Green Capital / Feature
Milestone for sustainable school project
Bristol’s first sustainability schools programme has now reached some 3,000 children across the city.
Children learn about sustainable energy, food, nature, resources and transport in a program of free workshops provided by Bristol 2015 Green Capital Schools Programme.
All the resources and experiences from the Key Stage 2 sessions are being developed alongside Bristol teachers to ensure they fully support the national curriculum and will be shared nationally later this year, creating a Green Capital legacy for future generations.
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Zoe Travis, Year 4 teacher at St Barnabas Primary School in Montpelier, which has benefited from the workshops, said: “Lots of our children live in inner-city areas and don’t get the opportunity to learn about the outdoors and the environment, so workshops like these are extremely beneficial to them.”
One of her pupils at St Barnabas added: “We’ve been doing lots of different workshops and learning about how to help the environment, like how to grow your own food.”
The workshops involve an assembly and lessons delivered by expert providers. The energy workshop has been designed by Code Club and Aardman and involves a fun computer coding lesson with Shaun the Sheep; the interactive food lesson, by the Food for Life Partnership, Myrtle Theatre Company and Bristol Healthy Schools, uses creative writing and drama to teach children where food comes from; Avon Wildlife Trust’s nature session uses science investigations and games to explore our city’s wildlife; the resources workshop, delivered by Resource Futures, addresses the impact waste has on our planet; and a numeracy session from Sustrans uses data to explore how children travel to school.
Dionne Seagrove, Headteacher at Torwood House School, Redland, said: “The sustainability workshop focusing on nature enthused all of the Torwood House School key stage two children to take a closer look at their environment both at home and at school, planting wildflower seed bombs and setting up a daily watch to see how they progress and what insects visit the new British native plants in the school garden.”
Bristol 2015 is working with children from Bristol schools to create video documentaries on some of the reasons why the city won European Green Capital and what more can be achieved to make it a healthier, happier place. The virtual field trips will be shared online from September alongside a range of quality resource designed to support teachers nationwide.
More information on the sustainable schools project.
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