Remember your school can take part in Alien Invasion week in any way you wish, for example;

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2 Introduction What would intelligent friendly Aliens from outer space who visited Sheffield, think of how well we humans are looking after our planet, its people and all other living things? Would they think that we humans are doing well or not so well? We think the intelligent Aliens would be worried about how Planet Earth seems to be getting warmer and its climate and weather is changing. They would say that the evidence suggests that we humans are partly to blame, particularly from our burning of energy fuels such as oil, coal and gas. They would be amazed that thousands of people do not even do simple things to help such as switching electrical appliances off standby, walking or cycling instead of using the car, recycling or even switching the tap off whilst brushing their teeth. Alien Invasion week is organised by the City Council s Eco-Schools Team and Sheffield is My Planet (SIMP) our City s very own climate change campaign. This Alien Invasion Activity Pack includes lots of ideas ranging from lesson plans and Eco-Schools advice to a whole range of exciting competitions with attractive cash prizes. See the competition section for more information. Remember your school can take part in Alien Invasion week in any way you wish, for example; The whole school, involving all classes coming to school dressed as aliens and taking part in all activities and making lots of Eco-Promises or Just one small group of pupils taking part in one activity We think the Aliens would be very encouraged by the number of Eco-Schools in Sheffield. At the beginning of 2004 our City did not have a single school registered with the International Eco-Schools scheme. However, today 128 (64%) of Sheffield s schools are registered. These schools form a growing network of millions of pupils in thousands of Eco-schools in 47 countries around the world. Of our Sheffield schools 83 (42%) have now gained the Bronze Eco-Schools award or above, 30 have gained Silver and 15 (8%) have achieved the top International Eco-Schools Green Flag award! Alien Invasion is for every school whether you are a Green Flag Eco-School or a school just getting started. The activity pack has something for everyone whether to kick start your progress on the scheme or to help with your continued success. Sheffield s Eco-Schools officers will be available as always to answer your questions; they could even help your school plan and run activities such as Alien Invasion Assemblies. Yours sincerely, Abby Wilson, Luke Williamson and Wendy McLoughlin For further information on Alien Invasion and Sheffield Eco-Schools contact the Eco Team on or ecoschools@sheffield.gov.uk - 2 -

3 CONTENTS Use the Resources in this pack to help you fit Climate Change into the Curriculum over the Alien Invasion Week or in your own time. It is also a great opportunity to get your school on board with Eco Schools. Follow our 5 day guides to take your school to the next Eco School award level! Assembly Ideas- Use these ideas to run various Eco themed assemblies. Eco Alien Assembly 1 Climate Change Eco Assembly 2 Litter and Waste Eco Assembly 3 Energy Eco Assembly 4 - Water Lesson Plans Use these lesson plans to help introduce the various environmental themes into the curriculum. Water Lesson Plan Energy Lesson Plan Transport Lesson Plan Waste Lesson Plan Food Miles Lesson Plan Poster Lesson Plan Poems Lesson Plan Code Lesson Plan Eco Schools How to become an Eco School in 5 Steps How to Become a Bronze School in 5 steps How to Reach Silver in 5 steps Is your school a Green Flag School? Intergalactic Competitions- Eco-Poem, Eco-Poster, Alien Costume & Carbon Promise competition information Design an Alien competition sheet Make a Carbon Promise competition examples Extra Activities More activities to hold in school Easy Eco tips for your School Glossary Glossary of Eco Terms - 3 -

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5 Assembly 1 Climate Change! You are the Alien or have a group of older children to dress as Aliens. Explain that you have come to earth to see what we are doing to combat climate Change. You recognise that this is a serious problem and you are concerned that Earthlings are not doing enough to protect Earth. Show a documentary of what happened the last time aliens visited earth. The film lasts approximately 5 minutes and was made by a School in Sheffield. You (as an Alien) have come to see how this is going and if we are working at reducing Greenhouse Gases in Sheffield and what else can be done to protect earth. The children in the video recognised that it is better to walk and cycle than to travel by car everywhere. Can the children tell you other things that they are already doing to help protect the Environment? Can the children suggest any more actions they could take help protect the Environment? Can they include any of these actions in School? Pick out some key points and ask the school if they all promise to help with these actions. See the Top Tips for Schools for some examples

6 Assembly 2 - Litter and Waste 1. Set up a row of three or four chairs and label as park bench. Have a bin (prop) placed at an edge so that it is visible but not obvious. 2. Have a few older pupils prepared. Explain to them that they are going to act like lazy, rude people who don t care about littering. They are going to pretend to walk through the park and litter everywhere including around the bench. Use a mixture of paper, cardboard cartons, plastic bottles and tin cans as litter. 3. Sit on the bench looking shocked whilst watching the children litter. When the litter droppers have left ask the children What has happened here? 4. Extract answer of Littering. Ask children to share their ideas of what they think about people who litter and why they litter. 5. Explain to children; Ok so we ve agreed it s a bad thing yet it still happens and we see it everywhere. Ask children whose responsibility is it to tackle littering? 6. Share ideas but twist conversation around to Local Authorities and Councils who have to spend a lot of money to tackle littering explain that this money could be used for something much more beneficial if people didn t litter. 7. Ask the children what the volunteers should have done with their litter. Extract put it in the bin if you cannot take it home but ideally we need to at this point give children time to think whilst you fetch some boxes labelled paper, metal, glass, material etc. 8. Use volunteers (preferably younger children) to collect the litter and organise into the correct boxes. 9. So the first and one of the most important things we can do that is eco-friendly is recycle. We can all do it. 10.Explain to children we only have one planet and it is all of our responsibility to look after it not just by changing our actions but by changing our attitudes as well. Follow up activity 11.Tell children that you are now going to read them a story that shows just what sort of impact one person s actions can have. 12.Read Dinosaurs and all that Rubbish by Michael Forman ISBN Now talk to the person next to you. Tell your partner what you thought about the story. Share some thoughts with the school. 14.Finish by showing children a thought for the day poster: Every person has an impact - it s up to you if it s good or bad

7 Assembly 3 - Energy 1. Display a large photo of chimney producing waste gases using a digital projector or make printouts of the photo to give out to the children. 2. Ask children what they can see in the photo. Why do they think the black smoke is being produced? 3. Give children a short introduction about the energy we use at home and school. Heating and lighting, cooking our food, turning on the TV and using a computer all use energy. We need to energy to travel by car, bus, train and plane as well. This energy is produced by burning, coal, gas or oil. At the same time as we use energy we produce waste substances, such as smoke in the photo that are harmful to us, to the air we breathe and everything around us. We cannot see some of the waste gases that are produced as they have no colour, but they can still be very harmful to people and the environment. 4. Introduce children to the idea of saving energy in school. There are many small ways we can all save energy and so really make a difference to the amount of energy we use in school and at home. By saving energy we are also cutting harmful substances put into the air. 5. Ask children for their ideas on how we can save energy in school and at home. Discuss these with the children and build up a list of actions to save energy on an interactive white board or flipchart. The children will probably guess some ways of saving energy. Help them with some tips to obtain a good list energy saving ideas. Here are some suggestions: Switch off lights when you leave the room or when you don t need them. Switch the TV or computer off when you are not using them. Don t leave them on stand-by with the red light glowing as this uses half the amount of energy as when they are switched on. If you are in a shirt and the heaters are on, then ask your teacher or the people you live with to turn down the heat a little and put on a jumper. Close the door after you enter or leave a room this keeps the heat inside. Don t open a window when the heating is on. Ask your teacher or the people you live with to turn down the heating instead. Persuade the people you live with to use energy-efficient light bulbs at home. As well as using much less energy they last eight times longer than ordinary light bulbs. Have stickers and posters put up around the school to remind other pupils and teachers to switch off lights when not needed. Re-use and recycle paper, glass, aluminium cans, tin cans, plastic, clothing and plastic bags. It takes a lot of energy and resources to make these. Only turn on the tap when you really need water. It takes lots of resources and energy to purify the water that we have in our homes and schools. Ask the people you live with if you could walk to school or take the bus instead of going by car. 6. Appoint a pupil energy monitor for each class who is responsible for checking lights are switched off in the classroom when not needed. 7. Encourage the children to try as well as they can to carry out the energy saving actions you compiled together during the assembly. Ask them not to stop at the end of Energy saving Week. These measures will benefit everyone in the school as well as the school itself

8 8. Encourage the pupils to keep their energy saving measures ongoing when the week is over. Assembly 4 - Water Conservation You will need a 1 litre bottle, interactive whiteboard and calculator. Explain that Water is a precious resource and we should use it wisely at all times because it's not as abundant as you might think. You may wonder why saving water is important as it appears to rain all the time in the UK. Wet summers and even wetter winters seem to keep the garden nice and green and our rivers flowing. Despite having a seemingly wet climate some parts of the UK are experiencing water shortages. The South East of England has less water available per person than Sudan and Syria. We can never predict when it might rain and when it might not, especially with our Climate becoming more unpredictable due to Climate Change. Using water, especially hot water, also uses energy and increases emissions of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. Saving water will not only save the environment, but it will save you money on your water bill, and it will save you money on your energy bill if you reduce your hot water consumption. The average person in England and Wales uses 150 litres of water a day, show a 1 litre bottle - that s 150 litres of water or imagine 264 pints of milk. By 2020, with increasing population, the demand for water could increase by 5% - that s 800 million extra litres of water a day. Explain that the table on the whiteboard (included) will help us calculate how much water we use each day. Ask the children and staff present how many times they do each of the activities listed on the chart each day, take different answers and make a guess somewhere within the ranges expressed. For each answer ask a teacher or older pupil to multiply the number given by the audience by the number of litres indicated on the chart. At the end, add up the totals to see how many litres of water we use. Then ask if we can think of ways we can waste less water. Draw out some of the following suggestions. Turn the tap off when you brush your teeth a running tap wastes 6 litres of water a minute. If everyone in the UK who currently leaves the tap running when they brush their teeth turned it off instead we would save 446 million litres of water enough water to supply 2.9 million people for one day that s the entire population of Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow and Sheffield (the UK s 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th largest cities) for one whole day. - Don t use your toilet as a dustbin an unnecessary flush uses another cistern full of water. Put your face wipes, cotton wool balls in your dustbin rather than down the toilet. If everyone in the UK who currently uses their toilet as a dustbin, stopped doing this, we would save 27 million litres of water a week that s enough to supply the population of York or Portsmouth for one day. - Use the left over water from your night time drinks to water houseplants this saves new water being poured into the plants and your drink being poured down the plughole. - Invest in a water butt and connect it to your drainpipe in your garden - this can then collect some of the 85,000 litres of rainfall that falls on your roof every year. This water can be used to water your garden, clean your car and wash your windows - Install a cistern displacement device in your toilet these can be obtained free of charge from your water company and displaces water in your cistern so that the volume - 8 -

9 of water in your flush is reduced by between 1 3 litres. Please note, that you do not need a cistern displacement device if you have a dual flush toilet. Bathers beware: A bath typically uses around 80 litres, while a short shower can use as little as a third of that amount. But beware since many power-showers may actually use more than a bath. You can minimise your water use by reusing your bathwater to water your houseplants or garden. Short, sharp, showers save water: By using a shower timer you can increase your awareness of the amount of time you spend in the shower. Try taking shorter showers to reduce the amount of water you use. Wishy-washy machines: Before starting your washing machine, wait for a full load - a full load uses less water than two half loads; so, you'll be able to save money on energy and water. Frigid water: Fill a jug with tap water and leave it to cool in your fridge. This way you don't have to run the tap for ages just to get a cold drink. Burst pipe preparedness: Check out where your main stop valve is and make sure that you can turn it on and off. If ever a pipe bursts, you'll know how to cut off the flow. Sparkling asparagus: By washing your fruits and veg in a bowl rather than under a running tap, you could cut down on water waste effortlessly. And as an added bonus, you can use the leftover water to feed your houseplants

10 Activity Uses Multiplied By Total Litres Used Shower 50 Litres Or bath 80 Litres Brushing teeth with tap running 4 litres Or brushing teeth without tap running 0.5 Litres Washing machine load 80 litres Washing hands 3 litres Drink (per glass) 0.25 litres Boiling a full kettle 2 litres Flushing the toilet 10 litres Dishwasher load 35 litres Bowl of washing up 8 litres Total amount of water used each day

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12 Water Conservation Lesson Plan Session Objectives: To explore the importance and water and the necessity to waste less water Starter: Session Success Criteria: Use geography skills Ask questions Critical thinking Investigative Skills Ask the students to guess how much of their bodies are made up of water- the answer is 65% Then ask the students to guess how much of the earths surface is covered by water, the answer is 70% therefore it is very important to us. Despite there being so much water on the earth, we can only use a tiny amount of it. Either with a tank of water that holds 10 Litres or a picture depicting all the water on earth/ pie chart (2 examples below are from Google images) explain that 97% of this water is salty sea water that we cannot use. That leaves only 3% of freshwater but 2% is frozen as ice caps, therefore we only have 1% of the earths total water supply to use for drinking and cleaning. The freshwater available to us depends on rainfall (water cycle) but this can be unpredictable and at times we may have shortages, not only here but all over the world. It is very important therefore that we don t waste the water we have Main: Do a water audit of the school to establish where water is used in school, what it is used for, how it is used i.e. push taps, dishwasher, hosepipe, and finally can the children identify ways to reduce wastage and excessive use. Activity: Divide the class into smaller teams and send them off to different areas of the school including the school grounds to see where water is used in school, where it is potentially wasted and how it could potentially be saved. Consider how taps are used, do you turn them on and off or are they push taps? Do the toilets have low volume flushes or hippos to save water flushing? Are any taps left dripping? Is there a dishwasher in the staff room? Do they use a kettle? Regroup and ask each group to describe what they found and what they would recommend doing differently to waste less water. Plenary: Come together as a class and produce a list of actions that we as a school could reduce water waste. Examples include: fix dripping taps; turn of the tap whilst brushing your teeth; fill the kettle only with the water needed; use a watering can or a bucket and sponge, not a hosepipe; put a water butt in the garden. See more tips on Eco Assembly 4 Water or the following websites

13 Energy Lesson Plan Session Objectives: To learn how to reduce energy waste Session Success Criteria: Use scientific knowledge and understanding Use of scientific vocabulary Observation skills Drawing Making Notes Discuss and explain ideas Teamwork Starter: Ask children to go around the classroom and list or draw anything they can find that uses electric energy. Give children clipboards and paper and 10-15minutes. Return as a group and create a class list. Look carefully at our list. How important are all of these things to our learning? Ask children to discuss with the person next to them. Main: Use the internet to find some images of classrooms from different time periods. Give children time to look at each one, what do you notice? What sort of equipment is in the room? How much energy is being used? Discuss ideas. Extract that we use a lot more energy now that we used to. Many of our electrical devices are really important but are there things we could do to reduce energy waste in our classroom. Activity: Ask children to return to groups. Give each group a giant light bulb shaped piece of poster paper. Explain to the groups their mission is to list or draw ways in which we could save energy in our classroom. Groups to be made of mixed ability children. Teachers and TA to rotate and support/question all groups. Plenary: Each group to present its findings to the rest of the class. From listening to all of the groups ideas that class has to suggest which ideas they thought were the best and should go on our main class poster. Teacher to support children in selecting the most suitable and appropriate ideas and write up on a class poster at front of room. Expand the discussion to include the home. What can the children do at home to save energy? The energy pages of the Sheffield Is My Planet website may help you with this

14 Transport Lesson Plan Session Objectives: Understand the problem with school traffic and understand the benefits of walking or cycling to school Session Success Criteria: Recognise problem Design an advertisement Consider their contribution to school traffic Starter: Mind map all the problems associated with the traffic outside the school, are there any positives to having the traffic outside school? Who is in the traffic outside school? Do a show of hands of how people travelled to school. Follow this with the benefits of walking or cycling to school or using public transport and what are the drawbacks? Can you do anything to overcome these drawbacks? Main: Write a script for a 1 minute radio advertisement (1 A4 page of writing) for your school. The advertisement should: Tell people why cars are not a good thing Choose information that will make people listen Have a slogan that people will remember Give ideas on other forms of transport and why they should use them Talk about both the local and global impact Here are some points that may help you: Relying on a car causes reduced levels of fitness; Traffic is dangerous, particularly for children; Thousands of deaths and injuries occur on the road every year; Traffic congestion is very bad in and around cities; Air pollution and the way it aggravates asthma; The release of carbon dioxide from cars, which adds to global warming; Road rage. Worksheet Activity: Plan and deliver a one minute radio advertisement. Record the advertisements if possible and share with the rest of the school and send to ecoschools@sheffield.gov.uk Plenary: As a class discuss general findings. Explain to children that the government are trying to tackle the over use of cars by introducing congestion charges, high parking charges, toll charges etc. How do you think we could encourage people to travel less by car? As a teacher try to extract ideas of walking or cycling if possible, car sharing, public transport etc. Produce a class list of ideas, these can be shared with the Eco Schools Action Team. The travel pages on the Sheffield Is My Planet website may help you A five-minute video about reducing car usage and promoting walking, cycling, using public transport is also available to show pupils. Shadow of a Dinosaur: Climate Change - A Child's View was produced by Sheffield City Council and can be viewed at -

15 Waste Lesson Plan Session Objectives: Understand the problem with waste and the use of natural resources. Session Success Criteria: Consider consequences of our behaviour Write and present a play Starter: Look at different items of rubbish and decide what material they are made out of. What resources are used to make these materials? Does the class think that these resources are renewable or non renewable? Could they be either avoided in the first place therefore reducing our waste, Reused after use, or Recycled. Unfortunately not all of our waste is reused or recycled and we continue to use the Earth s resources to manufacture more. When materials are not reused or recycled what happens to them? They are incinerated or buried in landfill. Main: In groups of 3 or 4 ask the children to write a short play about the rubbish and resources and then A. What would Aliens see if they visited earth in 100 years if we carry on using lots of resources and burying or burning most of our waste. Think about what people in the future might have to do without if some resources run out. You could also think about what it would be like to live in a world where most of the land is taken up by rubbish tips. Each person in your group should have a character (either human or non-human) so that you can act out your play to the rest of the class. Or B. What would Aliens see if they visited earth in 100 years if everyone reduces, reuses and recycles as much as possible from today. Think about how much cleaner and prettier the world would be if less rubbish was put into the ground and fewer resources are used. Each person in the group should have a character (either human or non-human) so that the play can be acted out to the rest of the class. Plenary: Spend time in groups discussing the scenario they have chosen and write a short play. Deliver the play to the class, perhaps to the school in assembly and why not record the performances and share with us at ecoschools@sheffield.gov.uk

16 Food Miles Lesson Plan Session Objectives: To explore the concept of food miles. Session Success Criteria: Investigate food miles Explore impacts such as carbon emissions etc Importance of Fair Trade Products Starter: Ask children what they like to eat, what their favourite foods are. Ask them to get in pairs/groups and choose one dish. What are the ingredients? Do you know what all of the ingredients are? Where in the world do they come from? Come back together as a class and work through a class example such as a packed lunch box. Run through the list of ingredients and using a large map or an interactive board, locate where ingredients are from. Can we calculate the total food miles of this lunch box? Use either the table included or follow the link Main: Discuss with class how many of the products we use everyday come from around the world. Explain that you are going to read the story The World came to my place today by Jo Readman ISBN (Eden Project Book). In this a boy who is ill at home learns from his Granddad where lots of the food he eats comes from. Whilst reading, use the maps with children and find all the locations of produce. Explain why high food miles are a bad thing. Half the vegetables and 95 per cent of the fruit eaten in the UK come from beyond our shores. Increasingly, it arrives by plane - and air travel gives off more CO 2 than any other form of transport. Differentiate by giving older children world maps with no place names so they can find the location and offer different levels of support to children. Activity: From the story we can clearly see how lots of the food and drink we use comes from around the world. Explain to children their mission is to design an evening meal using ingredients as close to home as they can to give their meal a low food miles score. They can use computers and books to research. Perhaps provide a range of recipe books. For younger children you could provide a class list of ingredients and food miles for them to create a recipe with. Children can work independently in pairs or groups depending on age and ability. Plenary: Each group to present their meals and food mile totals to class. Which group has the lowest food mile score? Which groups meal sounds the tastiest? A circle time session could follow this lesson. Ideas for a circle time: You have just learnt about food miles and we have tried to create a meal with a lower score. Is that always possible? Explore how many convenience foods use ingredients from around the world. Could we make something similar using local produce instead?

17 Extract a list of possible implications such as food waste, carbon footprints etc. So how could we make small changes in our lives to help improve this? Discuss the idea of fair trade products, not wasting food, composting leftovers instead of sending to landfill sites, growing our own fruit and vegetables etc. FOOD MILES 1cm = 25Km Example foods and sources Food Product Where it is found in Country where it Distance to your lunch box is produced London(Km) Sugar Cane Biscuits and yoghurts India 6,701 Cocoa Chocolate biscuits Ghana, Africa 5,088 Bananas Bananas Belize 8,547 Milk Yoghurt Manchester 50 Strawberries Yoghurt Argentina 11,082 Cheese Sandwich New Zealand 18,960 Margarine Sandwich Turkey 2,505 Tomatoes Sandwich Spain 1,630 Wheat Bread Canada 7,604 Wheat Biscuits Canada 7,604 Potatoes Crisps Lincoln 108 Total Distance: 69,983 (Km)

18 Eco-Poster Lesson Plan Session Objectives: To design an eco-poster Session Success Criteria: Develop eco-aware attitudes Use Art & Design skill Use of Persuasive skills/slogans Starter: Prepare word Eco-Awareness on Interactive Board or Whiteboard. Show children and ask them what they think eco-awareness is? Discuss in pairs/groups. Regroup and explore ideas drawing out that eco-awareness is the ability to understand eco-friendly actions that create a better world for us all to live in. Ask children to return to their tables and mind map ideas for eco-actions. What can we do to make the world a better place? Share ideas from all the groups and create a class mind map of ideas on the board. Main: Explain to children that we have a long list of possibilities and actions such as: reducing water waste (e.g. shower v bath) reducing energy use (e.g. not leaving electrical appliances on standby, switching off unused lights, drying clothes on a washing line instead of using a tumble drier) recycling (e.g. paper/plastic/glass, composting food scraps) travel (e.g. walking or cycling to school instead of using the car, using public transport) You can find facts and information to help pupils at or you can get older pupils to look at the website themselves. Perhaps explore the Eco School Topics for poster themes. Explain that they must choose one of those ideas and that their mission is to create and design a poster aimed at encouraging the school community to be more eco-friendly. What does the poster need? Model the process of designing a poster. Focus on posters needing to be bright, bold with simple clear messages. Model use of slogans and rhetorical questions with older children. Activity: Depending on age and ability children could work independently or in pairs and using a range of art equipment or ICT to create posters. Different classes around the school could design for different purposes. Y1/2 children could design classroom posters. Y3/4 posters for school corridors etc. Y5/6 posters for hall, entrance hall or eco-display board. Posters could be judged overall by head teacher some could be passed onto a printing company and made into durable outdoor posters to go on school gates and fences where they can be seen by parents and local community. Plenary: Class or whole school gallery session. Give the children the opportunity to bring all their work together and look at everyone s contributions. Ask children to think about which ones capture their attention and why? Posters can be entered into the competition- see details in the Competition Section of this pack

19 Eco-Poems Lesson Plan Session Objectives: To create eco-themed poems Session Success Criteria: Develop eco-awareness Explore eco-issues through poetry Suggest eco-friendly actions through poetry Use of metaphor/rhyme Starter: Play A-Z Game either individual/pair or group teams depending on age. Children need to write the letters A-Z down the side of the page. For each letter explain they must write a word or words associated with the environment or being ecofriendly. Time children for 10 minutes. Mark as a class explaining to children that they get 3 points if they get an answer no other team has and 1 point if someone else has it. The highest team total wins. For younger children this game works well with big group teams and an adult working with each team to prompt ideas or an older child from another class. Main: Depending upon age and ability model to children how to write a basic Haiku poem or acrostic with a clear environmental theme. Work with your class to write a class poem on Interactive whiteboard using their ideas and modelling how to make interesting word choices etc. Differentiate to your classes needs, simple rhymes for younger pupils or explore metaphor with older pupils. Activity: Children to choose an aspect of the environment or being eco-friendly and plan and write a poem. They could write a poem that would go with the poster they have made. Poems can be handwritten and illustrated or designed and produced using Microsoft Word or Publisher. Each class could collate their poems together in a class eco-scrapbook that could then be put on display in the school entrance hall or eco-display board. Plenary: Choose some pupils to read their poems aloud to class. What is the message in this poem? What did you like about it? Is there anything you might have added? What do you think about the design? Share thoughts and ideas. You can send your best eco-poems to ecoschools@sheffield.gov.uk for inclusion on the Sheffield Is My Planet website. Please include the names and age of the pupils, and the name of your school with the poems. Poems can be entered into the competition- see details in the Competition Section of this pack

20 Eco Code Lesson Plan Session Objectives: Creating or updating an Eco Code for your Eco Schools. Example of how you can involve the school in forming an Eco Code. Session Success Criteria: Consider governments role in creating and changing policy Use persuasion Use of Technical Vocabulary Be involved in discussion Explain Ideas Starter: For younger children have a general discussion, older children could represent the different political parties. Tell the children to imagine that their class has just been transformed into the houses of parliament and thought now means they have powers to make laws and change things. However before a law can be passed it needs to be agreed upon and so an Eco Code must be written. Tell the children that they are going to, in their teams, select environmental issues that they think the school, city or country needs to focus on. Pick themes from the Eco School Topics. Main: Allow children time to discuss and mind map a range of environmental issues they want to explore and address in their Eco Code. They can research and use the internet to locate ideas and relevant information. Children will need to be supported to create a focused mission statement such as We want to reduce our impact on the environment and then develop a range of actions they would like to see carried out which would lead to the achievement of their Action Plan and Eco Code. Teacher to try to steer each group to investigate a different Eco School topic. This can then be fed to the Schools Eco Action Team. Activity: Each group in the class creates an Eco Code and a separate list of actions. Once planned out it needs to be written or typed up clearly, maybe illustrated so that it is eye catching and grabs the readers attention. Younger children could have an older child from another class working with their group to act as a scribe. KS1 should create a list of short and snappy statements of actions whilst KS2 could produce their Eco Code and actions in more of a report format. Plenary: Each group s aims and actions are collated together and shared with the whole class. Once read they can be collated together and shared with the schools Eco Action Team as possible new or revised Eco Codes for the school. An Eco Code is a requirement of becoming a Silver Eco School and must be refreshed periodically during the schools Eco School Journey. The Actions the children have written are a great way to feed ideas into the schools Action Plan

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22 How to become a Bronze Eco-School in 5 Steps Step 1 Register and Recruit Register your school on Eco Schools at and Recruit an Eco Action Team. Why not do this in assembly or with the newly recruited action team. You will need a team of students to lead on making your school more Eco friendly. They will be responsible for representing the views of all school users and communicating the projects you undertake with the whole school and wider community. The Eco Action team will carry out an Environmental Review of the School and then decide upon what Actions they would like to take. The team must be made up of pupils, members of staff, a member of school management if possible and a parent and or governor either now or at a later stage. We recommend the team includes between 4 and 10 members but there is no format - use whatever works best for you - remember to come up with a name for your Action Team!

23 Ideas on forming an Action Team. An Action Team can be recruited by holding an election. Hold a competition - ask each interested candidate to make a statement as to why they should be on the Action Team a selection process could be used then to form the team. Ask for the students to apply for the position as a job application. Are there any budding wildlife enthusiasts who want to take part? Any champion recyclers? Any budding Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall Any cycling enthusiasts? Think about who will be needed to help take action e.g. staff members, parents, governors, cleaners, kitchen staff, buildings supervisor, caretaker, bursar etc. Remember to get the Head teacher on board! By involving the whole school in the recruitment of this team, the school is aware of their existence and they will know how they can feed their own ideas into the team. Ongoing Evidence. It is important to keep evidence of all your Eco-Schools activities. An assessor will ask to see this when you apply for your Green Flag. We recommend you keep a simple timeline of each meeting and activity. Other useful evidence would include photographs, posters, pupil accounts or statements, minutes of Action Team meetings etc. Your evidence can either be saved in an electronic file or as a hard copy. It is also important to record where you have fitted any of the 9 Eco School topics into the curriculum

24 Step 2 The Environmental Review The Environmental Review is a fact finding mission and should be carried out by the Action Team, but they may need to ask questions of other members of staff within the school, i.e. the Site Supervisor. The Review looks at 9 different topics that are covered within the Eco Schools programme. Using the Environmental Review available on follow the questions to reveal what your school is already doing and what more it could possibly do. It should take approximately 1 to 2 hours to complete in total, don t worry if there are questions you can t answer at this stage - try and cover as much as you can and finish the review over the coming weeks as you aim towards your Silver Award. If you don t have enough time to do a full Environmental Review, ensure you have at least attempted to cover the topics of Energy, Waste and Water. Remember to save any evidence of this for your file; ask a pupil to write a summary of what has been done and take a photo to evidence this - add your actions to your timeline

25 Step 3 Action Plan Having completed the Environmental Review, the Action Team can decide 2 or 3 actions they would like to adopt to make the school greener. Include any ongoing actions your school may already be doing that relate to the 9 Eco School Topics i.e. gardening clubs, litter pickers, Healthy Schools, Travel Plans. This does not mean that you have to stop there though, if your Action Team would like to do more in the way of improvements in that topic then go ahead. Ensure there are 2 or 3 new actions that the school can work towards. The Action must state what you want to do, how you intend on doing it, how you will record and evidence its progress and who will be responsible in carrying out these actions. We recommend completing the Action Plan electronically as it is then easier to update at Silver and Green Flag level. Example Action Plan. Below is part of an example action plan Note - an extra column has been added entitled communication. The template on is a guide but it can be adapted to suit to your setting s needs. Topic Action Measure Timescale Responsibility Communication Actual Result Energy Stop Wasting Energy- Switching off lights, closing doors, turning off electrical equipment when not in use, switching off White Boards during breaks. Have energy monitors in each class to perform energy checks every day. Collect energy meter readings and put them on a chart situated on Eco Schools Notice board. Energy meter readings- Ongoing, to start with immediate effect Each class to allocate 2 monitors. Action team to allocate 2 energy monitor meter reading recorders. Hold poster competition for turning off lights. Switching off computers etc. Energy Acquire an energy meter to assist with meter readings Children to write to local business s to ask for funds for an energy meter. Before Easter holiday. Yr 4 to write letter Involving the wider community (local business) Transport To ask more people to walk to school with the aid of a walking bus. With help from school travel planner to organise this Newsletter to ask for parents to volunteer To have a walking bus start after Easter half termongoing Action team, school council and newsletter, School Travel Planner Announce in Newsletter and ask for parents to volunteer. Healthy Living To continue with the schools Healthy Schools Plan. To maintain an enhanced Healthy Schools status Ongoing Healthy School Status achieved June 2008 Healthy Living Fruit Tuck Shop- open during breaks.to encourage healthy living and ideally use locally sourced fruit and veg Record take up- Do survey with studentshow many portions of fruit and veg do they have each day. To start After Easter- ongoing project. To do survey before and after the tuck shop opens. To be run by volunteers, Mrs White to manage the tuck shop. Use fruit not eaten and produce from garden club. Posters up on notice board, announce in assembly. Please Note: it is highly recommended that you cover Energy and one of either Waste or Water in your Bronze Action Plan

26 Step 4 Notice Board It s time to share all your announcements on the Eco School Notice Board. This should be in a prominent position within the school where staff, pupils and visitors can see your goals and achievements. Ideas of what should be included Who is in the Action Team? What is on the Action Plan? Photos? Have a suggestion box so other members of the school can share their green ideas. A copy of your schools DEC Rating Make a start if possible toward your Actions on the Action Plan, take the first recordings, gather evidence to show before and after results. Remember to save all evidence for your file. Take a photo of your notice board

27 Step 5 Assembly and Bronze! Announce what has happened over the past week and what will be happening in school. This ensures the whole school is involved. Also the assembly might be a good time to go online and hit the Bronze Award or print this off before the assembly and award it to the action team. Perhaps a local Councillor or Governor can award the school its certificate. It is always worth sharing your success with the community. Find your local Councillor Take a photo for your evidence file

28 How to become a Silver School in 5 Steps Step 1 Where are we at? Assembly - Announce what has been achieved to date and ask the school for suggestions on what can be done to achieve more. Take these suggestions to an Action Team meeting. The Action Team should then meet and look at the current Environmental Review. Ensure it is complete and up to date. After updating or refreshing the Environmental Review, look at the Action Plan. Have you been working toward your targets? What else would you like to achieve? Look at adding some more action points to work towards. Try looking at one major and two minor projects. Either update the existing action plan if it is an electronic copy, or translate the existing plan to a new one. Ideally use an electronic copy so it can be easily updated, adding in any new actions you have started or have decided to take as a result of the updated Environmental Review. It is a good idea to distinguish any new actions with a different colour font or date each action. Finally, does the Action Team include a Parent or Governor? You will require the support of a Parent and/or Governor for the Silver Award - they do not have to attend every meeting but must be kept informed and they must be able to contribute as much as possible. It may be possible to recruit a parent by advertising the post in the school newsletter or ask parents at the school gate at home time. Ask the school office to ring or the governors. Aim to have recruited someone on the team by the end of the week. Ask teaching staff for any lesson plans where they have fitted sustainability into the curriculum. Using the lesson plans from this pack can be included in this evidence. One suggestion is to provide a large diagram of all the different eco-school topics in a staff meeting. Ask staff to write in the appropriate box where they have included this topic in the curriculum. See the following diagram

29 School Grounds Transport Water Biodiversity Healthy Living Eco School Energy Global Perspectives Litter Waste

30 Step 2 Eco-Code Competition and Student Questionnaire Your School needs an ECO CODE- This is a statement of what your school wants to achieve - it could be a motto, song, poem or rap for example. It is best to invite the whole school to take part and think about what it means to be focused and green. Classes could be invited to put in an entry and incorporate the activity into a lesson, or invite individuals to take the challenge home. Entries need to be in by Friday so a winner can be announced and the Eco Code can be displayed. Who will judge the competition? Would you like to ask a member of school management, the Action Team or an outside party such as a local Councillor (find your local councillors at If your school has already made an Eco-Code, spend this time ensuring it is widely recognised throughout the school. about the action plan? Carry out a student Questionnaire to establish if the school knows Are they involved? What would they like to see happen in their school? Can this be incorporated into the Action Plan? Do they recycle at home? Do they use energy efficient light bulbs? etc

31 Step 3 Share Your Work with the Wider Community It is important to share the work you are doing with the wider community. This may be a good opportunity to recruit a parent to the Action Team. Here are some suggestions Send a Press Release to the school newsletter. Make Posters advertising the school s work to display in local shops and libraries. Put a display up at the school gates and inform parents of what is happening. Add an Eco School page to the school s website

32 Step 4 Update Your Notice Board Make sure the Notice Board is up to date. Include photos and evidence of what has been achieved so far and what the new actions are. What has been recorded and have improvements been made? For example display your energy readings; can you point out changes i.e. summer, winter variations or water usage, how much waste are you throwing away. Gathering the results of a student questionnaire. This is a good opportunity for a class to look at the results and put them into a graph. Look at the results; would the Action Team like to use any of their suggestions? Use the results in the evidence file

33 Step 5 Adopt an Eco Code and Silver! Announce the winning Eco Code in Assembly. This will be the schools mission statement towards becoming as green as possible. Place copies up around the school and of course, on your Eco Notice Board. Has sufficient progress been made to become Silver? Question Has the Action Team Met on at least four occasions? Recruited the support of a parent and/or governor? Carried out a full Environmental Review? Completed a detailed Action Plan? Made progress on the Action Plan from when it was first developed for Bronze Award? Shared the Eco School work with the wider community, i.e. parents and local residents and groups? Is the notice board up to date? Is sustainability included within the curriculum? Has an Eco Code been agreed, adopted and displayed? Hit the Silver Award button and share this with the school. Perhaps a local Councillor or Governor can award the school its certificate. It is always worth sharing your success with the community. Find your local Councillor Remember to save evidence and take photos for the file. This is vital for the application for the next step; a Green Flag!

34 Is your School a Green Flag School? Follow these steps to get your Green Flag application on track Step 1 Collate your Evidence and carry out a follow up Review The Green Flag Application can be sent as an electronic document or as a hard copy. Evidence for the award can also be kept both electronically (which saves energy and paper) or where necessary, in a file which can be shown to the assessor on their visit. At this stage it is a good idea to draw together all the evidence required to illustrate your progression towards being a Green Flag School. Use the Suggested Evidence list (enclosed) to help you put your file together. The Action Team, at Green Flag level, should take significant responsibility over the meetings. Evidence should include minutes of meetings which show the input of the team. As the Action Team has to have met at least six times for the Green Flag it would be good to include a minimum of six minuted meetings or a summary of what was discussed. There will be plenty of opportunity for the Action Team to meet several times as the Environmental Review is updated and the Action Plan is expanded. The Action Team needs to do a follow up Environmental Review from the first full Review or even a third to ensure it is current and relevant, ensuring any changes have been accounted for. These changes might be as a result of an action point in the Action Plan or an outside influence. Eco-Schools Action Plan Topic Action Target Timescale Responsibility Date Action Plan Developed. Action Plan Developed by