Sustainable Development

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. 

 

Playground and School Building

 

 

 

Ground floor map of School

 

 

 

 

 

 

First floor image of School

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

There are multiple bins situated all around the school, inside and out to allow children to recycle. The children are encourgaed to recycle within the class, this is usually encouraged by the eco committee member in the classroom. the schools eco committee meets every week to discuss any matters reguarding  recycling or issues within the school or playground usually littering. There is an opportunity of children to litter pick during their lunch or first break however this is not required, it is something they must volunteer to do.

Consideration of actual play space for children and its suitability. 

My placement school has a nursery inside of it which can be sen in the grounds map (the first block of building with fenced off garden) inside the nursery playground, they have wooden games and activities for children to play. However, the school playground is mostly concrete with some games painted on the ground, there is also a large Astroturf pitch that the children have a rota for. Although my school was very eager to recycle and take care of their playground there are no other signs of sustainable development in the playground.

Discussion with children on these aspects of sustainable education.

Myself and my placement partner were able to meet with two primary 3 pupils who discussed with us the importance of recycling and the schools policy on recycling. The children were able to take class time and create posters, banners and whatever they felt necessary to create their own protest. The children protested about littering and the importance of recycling. While the children were doing this others were going around the school litter picking, ensuring any reachable materials were being separated so to go straight in the recycling bins. The children also taught us about some of the negative aspects of litter, information that they had leaned in class regarding how littering does not only affect us but also animals and their habitats.

To learn more about interdependence we were able to as a group visit two different dairy farms which operated in completely different ways. One relying solely on technology to milk the cows and the other being a small dairy farm which the farmer had to milk the cows. Before going to the farms, I was quite sceptical as to how I would feel especially due to the cows not being allowed outside in one of farms. However, once I had visited both farms I felt reassured that both farmers cared about the welfare of each cow and wouldn’t do anything they felt affected a cow in a negative way.

 

This outing allowed me to realise how much work goes into getting our milk and how much work must go into getting everything we eat and drink. Something that has never crosses my mind, what is happening in the background. It was a very eye-opening experience and has made me want to look further into dairy and meat production and the rules and regulations famers must follow.

 

Before completing this task, I was unsure as to the definition of an urban environment and if where I live is considered one. I was able to take a walk around my town and look more closely at the characteristics it possessed.

 

Physical Characteristics

When walking around my town I realised there are very little newly built houses, all houses surrounding me including my own house are bungalows. Any houses that are not bungalows are red sandstone, however most houses have been extended and changed in some way. All houses have their own space and are not sitting on top of one another, a 5-minute walk from my house there is a large park with a small children park inside. Within a 10-minute walk from my house you come across a church, synagogue, and 2 community centres.

 

Transport

There are plenty of transport links in my town in each direction from my house there are 2 transitions within a 5 to 10 minute walk which get you into Glasgow city centre in 15 minutes. There are also bus stops surrounding my town, with buses coming around very 10 minutes.

 

Community spaces

There are many community centres in my town, there is also a library and church halls. The park has a pavilion where football teams are able to have their meetings and get ready for football matches held in the park. There is also a leisure centre which has a swimming pool, sauna and gym, this is next to the local high school which is very useful for school children wanting to be active.

 

Industry and Work

At this moment in time there is no industrial work taking place, as they have just finished re tarmacking the main roads, which did disturb traffic quite a lot in the area especially for the local shops. In my town we have a main road which has 2 supermarkets, a petrol station and many food and boutique shops.

 

Recreation Spaces

There is also a theatre next to the leisure centre where plays take place most weekends. In one of the parks there are pitches for people to play tennis, football and basketball.

 

Population

In my town, there is a population of 93,800 people.

Air

The highest recording of my air quality was level 3 which I was pleasantly surprised my especially when realising the high population of people, I live around and also being so close to a city centre.

 

Classroom

Ideas I had for children to investigate their environments is for their homework to go on a walk with their parents and take a note of all the things they can see in their environment. If they were able to take pictures and bring them into class for the other children to see. Also for myself to bring in pictures from my environment so if no children are able to bring pictures in I will have some to show them.