Eco-Schools with Energy

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 DUMFRIES 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 Dumfries and Galloway 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 Maxwelltown High School. 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, Stranraer 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. TTTrrroooqqquuueeeeeerrr PPPrrriiimmmaaarrryyy Pow! SSSccchhhoooooolll Zap! Boom! EEEllleeeccctttrrriiiccciiitttyyy vvv CCCllloooccckkkwwwooorrrkkk Electricity v Clockwork Presentation Troqueer Primary Presentation Eco-Schools with Energy Evaluation 8 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.

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