Friday, September 18, 2009

Environmentally sustainable schools

Recent web resources
How green is your school?

Around 7,000 schools in England have signed up to the Eco-Schools programme and more are joining every week says the Teacher Expertise website. Set up in 1994, the programme is run by the Foundation for Environmental Education with the aim of involving young people in finding solutions to environmental and sustainable development challenges. It is a concept which is proving highly popular. It sets out to show children that by taking small steps, such as recycling or composting, they can have a big impact on the global environment as well as their own community. For the full article on this topic click here.

Planning and funding environmental improvements to your school grounds

This article from Teachingexpertise website summarises a number of environmental programmes in the UK. One programme run by REEP (Religious Education and Environment Programme) aims to provide unusual and thought-provoking resources for teachers promoting the links between religion and the environment. It works with all faiths and is non-denominational. Central to its work is the REEP awards. These are open to schools in England, Scotland and Wales, regardless of age group or spiritual orientation. The task is to design a garden that reflects spiritual and community values and to submit the design using ICT. The website www.reep.org provides free resources to schools and the organisation also holds training days to support entrants into the garden awards scheme.

Eco school project at Kirkley High School
A case study of Kirkley High Schools plan to establish itself as an eco-school. To achieve the aim, local and global environmental issues had to be developed through discrete curriculum time, through cross curricula links and through extra- curricula activities.

Other online resources
On Holy Ground
This site enables easy access to an ecological vision statement (On Holy Ground) for Catholic Schools and agencies.
On Holy Ground provides a rationale and planning framework to assist catholic schools and organisations to become more ecologically sustainable and live out their ecological vocation
Catholic Earthcare Australia
Earthcare Australia's mission is to help promote understanding among people that Creation is sacred and endangered, and must be protected and sustained for present and future generations yet unborn.
NSW Sustainable Schools network
Catholic schools are joining the NSW Sustainable Schools community
http://www.sustainableschools.nsw.edu.au/
Australian Sustainable Schools Iniatitive
(AuSSI) involves a holistic approach to education for sustainability with measurable environmental, financial, educational and social outcomes. It implements improvements in a school's management of resources and grounds and integrates this approach into the existing curriculum and daily running of the school. Students participate in an action learning - or learning by doing - process.
Sustainability Education (Aust. Govt Dept of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts)
Sustainability education develops skills, knowledge and values that promote behaviour in support of a sustainable environment. It is not confined to formal schooling. It also occurs in a wide range of non-formal education settings at work and at home.
Living Sustainably: the Australian Government's National Action Plan for Education for Sustainability
The aim of Living Sustainably: the Australian Government's National Action Plan for Education for Sustainability, launched in April 2009, is to equip all Australians with the knowledge and skills required to live sustainably. The plan has been prepared in conjunction with the National Council on Education for Sustainability by the Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
Education for Sustainability in School Education
This site aims reviews a number of programs to attempt to answer the following questions:
Cleanup the world

Cleanup Australia

Selected resources held by TLRU
Available for borrowing

  • The Garden Planet DVD
  • Awakening Universe DVD
  • Care for creation
  • Ecology at the Heart of Faith
  • Leaving smaller footprints
  • Best practice in environmental education in New South Wales schools
  • Activate your students : a problem-based learning approach to sustainability
  • Cradled in human hands : a textbook on environmental responsibility
  • Literacies in place : teaching environmental communications
  • Blueprints for greening schools : principles, policies and practices for environmental education in Australian secondary schools
St Andrews Marayong, John Paul II school and their environmental activities


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