK Ltd and Dumfries and Galloway Council to carry out the Eco-Schools Dumfries and Galloway Project. This will not only cover the Energy topic but also the new ‘Food in the Environment’ topic of Eco-Schools. The Project has been transferred to Dumfries and Galloway Council to run for the next two years and will hopefully be mainstreamed in the future through the Sustainability Department.

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 13 APPENDIX 1 – ECO-WORKSHOP CHOICES FOR PARENTS AT WHITHORN

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Would you like to learn how to make a bird box out of old wood? Or how about making home-made paper using dried flowers, seeds and leaves? Have fun with your children using loo-roll-middles and empty yoghurt pots to create monsters and weird animals……or see how easy it is to make a glove puppet using nothing but a balloon and old newspaper. Cheer up the garden or window sill with decorated plant pots and delicious herbs and learn how to make compost from your ordinary kitchen waste.

All these activities are low-cost and will save the planet – so let’s get Eco-Friendly!

Please tick the box or boxes for the workshops which appeal to you.

Hand-made paper □

Paper mache Puppets □

Junk Monsters □

Bird Boxes □

Compost making □

Plant pots and herbs □

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 14 APPENDIX 2 – DESIGN BRIEF FOR THE LITTER PROJECT CALENDAR COMPETITION

Secondary Schools Calendar Competition– Design Brief – a collaborative project between Dumfries Schools

Participating Schools and Partners: St Joseph’s College Maxwelltown High School The People’s Project Eco-Schools Dumfries and Galloway

Design Outcome: A spiral-bound A4 calendar for 2011 based on the theme - litter . One high-quality calendar will be produced between all four Dumfries Secondary Schools, with copies for each school to sell. Calendars can be sold for a minimum of £5.00 per unit. There is potential for setting up a small enterprise and / or for selling at Christmas Fairs etc. Each school will illustrate three months, which will be chosen at the discretion of the judging panel. The overall best entry will feature as the front cover.

Brief: You are required to produce artwork for a 2011 calendar based on the problem of litter. You can interpret ‘litter’ in whichever way you choose – it could be dropping food and sweetie wrappers, empty drinks cans and bottles. It could also be defacement of road signs, or graffiti in public places. How you chose to understand and react to the term is up to you. Your response can be an illustration, photograph, cartoon, comic strip or piece of graphics / typography.

Methodology: The Eco-Schools Coordinator is happy to come a present the idea to students at Assemblies and / or class / registration sessions. She is also available to work with students during lunch time or after school to assist with generation of ideas, producing roughs and the design process. The project could be worked collaboratively, for example, someone could write the copy and someone else create the illustrations – this isn’t just for people who are ‘good at art’!

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 15 Dimensions / Description: A4 wall calendar - 7 leaves in block date style. 210 x 297mm. One sheet for each month plus cover. The 7 leaf style means each sheet is printed on both sides, so therefore uses less paper and is better for the environment. At the end of June simply turn the calendar around and you will find July through to December printed on the reverse of each sheet.

Example1 Example 2

Size for artwork: A4 landscape 297 x 210 mm. Printers will resize artwork if required.

Deadline for artwork: Artwork must be received by 29 October 2010 for judging. Calendars will be delivered in mid November. Please send artwork to:

Elizabeth Gunby. Eco-Schools. 7 Church Crescent, Dumfries DG11DF. Please make sure the names of the artist / designer and school is attached to your work.

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 16 APPENDIX 3 – FLUFFVILLE FILMS SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPPET PROJECT

Dumfries and Galloway

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Project Outcome Students in year groups S1-2 will create characters and design and make paper mache puppets based on the children’s book, Fluffville saves Energy . They will also make a puppet theatre out of recycled materials. The theme for the films will be saving energy and reducing our carbon footprint and will be aimed at children in the P4-5 age bracket. Students will write a script for a ten-minute film, which will be professionally recorded and broadcast on-line using the Glow intranet. DVD’s of the film will also be produced, which we will premier at The Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre. Practical workshops will be documented by the film-maker to evidence the educational process and share with partners and colleagues using Glow and other methods. Fluffville Films supports the Curriculum for Excellence Learning Outcomes and Experiences.

Design Brief Students will watch the Eco-Schools Energy Presentation and be given a copy of Fluffville Saves Energy . Following this, students will be asked to invent their own characters / use existing Fluffville characters, who will promote an energy-saving message. Initially, work will begin in sketchbooks, making rough designs and starting to write the script. Ideas will be generated and explored for the presentation using storyboards and text. Students will follow the design process through to finalising their ideas and constructing puppets out of paper mache. They will also construct a simple puppet theatre and any props necessary for their presentation.

Methodology Work will take place over seven one hour sessions, either at lunchtime or after school. It is proposed that the Eco-Schools Coordinator will work with six secondary schools, across the region. Each school will be given a different area of focus, to avoid duplication. Potential focus areas are: • What is climate change and what are some of the problems associated with it? • What is pollution? • What are fossil fuels and why should we try to use them less? • All about sources of renewable energy • Top Tips for saving Energy! • How to save energy in Fluffville

Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 17 Session 1: Brief students, show Eco-Schools presentation and Fluffville book. Students start to design characters in sketch books and think about the script and message they want to promote. Session 2: Finalise character designs. Start constructing paper mache puppet heads. Work on script. Session 3: Complete puppet heads. Complete scripts. Session 4: Paint puppet heads. Start constructing theatre. Props. Session 5: Fabric paint puppet bodies (prepared). Finish theatre. Props. Session 6: Rehearse presentation. Finish props. Session 7: Video presentation

Links to the Curriculum for Excellence This project links closely to the Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes across a range of subject areas, including Expressive Arts, Technologies and Literacy across learning.

Links to the Eco-Schools topics Fluffville Films links to the Energy and Global Issues topics of the Eco-Schools Programme. Work from this project can be used towards schools’ participating on the Bronze, Silver or Green Flag Awards.

Timescales Fluffville Films will take place over the period January 2011 – April 2011 Screening of the documentary is likely to take place at The Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre at the Film Festival in May 2011.

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A film about saving energy created by young people in Dumfries and Galloway 5.30pm Thursday 5 May 2011 at The Robert Burns Film Theatre Dumfries DG27BE

RSVP by 29/04/11 to Eco Schools Solway Heritage 7 Church Crescent Dumfries DG11DF 01387 247543 [email protected]

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