Miss Mitchell is the Eco-Committee leader and is responsible for environmental education and sustainable development education.
Lisneal College integrates a range of environmental issues into the curriculum across most year groups or classes in a range of subjects and many aspects of our Eco-Committee activities are integrated into a range of subjects. Issues surrounding sustainable development are also explored through curriculum activities in many year groups.
The following table gives an overview of links to sustainability throughout our curriculum:
|
Subject |
Activity |
| Health & Social Care | Students learn about the impact of environmental factors such as pollution, geographical location, housing and occupational hazards on the physical, emotional and social well-being of individuals. |
| Technology and Design | Students in year 8 create an upcycle task of their choice. Students in year 9 reuse jam jars to create a sweet dispenser and students in year 10 are creating an upcycle project turning old pringles cans into speakers. This looks at recycling and reusing.
At GCSE students study sustainability of products and what happens them at the end of the life cycle. All GCSE coursework projects are separated into different materials and recycled. |
| Occupational Studies Carpentry and Joinery | Students study the 3 “R’s” Reduce, Reuse & Recycle of construction materials. They also cover sustainable forestry and being more responsible with material choices. |
| Religious Education | Students learn about ‘stewardship’ in RE and how Christians/religious people have a sense of duty to God and others to protect animals and the earth. We discuss climate change and relevant issues that face the world today.
Students also study Fairtrade and how we can make better choices when we are buying certain items – especially clothes, food etc. We explore fast fashion and how we make sustainable choices when it comes purchasing products. We explore topics surrounding citizenship and how we can make the world a cleaner and better place for all. This is taught in KS3,4 and 5. |
| English | Students read the book The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. We talked about local wildlife and the importance of them to our environment. We also researched owls to create a class display. We went out around the school environment to find some natural materials to help with our display. The children talked about the different materials that were available on our school site. They decided that leaves would be the best option because as it was autumn, and they were already on the ground and we wouldn’t have to disturb anything by picking them. We collected leaves and then we waited for the next few days until they were fully dry. The children then used them to create the wings of the owls. One child even noted that their owl was now fully recyclable or even compostable because we had used natural materials! |
| Science | Student study energy in year 8 where they learn about alternatives to fossil fuel power stations.
Students have been learning to monitor environmental changes and how it links to climate change. They learn about abiotic and biotic factors like CO2 levels, PH, temperature, water levels and decreasing ice fields and lichens as pollution monitors.
We also look at different plastics (mostly their chemical properties and structure) and learn why they are hard to break down. This shows students why we should be working towards using less plastics and recycling more. In physics they do a lot of work about renewable and non-renewable energy and the sustainability of each. In Biology they study photosynthesis in KS3 and GCSE which obviously focuses a lot on the importance of plants and trees and also the effects of deforestation. Rising greenhouse gases leading to climate change, melting ice caps, sea levels rising and flooding taught to our Yr11 DAS, SAS & BTEC chemistry students and Yr14 Organic chemistry students. Also polluting gases, SO2, NOx and CO taught at these stages. |
| Maths | Students in year 8 would have completed a task investigating the different methods of transport to and from school. They would have completed a tally chart gathering the data from their peers about which mode of transport they take to school. This data is collated and represented in the form or bar charts and pictograms. During this task there is discussion around sustainable ways of travelling to school and the impacts that they have on the environment. |
| Music | In KS4 music technology students learn about how music festivals can be more sustainable and environmentally friendly, and how we can be more energy efficient when using equipment in the recording studio. |
| Physical Education | Students are encouraged to recycle plastic water bottles and to use refillable containers for their lessons. |
| Learning for Life and Work
|
Students have been discussing how to make positive contributions and responsible citizens to their communities.
Nearly every lesson the analogy is used that picking up one piece of litter can change the world. Because if we see less litter in the world, we are less likely to litter ourselves, which in turn makes places look nicer, which makes us prouder to be from them places. |
| ICT and Digital Technology | Students learn and recognise that the use of Google classroom as a virtual learning environment across the school has reduced the need for paper and printing. |
| Business | Students in year 13 study environmental factors like energy management, carbon emissions, waste reduction, recycling and pollution. Students also study ethical factors taking into account fairtrade like employment policies, trading policies, environmental policies and sustainable policies. They learn about what they are and why they are important. Year 12 students create their own business and part of the course involves reducing their impact on the environment. |
| Languages | As part of our GCSE French/Spanish course we discuss what we do/could do to help the environment in our everyday lives e.g. turn off appliances, save water by showering instead of a bath, recycling etc. We also discuss healthy diet. This could come up in any aspect of their exams – reading, writing, listening or speaking. |
| Motor Vehicles | Students learn about the social and environmental effects of pollution and how they can reduce pollution. They study electric cars and the benefits that they have on our environment. |
| Geography | Sustainable cities project through Sentinus |