Green Futures Newsletter 2

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Welcome to Craven DEC's second edition of the Green Futures Eco-Schools Newsletter. We are working with secondary schools to help them on their journey to become Eco-Schools as part of the Green Futures project which is funded by the Big Lottery Fund through the Our Bright Future programme. Please do forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues who may also be interested in environmental and Eco-Schools news, they can subscribe by emailing fiona@cravendec.org.uk

Our new project logo!

Youth Environment Summit - Malham Tarn Field Centre

Young people from across the North West, including students from local Eco-Schools, spent a weekend exploring environmental issues and looking at ways to create positive environmental change at the inaugural Youth Environment Summit.

The young people took part in a range of practical activities including bug surveys, bat detecting, footpath improvements and eco-orienteering, as well as learning how to build bird boxes and bug hotels.

The group also discussed a variety of green issues, developed solutions to reduce waste and encourage people to reuse and recycle more, learnt how to measure and reduce their own carbon footprint and made their own eco-pledges for the future.

19 year old Sian Bentley from Kendal was one of the participants. She said: “I liked the mix of ages, and learning about the different backgrounds through which people got involved in the environment. Everybody was open-minded and eager to share their knowledge and learn new things. The combination of outdoor, practical activities (such as building bird boxes, path maintenance and bug hotels) that would affect the local environment and the workshops (water use, waste and food awareness) which took a more holistic, global and lifestyle approach was ideal, because often the two aren’t practiced together – which is the way forward!”

SAVE THE DATE - Members of your Eco- Committee could join us next year -13th -15th October 2017!

Practical Action STEM Challenge - Design for a better world

Design for a better world offers an exciting new global design challenge and competition for students aged 11-14 years.

The deadline for entering the competition is the 16th December 2016.

If offers students the opportunity to:

Learn about the Global Goals for Sustainable Development
Access a range of global contexts including Water and Sanitation, Food Security and Climate Action in which to identify a design problem
Explore a range of technologies that people are developing around the world to address global challenges.

All the teaching materials and student activity sheets are available to download.

The competition fits well with Water, Global Dimension, Energy Eco-School themes

Funding available for Eco-School projects

The Green Futures Youth Environmental Action Fund is now open. The fund will provide funding and support for groups of young people to develop and deliver small scale practical environmental action or environmental awareness raising projects. The money can be used to run events, meetings or workshops, or purchase resources for practical environmental work.

The Youth Environmental Action Fund is intended to support the aims of the Green Futures project, part of the wider Our Bright Future portfolio, by enabling young people to take practical action in and for the environment.

The minimum grant is £50 up to a maximum of £1000. Eco-School groups can receive grants for several projects over the life of Green Futures (2016 – 2020) but the total amount of grant received cannot exceed £2000.

Email fiona@cravendec.org.uk for the application form and further guidance.

Eco-Schools Energy Efficient Schools Competition

What's the best energy-saving project you've ever done at your school? Or do you have plans for something really big this year - solar panels maybe, or LED lighting?

Eco-Schools and UK Energy Partners are on the lookout for the Eco-School that's shown themselves to be THE leaders in the field of energy efficiency - or is looking to take some big steps this year. Let us know in no more than 500 words and your school will be in with a chance of winning.This is a great one for your Eco-Committee to write together - celebrating a positive Energy initiative they've championed or one they're excited about making happen! The competition will run over the 2016-17 academic year and over all three terms, with a winner at the end of each term, and an overall winner announced in June 2017.

The Prizes

1 LED lighting upgrade for the overall winning Eco-School (worth £5,000!)
3 metering and monitoring systems for the three end-of-term winners
50 energy efficiency surveys for your Eco-School by qualified surveyors to the first 50 valid entrants.

Enter by 14th December for the chance to win this Autumn term. First winning school announced 7th January!

Diary Dates!

Focused activities can be a great way to kick start action relating to a particular area of sustainability. Why not plan a school activity day or week to coincide with a national campaign? Follow the links to find resources for upcoming international and environmental days.

Switch-Off Fortnight: 14th - 27th November 2016, run by EDF Energy's environmental education programme is an opportunity to immerse your students in the energy topic of Eco-Schools and make a real difference to energy usage in school and at home. It couldn't be easier to get your school involved, and is a highlight in the Eco-Schools calendar. By taking part, the whole school community will get a chance to learn about key energy issues and ways to reduce both carbon emissions and energy bills.

World Toilet Day: 19 November 2016, Did you know ... more people in the world have a mobile phone than a toilet? In the least developed countries only 45% of schools have adequate toilets and 1 in 3 people worldwide do not have access to a toilet. Email Fiona@cravendec.org.uk for a short quiz to raise awareness on Toilets!

World Soil Day: 5 December 2016, Soil is one of the world’s most precious natural resources. It is vital for plant survival and crop production. The RHS Campaign for School gardening have great activities and resources on soil and compost.

The Big Pedal: 20 March 2017 to 31 March 2017. The Big Pedal is the UK’s largest inter-school cycling challenge. It inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two wheels for their journey to school. On each day of the challenge schools compete to see who can record the greatest number of pupils, staff and parents cycling or scootering to school. During the Big Pedal 2016 schools recorded over one million journeys by bike and scooter. Registration opens soon.

Outdoor Adventures! Twilight training on Monday 20^th March 2017

Sign up to a new course to:

experience a range of outdoor activities designed to support the delivery of Global Education in the Outdoors
be introduced to a range of methodologies including Critical Skills and Earth Education
Critically reflect on the role of outdoor education to support the effective delivery of global themes

Venue: Settle CE Primary School
Time: 4pm to 6pm
Facilitator: Gina Parker Mullarkey.

Cost: £50 per person/FREE to Global Learning Programme (GLP) schools with credits to spend. If your school would like to sign up to GLP or book a place on the course please contact liz@cravendec.org.uk

School News

Skipton Girls' High School has plans to develop a community food garden and external learning environment taking the classroom outside. The public can vote in Skipton Tesco until the 13^th November and they could recive either £12,000, £10,000 or £8,000 awards towards this project. Please support them by voting! Bags of Help offers community groups and projects a share of revenue generated from the 5p charge levied on single-use carrier bags. Apply for funding.

If you have a project, event or an idea you'd like to share with other schools please email Fiona@cravendec.org.uk