/ GREEN FLAG AWARD

Application Form

School Name / Loughborough High School
Address / Burton Walks
Loughborough
Leicestershire
LE11 2DU
Telephone / 01509-212348
Email /
LEA
Approx. No. of Pupils / 612
Name of Headteacher / Miss B O’Connor
Name of Eco-Schools Co-ordinator / Mrs K Snelling, Chair, Loughborough Endowed Schools Environment Committee ( this includes the three schools Loughborough High School, Loughborough Grammar school, and Fairfield prep.)
Date of Submission / December 2009

Tick this box if you are renewing your Green Flag Award

SECTION 1 – About your Action Team

Who are the ‘Action Team’ members and who do they represent? (Please list)

Team Members for Loughborough High School
/
Represents
Lorna Sowerbutts
Vinita Bhakta
Samita Nathoo
Veronica Heney
Madeline Reed
Lucy Bromwich
Emma de Salis
Nikita Daji
Charlotte Rowel
Harriet Cooper
Anna Smith
Ellen Coady
Niamh Conway
Emma Counsel
Rogin Deylami
Shrinal Kotecha
Shreya Shah
1 Representative from each Form
Miss Partridge
Mrs Snelling
Miss Budzik / Senior Environment Prefect, Chair
Senior Environment Prefect, Committee Secretary
Senior Environment Prefect, Fairfield (reception-year6) and Junior (High School years7-9) Liaison Officer
Recycling
Newsletter
Newsletter
Biodiversity
Biodiversity
Composting
Displays
Displays
Green Flag Application
Fairfield link rep
Fairfield link rep
Staff
Staff
Staff
Who chairs/organises the meetings? / Lorna Sowerbutts
Who takes minutes/ records the proceedings of team meetings? / VinitaBhakta
How often has your team met to–date? / Once a month, every month
On how many occasions has a parent, governor or other member of the ‘out-of-school’ community attended to date? / Twice.
How are decisions arrived at during meetings? / Form groups have the opportunity to discuss ideas before meetings take place and present ideas to the committee. These are discussed and individuals agree to take responsibility for co-ordinating a team to work on new initiatives.
How can pupils not on the team make suggestions? / Meetings are publicised in advance through notice board and whole school assemblies. Pupils are invited to bring their ideas to the meeting or they can put ideas forward to their form rep who will attend the meeting, or email ideas to members of the committee.
How does the team feedback decisions to the rest of the school? / Form reps feedback information to individual forms. Major announcements are made through assemblies and thetwo Eco Schools notice boards. A monthly newsletter is also emailed to all staff and pupils.

[Suggested evidence for Section 1 = minutes and other meeting reports]

SECTION 2 – About your Environmental Review

NB: Please send two copies of both your initial Environmental Review Checklist and your Follow-up Environmental Review Checklist with this form.

Who carried out your initial Environmental Review and when? / The Carbon Trust, 2007, commissioned for Loughborough Endowed Schools (LES) by Tom Allardice LES Estates manager.
Who carried out your follow-up review and when? / The initial 2007 Review carried out by the Carbon trust produced an Action plan that has been adopted as the action plan for all 3 Schools. In Autumn 2009 pupils serving on the LHS Eco Schools Committee, chaired by Lorna Sowerbutts, carried out its own review and a new action plan has been drawn up.

[Suggested evidence for Section 2 =: The Environmental Review documents themselves, minutes and meeting reports, photographs, pupil accounts, data collection sheets, etc.]

SECTION 3 – About your Action Plan

NB: Please send two copies of your current Action Plan with this for which should include targets and methods of measuring the targets set.

Who was involved in developing the action plan? Briefly describe process. / The 2009 action plan was developed by pupils through the LHS Eco-schools committee.
How did you share the action plan with the rest of the school? / Every form has a representative who sits on the LHS Eco-Schools Committee. Reporting back also occurs through newsletters and bulletins on the Eco schools notice boards.

SECTION 4 – About Eco -Schools developments in curriculum work

Please give 3 brief examples of curriculum work carried out related to Eco-Schools

An audit of environment topics in the curriculum was carried out in 2008; this is updated each term. An extensive folder with details of coverage in the curriculum and examples of pupil work is available. Three examples of work covered are listed on the next page.

Year Group / Subject Area / Activity
Example 1
/ Year 9 / Textile Design / Looking at environmental issues in the textiles/fashion industry.
Making a bag out of recycled fabrics.
Example 2 / Year 13 / German /
  • The individual and the environment: recycling; reducing individual energy usage and impact; local conservation
  • Energy management: alternative energy sources; changing use of fossil fuels; nuclear energy; changing energy demands
  • Pollution: causes; consequences; solutions
  • Conservation of the natural world: changing habitats; impact of man and pollution; local, national or global initiatives.

Example 3
Can you offer any examples of how pupils’ involvement in Eco-Schools has led to a rise in educational achievement?
Please describe briefly. / Our involvement in Eco schools has enabled us to raise pupil achievement by enabling us to focus on real-life situations and issues that are relevant and meaningful to pupils as a context for their learning. Eg the Art club was greatly inspired by our work with our African link school Tsolo High and our work on recycling to produce an ostrich sculpture from recycled waste.
The capacity to engage pupils through tapping into their interest and enthusiasm for the sustainability issues has been a distinctive feature of becoming an Eco School; learning takes place through the opportunities for pupils to practice sustainable development within the curriculum and in the extra- curricular opportunities we provide. Our Easter Burton Fayre has had a recycling theme for the last three years, with girls competing in Houses to produce, for example, the best outfits (Wedding/sporting/party/casual) from recycled paper/plastic and card!
An audit has been carried out across the curriculum, with schemes of work, lesson plans and evidence of pupils’ collected in our Eco Schools folder.

[Suggested evidence for Section 4 =: Lesson plans, pupils own work records, wall displays, etc.]

SECTION 5 – About your Eco-Schools Communication

NB: Please send two identical photographs of your notice board/web-pages with this form.

Where is your Eco-Schools notice board? / We have two display areas- one in Charles Block, which is next to the year 8 and 9 form rooms, and one by main school hall, which is accessible to the whole school.
What information is put on the Eco-Schools notice board? / Focus for the term.
Up and coming events, information about what we are currently doing, photos of events, our Eco Code, monthly Newsletter. Minutes of Eco-schools meetings and LES Environment Committee are displayed.
Eco-Schools competitions are advertised here.
Who is responsible for new material on the notice board? / Eco-Schools Committee.
How often does new material appear? / The display is completely updated with new focus every term; newsletter and articles are added weekly/as arise.
Is Eco-Schools promoted in any other way? E.g. website, newsletters, posters / There is a monthly newsletter, Posters are displayed around schooland changed regularly; information is available on the school website, the work of the committee is publicised in the Headmistress’ end of term newsletter. Cycling week has been publicised in the local press: Loughborough Echo.

[Suggested evidence for Section 5 =: The notice-board photograph, assembly plans, press releases/press cuttings, minutes from governor meetings, AGM agendas, letters to/from business contacts, Newsletter.]

SECTION 6 – About your schools Eco-Code

NB: Please include two copies of your eco-code with this form.

Briefly explain how your Eco-Code was developed? / The need for an Eco- Code was agreed in the Eco-School committee meeting on 22 September 2008. This was advertised in a main school assembly 29 September. Pupils in all years were consulted and encouraged to put forward ideas to the Eco-Schools Committee. The Committee drafted an Eco-Code based on ideas received which was emailed to all pupils for comment and feedback. The code was then modified and resubmitted to the school for approval. The Eco- Code was published on 28 November 2008.
How often is it reviewed? / Once a year.
Where is it displayed? / Every form room has a copy displayed on the form notice board. A framed copy is on display to visitors in school reception and a copy is also on the staff room main notice board. The Eco-Code is also prominent on the Eco-School notice boards and at various points around school.
How do you ensure all pupils are aware of it? / Form staff discussthe code with their forms at the start of each academic year, and the code is regularly referred to in Eco Schools meetings. The code is referred to termly during themed “Green Weeks”, and in monthly Eco- Schools Committee meetings. The LES publication “In The Walks” regularly features articles on green issues: the September 2008 issue was entirely devoted to this theme.

[Suggested evidence for Section 6 =: The Eco-Code itself, assembly plans, notice-board photos, lesson plans etc.]

SECTION 7 Monitoring Achievements

Which of the Eco-Schools topics have you tackled? For each topic that you have worked on, please provide an indication of the scale of the project (i.e. major project, small / short project).

Topic / Tick / Scale of Project
Litter / Minor
/ Litter awareness is a major part of the culture of the school. There is no litter problem on the campus.
Energy / Major
/ A LES Environment Committee for development of a campus wide strategy was set up in October 2006, with an aim to devolve responsibility to Eco-committees localised in each school.
Reduction in energy usage has been a priority for the LES Environment Committee.An energy report by the Carbon Trust was commissioned in June 2007. These recommendations of the Carbon Trust report were adopted as the Action Plan for the whole campus in January 2008. Lighting is being systematically replaced by low energy alternatives with reduction in energy consumption of 90% (see minutes April 2008); intelligent switching systems installed in toilets, low occupancy areas, corridors and cupboards. Most impressive savings have been achieved from fitting sensors in the Grammar school sports halland High School gym. Recovery time of fitting costs estimated at 6 years, whereas small areas such as store cupboards will recover cost of fit in less than 6 months. Monomolecular layer cover has been fitted to the pool in 2008, and the thermostat turned down as recommended by Carbon Trust:thishas resulted in energy savings estimated to be 217,500 kWh/Annum (gas) and 8,000kWh/Annum (electricity).
Heating has been turned down to a minimum across campus. Heating is now switched off in holiday periods, and boilers reprogrammed weekly in response to weather forecast (LES Environment Committee minutes April 2008).
Ben Straw, Lee Dobson and Barry Wakeling are working on a system to evaluate base load with half hour data for monitoring energy consumption; this will be used to calculate energy savings made.
Low pressure hot pipe Insulationwas completed by February 2008, saving an estimated 51, 360 kWh/A.
A successful “Switch off lights campaign” was started in Jan. Before this lights were on at night in almost all rooms. The whole Campus is now in darkness overnight (excepting security lighting and stairs). Staff and pupils are encouraged to switch off lights at the end of session, and the Cleaning team is instrumental in ensuring all lighting is off at the end of the day. The need to switch off is a regular feature of “ the once a term Green Weeks.”
A similar campaign has been equally successful in ensuring that Computers are switched off in the evenings and at weekends. The no of computers left on has dropped from 80 % in March 2008 to 30% on average by September 2009, and 4% by November 2009.An automated system to shut down computers left on was proposed to the LES Environment Committee in February 2008. After consultation with Ben Straw, Network manager, the Committee agreed at the meeting on 5th March 2008 to the use of a centralised signal to switch off any computers left on after 11.00pm each evening.
Staff and pupil awareness is raised across campus by the LES Environment Committee and at LHS through the LHS Eco-Schools Committee. Environment issues are regularly reported on at staff meetings, and were a major topic for discussion at staff INSET September 2008. LHS has a notice board for promoting Environment awareness. Fairfield and LGS will use their school councils to promote recycling and other green issues. Pupils have been encouraged to submit designs for energy saving posters which are updated on a regular basis, and old posters stored for re-use. Awareness of energy issues is also regularly raised through assemblies, competitions e.g. Climate Crime Scene march 2009, Eco-Schools newsletters, end of term newsletters and the Eco Schools notice board.
Water / Minor
/ Awareness of the need to reduce water wastage has been raised via posters, assemblies, briefings.
5,000 rigid, reusable bottles with the school crest that can fit under the water fountains were presented free to all pupils at LGS, LHS and Fairfield in September 2008. Additional bottles are sold through LHS stationery shop, LGS tuck shops and Fairfield canteen. Pupils are regularly reminded and encouraged to use this. House points are awarded during green weeks to further encourage usage. An additional water fountain has been requested through the LHS School Council. This has been approved and will be installed.
The Design a Water Hippo competition, November 2009, has been publicised and supported at LHS.
Waste / Major
/ A contract for recycling of paper and card was negotiated with the recycling charity Groundwork/ EnvironfromDec 2006. This was then extended to include tins and plastic bottles (Feb 2007). The recycling of tins and plastic bottles form the school canteens were fully implemented in June 2007. A new contract has been negotiated with “Green for life” from June 2009. Cost quoted for recycling is 1/3 of current charge (£600 per annum compared with £2,200 previously) and they will accept a wider variety of waste so we are able to recycle an even greater percentage of what we produce. Excellent level of service from new company reported to LES Environment Committee September 2009.
The composting of food waste was proposed by Miss B O’Connor Headmistress at LHS in September 2007. Composting bins were purchased and installed in the grounds at LHS and Fairfield in November 2007. Receptacles for collecting fruit and vegetable waste have been placed in the staff kitchens and Food room at LHS and are emptied by the girls. It is planned to use the compost to support the gardening club.
In December 2008 recycling of clothing for cancer research was initiated by Miss J partridge, along with the very popular clothing exchange or “Swish!” A Clothing Swop day was organised at LHS on 6 March 2009. Pupils brought in good quality or designer to swop. Any funds raised or items remaining were donated to cancer research.
Mobile phones are recycled for charity. A pupil at LHS has responsibility for this.
Ink cartridges are recycled through the ICT department.
Old computer equipment is recycled through network services.
In September 2009 battery recyclingwas successfully introduced.
The focus on waste has now moved to reducing wastage eg: pupils are encouraged to “Think before you print” with notices on all printers. A paper free day was proposed for Wednesday 4 March 2009. Pupils have been encouraged to design posters on this theme and winning designs are reproduced and used to regularly replace older posters around the school.
Transport / Major
/ Travel Plans for LHS (K Snelling), LGS (John Weitzel, Deputy Head) and Fairfield (Jeff Pole, Deputy Head) have been produced and an Action Plan for LES agreed in October 2008.The Travel Plans were presented to Tony Kershaw, governor, Thursday 9th October 2008, and submitted to Jonathan O’Farrell at LCC by K Snelling in November 2008.
LES Cycling Weekwas introduced 14th - 22nd June 2008 and is organised each year by Garry Leeson, LES Health and Safety Officer. This is planned to coincide with National Bike Week each year i.e. 15-19 June 2009, and again on 12th – 20th June 2010. Figures collected in June 2008 recorded a 200% increase in cycling numbers, and good uptake of staff bike purchase scheme. Dr Bike was very popular. There is a demand for Cycling proficiency which will be introduced in 2009/10. Cycling to school was encouraged by offering free breakfasts each morning during cycling week.
Lift sharing has been promoted through networking informationproduced in yearbooks with contact details, postcodes and willingness to offer lift sharing.
Pupils across campus were asked to submit designs for a reversible banner with “Have you thought about lift sharing?” on one side and the other side promoting cycling weeks. The winning designs came from two girls at the High school, and two banners were produced suitable for main car parks in time for cycling week, June 2009.