Sketches by Pam Williams

Schools Project 2007/8

Climate Change Action Programme

Introduction

This Programme has developed out of the Climate Change Roadshows which are illustrated on the main Local Projects page. However, we came to the conclusion that the greatest need is for education on the onset of climate change in primary schools, particularly as it is not included in the National Curriculum in the UK and therefore not given teaching time.

We first adapted the storyline for our Roadshows for use in the schools, and developed it into a Programme consisting of the Shows and Follow-on sessions with the same pupils a month or so later.

The Show consists of a visual high-energy, interactive story of Eco, a hyperactive young eco-warrior and Boyd, a lazy 10 year old. Together they travel the world in Eco's greenhouse saving tigers from floods and stopping Global Warming. The evil Gutman tries to put them off their mission. Finally, Boyd returns home a changed boy and they enlist the help of the audience in finding ways to "STOP! SAVE ENERGY!".

Directly after the show the pupils and teachers fill in an CLIMATE ACTION PLAN to SAVE ENERGY. We ask that regular 'Eco times' are set aside to review how the pupils are saving energy at home and at school and to do related work suggested in a teacher's pack. A month or so after the Show, Eco or Boyd return to see the work that the classes have been doing and to look at the ACTION PLANS and exchange fresh ideas at a FOLLOW-ON SESSION.

As a further development we have now added a Pre-meeting before the Shows. This is aimed to engage the support of the whole school community, without which the pupils' efforts to save energy can get lost. The school can also reduce its own energy bills, support the UK government's Sustainable Schools initiative, and include all staff and pupils in subscribing to become an Eco-School. The Pre--meeting is ideally held at a regular staff meeting, attended by as many of the staff as possible, including teachers for the classes participating in the shows, security and janitorial staff and a parent and governor.

See the introductory video, prepared for us by Media Trust Productions and Turner Broadcasting, on YouTube.

If you are interested in the Programme for your school, please use the Contact Us facility at the foot of this page in order to to receive an outline of its aims and contents.

Below we give a brief account of the 2007 Programme, together with contributions made by the schools themselves, earlier Programmes being shown on a separate page.

2007 Programme

Thanks to funding from Lambeth Endowed Charities, and some previous funds from Ernest Cook Trust, we were able to reconstitute our previous Workshops as an integrated Climate Change Action Programme for primary schools, as described above.

We were able to combine the funding received from Awards for All, which supported the Shows as part of our contribution to the Urban Green Fair in Brockwell Park on 9 September 2007, the funding received from Lambeth Endowed Charities for presenting the Programme in Lambeth schools and that from The Body Shop Foundation for presenting the Programme in Southwark schools. By this means, the rehearsals carried out initially for the Fair also served the Lambeth and Southwark school programmes, thereby extending the effectiveness of the LEC and BSF funding. Our same team of actors as in the 2005 programme rehearsed and presented the Show for all three commissions.

The latest Lambeth programme covered five schools in addition to those funded by LEC in 2005. Four classes of nominally 30 pupils each per school were included, giving a total of 120 pupils per school, except for one school, where six classes were included, totalling 180 pupils. The complete programme thus reached potentially 660 pupils. Funding from BSF for the programme in Southwark was confirmed while the one in Lambeth was in progress, and had to be put into action at short notice while the acting team was still available. Fortunately the two programmes could be dovetailed together, enabling a further five schools in Southwark to be included, reaching a potential 1116 pupils in a larger number of classes than in Lambeth. The combined programme in both Boroughs thus reached potentially 1776 pupils.

The combined funding from Awards for All, Lambeth Endowed Charities and The Bodyshop Foundation for education on climate change amounted to £6,583 including £650 contributed to the costs by the schools. This approximates to £3.71 per pupil. If members of the public seeing the Shows at the Urban Green Fair are also included, estimated at 150, the overall cost per participant reduces to £3.42. We consider the 2007 programme pretty good value for money!