With initiatives like Sustainable Schools and Every Child Matters at the forefront of the government's policies for the next few years and issues for example raised by climate change, there are plenty of resources that teachers can use and places to visit that will support the various agenda. With the change of management from the beginning of the Autumn Term 2006, when the Centre became part of the Swanley and District Cluster, extra resources at Horton Kirby EEC will gradually be introduced to further support ESD.

Although imparting the need for future sustainability to pupils is far more than collecting and recycling a range of materials, it is a good start. Our pupils as future citizens need to know, for example, how long it takes for various materials to decompose. This will help them make judgements about how to prevent or lesson the impact of our `throw away` society. With the need, therefore to educate our children and for local authorities to reduce household waste taken to landfill sites, "recycling" is of course an important activity. The government is placing increasing penalties on local councils, while finding possible sites to dump our huge, ever increasing volume of waste, is becoming harder. It is important therefore that children, as our next generation of adults, should be encouraged to 'recycle' so that recognising the three green 'R's of "reduce, reuse and recycle" becomes a natural way of life, engrained in their culture.

At Horton Kirby Environmental Education Centre pupils are continually made aware about the importance of sustainability and recycling, even if they have come to study a different focus for the day. It is hoped that the day will help to energise a topic on sustainable development. It may encourage pupils to ask questions, for example, of supermarkets about the huge amount of packaging used to wrap their products and how many food miles an average family shop can add up to. As a minimum during a days visit pupils are asked to separate their lunch wrappings such as paper and tin foil into separate containers, together with plastic drinks bottles unless they are to be reused at home. In addition, visiting pupils have an opportunity to view a display during the lunch break or while using the resources room for a range of activities depending on the focus of the classes visit. A 'recycling' information pack is available for the class teacher to use to support recycling-orientated activities back at school when more time may be available.

'Recycling' is also offered as the main focus of the day with an emphasis on natures 'natural recycling'. Although it is felt that children are never too young to learn about recycling, the subject matter for this programme of study is aimed normally at Key Stage 2.

Recycling - The Plan of the Day

On arrival the childrens` knowledge of `recycling is ascertained. Questions asked centre on the words meaning and what the problems are for the local area, county, country and world. How may climate change affect our sustainability? What sort of materials can be recycled and which cannot? What materials may decompose and which will not etc? Once the children's knowledge base is assessed, the pupils view a number of photographs of different examples of recycling in order to encourage thinking. After the photographs, discussion centre's on materials which are biodegradable (or natural) or non-biodegradable (man-made) and the pupils are given an opportunity to brainstorm materials they may know about and place examples under these two headings.

Firstly the class is asked to check the labels of each other's jumpers, shirts etc. Words mentioned include polyester, nylon, cotton, viscose, wool or a mixture of these etc. Where have these been made? Other materials like cardboard from cornflakes packets, plastic bottles and rubber tyres are shown to the class with the main question, can they be grouped into materials that will or will not rot? In addition, mainly for upper juniors, different grades of plastic are considered which are shown with PET numbers eg polyethylene etc 1-5. The lower numbers may rot eventually and more quickly than the higher numbers, as they are made with a thinner grade of plastic. 

Practical Work
 

Following the class discussion it is then time for action! The class is divided into two halves and asked to sort through firstly a huge bag of old everyday materials and secondly a large bag of clothing. The pupils share a worksheet which asks what the product is, what they think it is made of and whether they think it is biodegradable or non-biodegradable.

The class immediately sets about the activity with enthusiasm with clothes, cans, plastic bottles, newspapers, toys, Christmas pudding containers, and lemonade bottles being vigorously investigated. The children are asked to look at least ten examples depending on the time available and report back to each other at the end of the lesson. Following the final discussion, the class go out into the playground for a well-earned break!

The second part of the morning is usually spent with half the class having a close look at the recycling display in the resources room, while the other half are in the wildlife area viewing the recycling corner. Both groups are given a worksheet with questions which draw their attention to certain points. All the answers are either in the resources room display or the wildlife area recycling corner. After a pre-determined time the children swap activities.

The indoor display features information about natural recycling ie the carbon cycle and explains, for example, about the importance of woodlice and worms in `breaking down` wood and leaves. There is also a board showing a cross section of a dustbin emphasising that families on average throw away about 30% of materials mainly cardboard and paper products that could be recycled and therefore avoid a journey to the landfill site. Another board focuses on an environmentally friendly, healthy packed lunch, positive actions that we can do to reuse materials and finally a display describing how newspaper is recycled at Aylesford Newsprint Ltd, Maidstone, Kent.

The recycling corner comprises a number of chicken wire bins with glass, cans, plastic, paper and natural waste with some information by each bin from which the pupils answer questions. There is a fact sheet on the trail post with a list of materials and how long they take to decompose. These activities normally finish by lunchtime after which the pupils focus on investigating some of the minibeasts which help to decompose leaves, twigs and rotting wood.

A Minibeast Safari

After lunch the class is divided into three or four groups to investigate land creatures under logs, in the grass, or in the shrub layer and life in the pond. Freshwater minibeasts play a large part in the decomposition of numerous leaves that fall in the pond during autumn. It is ideal to look for land and freshwater invertebrates in the spring and summer, but searching during the autumn and winter can have its surprises. Pupils are often amazed to see so much life in the pond in the late autumn/early winter. The children swap their findings before returning to the resources room to view the creatures under a flexicam on a screen. It is now when so much water life can be observed.

It is soon time for the class to return to school after a very rewarding day. There is a brief discussion about what the children have learnt during the day, before a 'recycling' word search and Horton Kirby EEC stickers are distributed. The teacher may be given a follow-up and 'recycling' pack with numerous ideas for extension activities and relevant contacts. A floppy disk containing photos taken with the Centre digital camera may be given to the class teacher on the day, or posted after the visit.

Curriculum Links

The experiences the children gain from a day encompassing ESD and 'recycling' are invaluable if we are to prepare the next generation for the future pressures on the environment. Below are some areas in the national curriculum and QCA Schemes of Work which support activities on 'recycling' and education for a sustainable environment.

• Geography KS 1 & 2 - Knowledge and Understanding of Environmental
• Change and Sustainable Development
• Science 2 - Life Processes and Living Things
• Science 3 - Materials and their Properties - plastic, glass, aluminium, newspaper etc
• QCA Schemes of Work including aspects of environmental change and sustainability;
  • KS 1 - Unit 2 How can we make our area safer?
  • KS 1 - Unit 17 Global eye
  • KS 2 - Unit 6 Investigating our local area
  • KS 2 - Unit 8 Improving the environment