·       Embrace locally and globally the educational and social values of sustainability, equality and justice and recognise the rights and responsibilities of future as well as current generations.

·       Value as well as respect social, cultural and ecological diversity and promote the principles and practices of local and global citizenship for all learners.

·       Demonstrate a commitment to engaging learners in real world issues to enhance learning experiences and outcomes, and to encourage learning our way to a better future.

(Standard for Provisional Registration with GTCS, benchmark 1.1)

During your eight serial days, you should gather this information, by observing, speaking to class teachers and other colleagues, interacting with learners, reading school policies, and any other appropriate activities.  You should consider and identify the most appropriate ways(s) to record this information.

Mapping of school grounds/area:

These are the only maps of the school grounds which the school has. These are displayed behind all corridor doors, all fire doors and in all classrooms.

Evidence of existing engagement with sustainable education within the school such as garden area, recycling bins, litter picking ‘wardens’, bird boxes, and so on:

The school has a small garden area for growing plants etc, however due to the time of year it is not in use. It is a small area with one garden table/bench and some plant pots and boxes filled with soil, which I would imagine are filled during spring/summer time. The school also has and makes use of many recycling bins, which are in every classroom and in the yard but it does not have litter wardens or bird boxes.

Consideration of actual play space for children and its suitability:

This is one side of the school yard, which lower primary make use of at playtime and lunchtime.

In terms of play space for children, the school grounds are all concrete with no grassy areas for football etc. The school is quite an old school and I think that this is the reason for the full concrete yard, however, it may be more safe for children to have some grassy or soft ground area to play on incase of injury. Also, the yard seems to be divided to provide a yard for both lower and upper primary. I believe this is for the safety of the children as some are much bigger than the little ones.

Discussion with children on these aspects of sustainable education:

I was only able to have a short conversation with a few of the children in the school during my time on placement, as the class teacher always had lessons set and I did not want to disrupt this. However, the pupils are very good in terms of litter and recycle to the best of their ability, which is evident after every break and lunchtime as the yard is always immaculate and there is no litter to be seen. In relation to the play space for the pupils and its suitability, many of the boys and a few of the girls feel they would like an area which they could use to play football, such as a grassy area or some form of soft ground.