Sustainable nursery schools: Environmental review at EYFS

Monkchester Road Nursery School and Family Centre is a local authority nursery school in Newcastle upon Tyne providing 104 full time places for three- to four-year-olds. More than half the children access free school meals and approximately 15% have special educational needs.

The Centre has an ethos of providing quality education where children and families are encouraged to care for themselves, for each other and for the environment. As a staff we have been greatly influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach to education which recognises ‘the environment as the third teacher’ (Gandini, 1988, p177). Acknowledging the importance of the environment upon teaching and learning compelled us to re-evaluate the whole school site and the learning spaces offered to our children. We also became committed to ensuring the sustainability of our environment for the future.

Embracing the Eco-Schools initiative
Joining the Eco-Schools international scheme inspired us to redesign our planning and curriculum and improve the school grounds. This increased the opportunities for our very young children to experience environmental education and become active citizens, aware of the impact they have on their locality.

Involving the whole school community
An initial audit identified staff training needs and a programme of professional development was established. Staff agreed to make this a whole-school development issue, thereby focusing attention on our collective aim to improve the environment and increase sustainability.

Parents were asked to identify aspects within the school that needed improvement and complete a survey with their children by asking them a set of questions about school and scribing their responses. Children’s views were sought through circle time discussions and in class council sessions. Small groups worked with staff to identify areas that they liked and disliked outdoors and were encouraged to share their reasoning with each other and their teachers. Children used cameras to photograph the areas that made them ‘sad, mad and glad’ around school and used emoticons to show their opinions of the different areas.

Environmental review
Using the Eco-Schools audit tool, we carried out an environmental review of the nine key areas for developing sustainability and outlined simple changes we could make.

1. Litter and rubbish
In PSED, children voted for a new set of character bins thereby encouraging them to be aware of the need to reduce litter. The local council environment team provided tabards, gloves and litter picking equipment which children use to help to clear up any litter discarded within the school grounds. They talked to each class about the problems of litter and organised a street sweeping vehicle to visit school.

2. Energy
By joining a ‘Bill Busters’ scheme we monitored energy consumption, and careful budgeting enabled the installation of energy efficient lighting complete with sensors. New heaters with direct controls were installed and additional insulation was included in the roof and walls of new areas of the building. This work was funded by a grant from the Carbon Trust. Within a year gas bills have diminished.

3. Waste and recycling
A survey with the children helped them identify the items thrown away in each classroom – largely paper and the remains of fruit from snack time. Paper recycling bins have been placed around school and a local firm supplied outdoor storage bins for waste paper. A ‘Roly-Poly Pig’ composter takes care of waste fruit and vegetables. The children enjoy sweeping up leaves in the garden to ‘feed’ to Roly Poly Pig and take delight in working as a team to roll him around the garden.

4. Water
Water use was a particular concern arising from the whole-school audit. A combination of the school’s capital building budget and a grant from ENCAMS provided money for 11 new low flush toilets and new taps. Weekly water meter readings are taken and we graph our usage to share the information with staff, children and parents.

5. School grounds
A working party mapped and audited the outdoor spaces, listed the types of activities we wanted outdoors and canvassed ideas and opinions from children and parents.

New spaces that have been created include an outdoor classroom, a role play space, climbing frames, soft surfaces, a cycle track, a vegetable garden, a sensory walk and chiming tree, water play areas and a bog garden. In circle time, children voted for new outdoor musical instruments so we now have a large glockenspiel, chimes, a turtle-shaped drum and ladder rattle as part of a sensory path.

A Sure Start grant funded a set of outdoor rain suits which have more than doubled the time that children could spend outside during the year and a ‘Wellies are Wonderful’ campaign with parents was very successful. These initiatives have helped parents understand the importance of children being outdoors, in the fresh air, and of the need to sometimes let the children get dirty!

During the survey one child explained to us that she didn’t like our old 1970s concrete sandpit. When asked ‘Why?’ she told us that she loved the sand but it was always wet and the sandpit was often closed because of the rain. An alternative sandpit was chosen that had a waterproof cover and a roof so that it could be accessed all year around. Getting children to share their reasoning and be involved in decision making has proved to be one of the major impacts of our Eco-Schools activities.

One group of children identified a very dilapidated fence in part of the school grounds. When they were challenged to figure out what we should do about it they voted to write a letter to someone who could fix it. After deciding that Bob the Builder was probably too busy, the local council was chosen instead. A member of staff asked the children what they wanted to say in their letters and helped to scribe them. A couple of months later, the children were thrilled when the carpenters from the local council turned up to replace the broken-down fence. For the children, this was their first taste of participatory change – and all at the age of three!

6. Biodiversity
While redeveloping the grounds we increased the plant and wildlife biodiversity within the site. From raised beds made from extra large plastic planters we harvested our first crops of carrots, lettuce, beetroot, radishes and peas during the summer. Growing their own vegetables encouraged the children to taste new varieties and gave us another way to perk up our health education messages. This term a small orchard is being planted ready for a harvest next autumn. A bog garden was created using a moulded pond filled with top soil and compost. Surrounded by a circle of logs this provides an interesting area for the children to sit and dig for worms and search for insects. To attract butterflies, ladybirds and other flying insects a row of buddleia has been planted around the new perimeter fencing and children plant up hanging baskets each term using a range of annuals suitable for the season.

The local biodiversity officer has helped us to find sites for a number of bird and bat boxes and we have added a selection of bird feeding devices. One class set up a bird hide against their classroom windows so that the children could watch the birds, making them aware of the need for quiet and calm observation so as not to frighten the birds away.

An old PE trolley functions as a gardening centre where child-sized gardening gloves, tools and watering cans are stored. The accessibility of these items has encouraged staff to build gardening activities into their everyday planning. Binoculars, pooters and magnifiers are stored within easy reach of the children so spontaneous, unplanned and child-led observation can be accommodated and promoted. Several old water and sand trays are dotted around the garden as collecting points for the children. These are kitted out with many different baskets, bags, cylinders and containers to support children’s natural curiosity for collecting and sorting.

7. Healthy living
The Eco-School initiatives have been an excellent addition to the Healthy School portfolio by providing activities which improve the health of our community. A grant from Curry’s ‘Switched on Communities’ provided new kitchen appliances and additional grants from extended schools paid for the creation of a new healthy living kitchen used for community cookery activities and children’s cookery workshops.

8. Travel and transport
We now collect information about modes of travel to school and have started to develop a new school travel plan. As most of our families walk to school this has not been a major focus in our early work.

9. Global perspective
At harvest festival children learn that produce is brought to England from all over the world and photographs and postcards are used to help them learn about markets and shopping in other countries. Last year we helped children understand fair-trade messages at a very basic level, using number songs, drama and role play. In PSED and circle time, they discussed the concept of ‘fairness and kindness’ using stories from around the world as the basis for their discussions.

The Every Child Matters outcomes
Focusing on these nine areas has embedded sustainability and biodiversity within the whole-school ethos and brought the school community together to support environmental improvements. It has provided a vehicle for everyone’s voice to be heard and it has made decision making and problem solving a key part of our children’s experiences. The initiative helps us to address the five outcomes of Every Child Matters in a practical way with our children and families.

Health and safety are fundamental messages of the Eco-Schools themes, with an eye on the future as well as the present.

Children are fully involved in supporting and improving their environment and clearly have a positive contribution to make.

The first-hand activities offered in our redeveloped school grounds support children to enjoy and achieve in all curriculum areas.

Increasing the sustainability and efficiency of the school building helps us to reduce bills and improve children’s awareness of how economic factors impact upon their lives.

References
Gandini, L 1988, ‘Educational and Caring Spaces’ (p161-178) In C Edwards, L Gandini and G Forman (eds) The 100 Languages of Children, Albex Publishing

Websites

• Carbon Trust: www.carbontrust.co.uk
• Character-shaped litter bins: www.glasdon.com
• Eco-Schools – any early years setting which has its own premises is eligible to join the Eco-Schools scheme: www.ecoschools.co.uk
• EMCAMS: Environmental Campaigns: www.encams.org.uk
• Large musical instruments: www.handmadeplaces.co.uk
• Roly Poly Pig: www.communitycompost.org
• Switched On Communities: www.eco-schools.org.uk