The school in which I am placed in makes effective use of the surrounding land. The outdoor areas are large and have an even mix of grass and concrete. Similar to other schools, the playgrounds are segregated with primary one, two and three in one side of the school, and primary four, five, six and seven in the other. The map which I have annotated shows this segregation and also the size of the allocated grounds.
The general layout of the area is situated well, with an even mix of concrete and grass. The school grounds are kept pristine, with no drop of litter on the ground whatsoever. There are no set markings on the grounds or walls. Instead, each class is allocated a basket full of equipment such as; chalk, skipping ropes, rackets, balls etc. which children can take out to the playground but is there responsibility to keep safe i.e. when they are gone they are gone.
The school garden grows a variety of things ranging from flowers to garbage and is situated next to a play area surrounded in large willows. Upon chatting to some pupils, the general censuses is that they really like their school the way it is as it has a lot of space to play in and is very green. They also mentioned the multi-sports pitch, which is located directly beside the school, as a fun place to get together with friends and stay active.
Lower School.
I asked a group of primary threes’ and four’s about their take on sustainable education and none of them knew what I was asking. However, upon breaking down the question and asking about any eco-groups and recycling that goes on at school, I got some pretty interesting answers.
Once asked if there were any recycling bins, I got an excitable yes. When asking the children why recycling was important, I got “you get new stuff out of it”. Once asked if there were and litter picking ‘wardens’ I got a no, it’s only the janitor who does that kind of thing. I asked if any of the children were part of some eco-group, the only person who answered said that he was part of KET. However, when I asked him what that was he didn’t really know, he was just aware that it was something to do with keeping the environment clean.
I then moved on to ask them about different aspects of their school grounds, such as the logs surrounding the grass or the bird boxes on the trees and each individual believed that each were there to protect the pupils and the birds so that none of them got hurt.
In conclusion, I found that most of the children in the lower end of the school knew very little about sustainability or the reasons why certain things are put in place. However, each of them were eager to learn more and ask several questions.
Upper School.
The upper school however had a greater understanding of what sustainable development was and spoke animatedly on the topic. Most of the children that I spoke to were passionate about keeping their school and the surrounding area clean. A few of the individuals were involved in the protection of the school grounds, taking part in extra-curricular clubs such as ‘CET’. Unfortunately, the school no longer runs an eco-group due to the teacher who organised it leaving the school. Furthermore, each week two pupils from primary 7 are allocated ‘litter wardens’. This means that on a Friday afternoon during reward time, they walk around the school picking up any litter and tidy up the school grounds. I got the feeling that was not the best job to do as it meant on missing out on reward time but the pupils seemed to understand the importance of the task.
Teachers.
The teachers were more reluctant to engage with certain aspects of sustainable development. The school itself places high regard on literacy, numeracy and mathematics in a bid to close the attainment gap and so sustainable education is not a priority. However, there are encouraging wall displays and signposts situated around the school as well as clubs run by teachers at certain points in the year. Overall, for sustainable education not being a priority, aspects of it are embedded within everyday school life such as recycling bins and bird boxes.
Link to digimap:
http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/roam/aerial
