Sustainability in the Secondary Curriculum

Purchasing and Waste Key ideas

• For assembly ideas – Go to www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools/ enter ‘A sustainable school estate’ into the search box to find a number of assembly ideas on the issue of sustainable development. Number 5 is ‘make fair trade your habit’.
  
• I wish I’d found this website earlier. http://www.bucksinfo.net/adec/projects/sustainable-schools/ is run by the Aylesbury Development Education centre and if you click on ‘purchasing & waste’ there are eight lesson plans and supporting worksheets that could be used off-the-shelf or adapted easily.
  
  • The ‘Designing a recycling unit’ is a document that outlines a design-based activity that could easily be split into a journey of activities to fill a number of sessions or whole day.
    
  • The ‘What do you need’ activity would make a good starting point to any activity on purchasing & waste. It gets pupils to look at their own consumption in terms of their own priorities for a good life.
• www.recyclenow.com has a number of lesson plans and supporting resources as well as a support package for schools that want to set up a recycling action group. Lesson topics include: a waste audit, action plan, recycle races, the possibilities are endless and waste free lunch.
  
• There is a detailed KS3 scheme of work produced by the DfCSF called ‘Shop ‘til the earth drops’ that outlines objectives, teaching activities and resources under 6 main themes. These are ‘living in a material world’, ‘what makes you spend?’, ‘do we all buy?’, ‘a mobile status symbol?’, ‘techno trash’ and ‘what can we do?’. It can be found (with difficulty) at teachernet publications.
  
• www.stepin.org has a number of design case study activities to be found by clicking ‘Key stage 3 on the menu to the left. Some examples include ‘Reuse it’ where pupils have to create something useful using household waste, ‘Less is more’ a study and design solution based on packaging and ‘Waste to wear’ where pupils are asked to produce an item of fashionable clothing.
  
• www.consumercouncil.org.uk/education/schools-and-colleges/lesson-plans-and-activities/index.php/subject/8/citizenship/ is the web address for the General Consumer Council of Northern Ireland and has a number of lesson plans on consumerism and consumption for KS3 and 4. Good ideas but will need additional resources to support. The most relevant here are: ‘Consumer decision making – The power of advertising’, ‘Recycling - Is it just a load of rubbish’ and ‘sustainable consumption 2 – It’s all in the presentation’.
  
  

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