Giving your school a ‘green’ focus delivers both educational and financial benefits, said an article in a recent TES. The abstract (that is, the taster on the page that you could read without paying) said ...
"Not so long ago, sustainability was little more than a buzzword in schools. These days, its presence on the curriculum is a given and it usually manifests itself in one of a few ways. For some schools, it’s a dedicated sustainable development week. For others, it’s a specially formed eco-council that collects recyclable materials and designs posters about turning lights off (on reused paper, naturally). But for a small percentage, it is all that and much, much more. Take Home Farm Primary School in Colchester, Essex, for example. When headteacher Richard Potter ..."
Before I parted with my cash to read the rest, I went to the school's website to see if Mr Potter's introduction to the school had anything to say about sustainability. Sadly, although he found the space to confirm that Home Farm was a school where safety is valued, there was no mention of the S word. Odd, I thought.
No doubt Home Farm is a fine school – a "pretty special place" in Potter's words; one where children's "rewarding and rounded educational experience" allows them to take minor irritants like SATs in their stride, but that seems no reason to buy the TES to read about it when it cannot be bothered to wear its sustainability heart on its homepage sleeve, or make play of how much of an educationally good thing it is.
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I thought that the Ethos page might be more informative, but, apart from a passing reference to eco councils, it's not.
Responses
I think about this often in a different domain: feminism. How much does it actually matter whether or not someone or an institution identifies using the label. Shouldn't we care more about what they actually do? So much focus on identification, so much less focus on material impact, no?
I tend to agree with this point, Joe; I was just surprised about how little the school focused on what it did.