Environmental sustainability week 2023

Vanguard Learning Trust

Environmental sustainability week

Monday 27th February to Friday 3rd March 2023

“We need to move beyond guilt or blame, and get on with the practical tasks at hand.” Sir David Attenborough

There is mounting excitement regarding our Trust hosting its first environmental sustainability week. The week has three main objectives, which are as follows:

• to understand how an individual’s or an organisation’s carbon footprint is measured;

• to consider the importance of reusing items as part of reducing our carbon footprint; and

• to challenge ourselves to reduce our carbon footprint.

Vanguard Learning Trust has been working on environmental sustainability projects for several years which have included consideration in relation to estates management, eg. the use of LED lighting; a dragons’ den competition in the spring and summer terms 2021 to support students with school-based projects (click here); a governance conference in November 2021 involving a number of keynote speakers as well as student presentations (click here) in order to raise the profile, including measures that schools can take to reduce their carbon footprint; the establishment of environmental sustainability working parties in 2022, both operational and student-facing; our school joining the Let’s Go Zero campaign led by Ashden Climate Solutions in Action (click here) with the ambition to be carbon zero by 2030; the launch of an electric car scheme for staff; and working with Sustainable Advantage (click here) this academic year, with the support of ACS International Schools, to collect the data to measure each school’s current carbon footprint so that targets can be set and progress measured.

The week has been organised by a working party with representation from each school as well as the Trust’s central team; we believe the activities will support the Trust to achieve the agreed objectives for the week. This booklet outlines all of the plans which have been released to the community throughout February in preparation for the week. It is an exciting opportunity for the Trust’s community - students, staff, families, governors, members and trustees - to work together through the ‘how low can we go’ challenge in order to change habits so that we lower our carbon footprint. Our overarching aim is for the legacy of the week to be permanent changes in behaviour as we know this is urgently required.

The arrangements for the week are an example of how we can achieve great things when we work collectively and we know there is a moral imperative to change our habits in order to face this global challenge. As stated by Sir David Attenborough, which is the quotation at the front of the booklet, it is now time for collective action.

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Introduction

Timetable of events

Whilst the majority of events are taking place during the week, some are being scheduled during the week commencing 6th March 2023. Schools will also be sharing activities that they are organising.

Monday 27th February 2023

9am - 12:30pm 10am - 1pm 1pm - 3pm

Ruislip High EcoHub session (2 groups) Opening ceremony Ryefield EcoHub session

Tuesday 28th February 2023

9am - 10:30am 1pm - 3pm Ruislip High EcoHub session Ryefield EcoHub session

Wednesday 1st March 2023

1pm - 2:30pm Field End EcoHub session

Thursday 2nd March 2023

No activities due to industrial action

Friday 3rd March 2023

10am - 12pm Emission Control game at Ryefield

9am - 3pm Field End EcoHub session (3 groups)

Monday 6th March 2023

1pm - 2:30pm Hermitage EcoHub session

Tuesday 7th March 2023

1pm - 2:30pm Hermitage EcoHub session

Wednesday 8th March 2023

9am - 10:30am 1pm - 2:30pm Vyners EcoHub session Ruislip High EcoHub session

Thursday 9th March 2023

9am - 2:30pm Ruislip High EcoHub session (2 groups)

Friday 10th March 2023

1pm - 2:30pm Ruislip High EcoHub session

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Summary of activities

We are delighted to share with Vanguard Learning Trust’s community a summary of the activities that are happening during our first environmental sustainability week. The Trust has a number of aims for the week, primarily to raise awareness of environmental sustainability and work together as a Trust-wide community towards a common goal. We have a number of wellknown individuals supporting the week and we have been sending their videos to promote the week through the Trust’s website (click here) and Twitter account (click here).

This booklet outlines the different activities being organised collectively and schools are also leading on other school-based activities; for example Vyners is organising the seeding of wild flowers in the wooded area with Year 7 students, whilst Ruislip High School is organising a community litter pick.

The activity for the whole community - students, staff, families, governors, members and trustees

How low can we go? challenge: This is the ‘call to action’ to all members of the community to make changes in their behaviour and/or awareness to reduce their carbon footprint, with the overarching question of how low can we go?

Videos: There will be a number of videos that all members of the community can watch. Alex Green, Programme Manager, Ashden Climate Solutions in Action, has recorded a presentation for the Trust on the work of the charity as well as focusing on the three objectives for the week. There will be a challenge launched on Monday 27th February 2023 including daily quizes.

Activity for students

Design an environmentally sustainable building challenge for Year 5 and 8 students: This is an exciting opportunity for our Year 5 and 8 students to take part in a national competition about sustainable buildings. This includes a session with Ruislip High School’s EcoHub Co-ordinator, Stephanie Stone-Weyl.

Emission Control game for Key Stage 1 and 2 students: Ryefield Primary School is hosting this challenge involving two teams of primary-aged students from each Trust school; the teams will take part in the game - Emission Control - that the school designed and produced as part of a Trust-wide competition in 2021.

Activity for staff

Staff R&R, reuse and/or repurpose, platform: A platform will be set up in each school for staff to share items for reuse with no monetary exchange. This will also be extended to facilities teams in schools to donate items that could be reused by other schools.

Activity for students and staff

Book swap: Schools will be organising a student book swap activity to promote reusing items. Schools are also setting up a facility for staff to swap books with colleagues.

Catering: All schools’ caterers are offering environmentally-sustainable food options.

There will be an opening ceremony which will involve a torch relay between schools to open the week officially including a pledge being read by each school’s headteacher.

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Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony will involve a torch relay between schools with specific students and staff walking/jogging from one school to the next (click here for route). This will be held on the morning of Monday 27th February 2023 and it will include a special guest. When the group reaches the next school, eg. Field End Junior School’s group arriving at Ruislip High School, the headteacher and the next group of torch bearers will meet them to receive the torch.

The torch bearers will be provided with Vanguard Learning Trust water bottles for the journey and presented with certificates of achievement when they arrive at their destination school. There will be a short reception at each school; this will involve the headteacher reading a pledge (click here) on behalf of the school to commit to the community’s participation in the environmental sustainability week in order to reduce the community’s carbon footprint and promote changes in individuals’ behaviour in relation to environmentally sustainable practice.

It is hoped that a video of the opening ceremony will be collated shortly afterwards so that it can be shared with the community as part of the week.

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How low can we go?

A large part of environmental sustainability week is for everyone in our community to make changes to their daily routines in order to reduce their carbon footprint. During the week beginning Monday 27th February 2023, Vanguard Learning Trust’s community will take part in a challenge to reduce individuals’, schools’ and families’ carbon footprints.

The challenges will focus on the five Rs which are: recycle, reuse, repurpose/repair, reduce and rethink. There will be a competition within schools for individual students; between schools in terms of the reduction per student/ member of staff; and between schools for family engagement.

The challenges are at three levels, low, medium and high (click here). In order to take part, participants need to do the following:

• make a note of their unique code which has been shared with staff, students, governors and trustees; and

• open the Google form each day to add their challenge information (click here); they will need to enter their code, the date they are adding it, and the challenges that have been completed.

Please note, if a family has more than one sibling taking part, the challenges can only be recorded on one of the sibling’s forms to avoid duplication. If challenges are completed over the weekend, they can be recorded through Monday’s entry. This will provide information for the dashboard with daily statistics. Table 1 shows how the different points relate to an estimated reduction in CO2.

10 points equals 5kg of CO2 (307 bulb hours/2 3% of a tree) Walking 6 miles per day saves 10 kg of CO2

20 points equals 8 kg of CO2 (491 bulb hours/3 68% of a tree) 1 tree absorbs 25 kg Co2 per year

30 points equals 12 kg of CO2 (737 bulb hours/5 52% of a tree)

There will be prizes for the students/schools/families with the largest reduction in their carbon footprint.

This activity supports two of the objectives for the environmental sustainability week, which are:

• to understand how an individual’s or an organisation’s carbon footprint is measured; and

• to challenge ourselves to reduce our carbon footprint.

Table 1: Estimated value of CO2 reduction by challenge points

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Year 5 and 8 challenge

This is an exciting opportunity for our Year 5 and 8 students to take part in a national competition about sustainable buildings. In preparation, the students are getting into teams, choosing a team name and beginning to plan their sustainable school building. This year’s competition has attracted interest from around the world; for example a number of cities and their respective mayor’s offices are planning to get involved. The students will have the opportunity to choose their school’s location from the list with options ranging from Brighton to Chongqing, China.

As teams, students will conduct research on the impact of climate change on the local weather patterns and terrain, and how these factors will influence their design decisions. The teams are encouraged to tap into their creativity and ingenuity when deciding on the facilities their proposed school will offer; this may range from an assembly hall to a dry ski slope!

During the environmental sustainability week, the Year 5 and 8 students across the Trust will attend a session at Ruislip High School’s EcoHub, where they will explore sustainable building practices, understand the challenges facing modern architecture and discover innovative solutions. Once the teams have completed their building plans, they’ll learn how to bring them to life by creating detailed architectural drawings of their new school. The aim is that students will learn about sustainable architecture, including the construction materials used and common sustainable features of buildings. In order to enter the competition for those teams that decide to progress to this stage, they will innovate and create their own design concept for a sustainable school.

There will be an internal school competition to decide which team has the best design. The best designs from each school will be entered into the British International Education Association STEM 2023 Rebuild Challenge (click here). This activity supports two of the objectives for the environmental sustainability week, which are:

- to understand how an individual’s or an organisation’s carbon footprint is measured; and

- to challenge ourselves to reduce our carbon footprint.

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Reusing books and staff R&R platform

Reusing books

The student book swap is being organised by schools to promote the objective of the importance of reusing items as part of reducing individuals’ and organisations’ carbon footprints. This supports the second objective for the environmental sustainability week which is to consider the importance of reusing items as part of reducing our carbon footprint.

For primary schools, students will be encouraged to bring in books that they are happy to exchange for another book. For secondary schools, students will be asked to bring in books that they want to donate to younger students, particularly those they used for their studies, eg. sixth form students bring in books they used for their GCSEs.

Each school will inform students and parents how to bring in the books and the arrangements for allowing students to select one of the reused books.

Staff are also encouraged to bring in books for reuse and this will be organised by schools and it is hoped that this, along with the students’ donated books, may become a long term provision in all Trust schools. Staff who donate items during the week can add this to the ‘how low can we go?’ challenge.

Staff R&R (reuse and repurpose) platform

Using an online platform, Google Keep, staff will be able to donate items that they no longer use but know may be useful for other staff to promote our commitment to increasing the reuse of items. This supports the second objective for the environmental sustainability week which is to consider the importance of reusing items as part of reducing our carbon footprint.

The platform has been set up for each school and the central team to launch so that the donations can be easily arranged. Staff will also be able to post items that they are looking for. Before staff are able to access the platform, they have been asked to read and accept the protocol for using the platform to ensure that all staff are aware of the expectations including that all items are donated for free and that staff take responsibility for how items are collected. It is hoped that if the platform is successful, it can be a legacy of the week. Staff who donate items during the week can add this to the ‘how low can we go?’ challenge.

B O O K S W A P

R e d u c e , r e u s e , a n d r e a d ! Bring a book and leave with a new story to enjoy

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R&R platform Emission control game

The Emission Control game was devised by Ryefield Primary School as part of Vanguard Learning Trust’s environmental sustainability competition launched in 2021 to promote specific projects in all Trust schools (click here); it is a board game for 2 - 6 players designed by children, for children aged between 7 and 11.

Players start with the average annual carbon emission of a UK resident of 10,000 kilograms. The objective of the game is to reduce total emissions; the player with the lowest carbon emission score is the overall winner of the game. Players move around the board receiving cards which describe actions that either increase or decrease their carbon footprint; these are child-orientated so that they are both informative and entertaining.

Copies of the prototype game have been made with the support of Vyners’ design and technology department and each primary school will be sending two teams from each key stage to Ryefield on Friday 3rd March 2023 to take part in a taster session. They will have the opportunity to play the game with prizes for the winning team of each key stage.

In addition, each school will take away a copy of the game and have the opportunity to share what they have learnt with their peers. This activity supports two of the objectives for the week, which are: • to understand how an individual’s or an organisation’s carbon footprint is measured; and • to challenge ourselves to reduce our carbon footprint.

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Videos, speakers and sustainable catering

Speakers and videos

Our keynote speaker, Alex Green, Programme Manager, Ashden Climate Solutions in Action, has recorded a presentation (click here) for the Trust on the work of the charity as well as focusing on the three objectives for the week.

There are a number of videos linked below that all members of the community will be encouraged to watch during the week.

What are carbon footprints

Climate Change: Your carbon footprint explained - BBC News

What is sustainability?

Introducing the 12 R of zero waste: Turning off the tap!

The videos will help with providing informative and scientific content with a particular focus on the three objectives and will be used to help evaluate the impact of the week’s activities. Daily quizzes will be set on the videos which can contribute to the how low can we go? challenge. More information will be provided during the week.

Sustainable catering

In order to support the objective to challenge ourselves to reduce our carbon footprint, all the schools will be offering sustainable school options during the week. Food management is a key way to reduce our carbon footprint and it is hoped that by offering sustainable food dishes, it will support the ‘how low can we go?’ challenge as well as allowing our school communities to taste and enjoy the culinary sustainable options.

Cucina, the third-party provider based at Field End Junior School, Ruislip High School and Vyners School, will be offering an additional option that promotes sustainable food production. They will offer meat free dishes (click here) for the secondary schools which is an important way to reduce our carbon footprint and a sustainable dessert option at the junior school (click here).

Taylor Shaw, the third-party provider based at Hermitage, will offer an additional surprise vegan option to promote environmentally-friendly farming.

Ryefield Primary School’s internal caterer has additional options including faux chicken pasta bake, quorn mince bolognese and breaded vegetable fingers.