Make the everyday running of your school more sustainable with these tips and resources.
Page contents
Case Studies
- A series of short videos from St Andrew’s Chedworth showing its progress towards becoming a net zero carbon primary school
- Discover how a Blackburn secondary school installed a heat pump under their playing field as part of its drive to net zero.
- One school’s journey to cutting single use plastic
- Thermal Imaging at Sandringham school
General Tips
- Talk about Climate change with your students and teachers. We have plenty of resources in our Learn section
- Make a Sustainability Policy for your school’s students and staff to stick to
- Calculate your school’s Carbon footprint
- Join Meat Free Mondays and try their impact calculator, where you can find out your impact on animals, people and the planet by having meat-free days. For learning resources, see our Learn Page – Reducing Meat Consumption.
- See where your school’s heat is escaping by borrowing a thermal imaging camera, children love to use these too, see what Sandringham school did
- Ecosia – why not switch your school search engines to default to this one that plants trees for every search made.
- Cut your electricity usage – Join The Pod, and interactive sustainability website with resources such as the ‘Switch On to Switching Off lesson plan’
- Learn how to cut down your school’s single use plastic. Get your children, parents and staff on board.
- Olio for Schools – help schools pass surplus food to those in need; also teaching resources and activities
- Herts County Council freebies! Free assemblies and activities from waste education officer and two free composters!
- What is your schools milk solution? Still using individual cartons with plastic straws? Why not ask your milk provider to supply large cartons which you serve in cups? Read how one local school changed this.
- Plant some trees! Free trees can be obtained via The Woodland Trust’s free trees for schools programme. Not possible? How about raising money for trees to be planted somewhere else? Try a non-uniform day for Just One Tree or a similar organisation.
- Attract bees and butterflies to your school. Seedball are offering schools 250 wildflower seedballs
- How to reduce your carbon footprint – advice for schools from the carbon trust
- Look at the Energy in Schools website: a helpful tool aid for schools to be more energy aware and reduce their energy, whilst giving the opportunity for pupils to use BBC micro:bit technology to solve problems.
- Wombles Campaigns: The Wombles were always ahead of their time, championing sustainability, a love of nature and the importance of community. Check out the Wombles Sustainability website to see how to get involved with any of their campaigns including: The Wombles Great British Spring Clean, The Wombles Meat Free Monday, The Wombles & National Tree Week.
Waste and Recycling
- Who is your waste contractor? Did you know that St Albans District Council will pick up dry recycling fortnightly and food waste weekly from schools for free? They will provide all the outside bins. Contact Louise Palmer at the council on 01727 819428 louise.palmer@stalbans.gov.uk.
- Deal with your school’s food waste and consider starting a compost bin
- St Albans District Recycling Guide
- TerraCycle– Recycling solutions that help people recycle the non-recyclable
- Recycle your crisp packets
- Wuka– a local business that produces sustainable period products
- Food Waste Recipe Finder– a resource of recipes designed to prevent food waste
- Reuse, Upcycle and recycle your school uniform! Use this parent founded website or hold uniform sales at the internally!
- Join the Let’s Go Zero campaign which unites and supports UK schools working together to be carbon zero by 2030 through providing support and advice on, for example, energy use, car-free school runs and plant-based canteens.
PTA, Funding, Grants, Purchasing
- Need funding to recreate your schools garden?
- Salix provide interest free loans for schools to improve their energy efficiency. through the installation of energy-efficient technologies, such as insulation, LED lights and solar power