A guest blog by Ricky Anderson
The Green Group at Liverpool School of English started in January 2020 as an attempt by a handful of teaching staff to convert our environmental frustration into meaningful action. The intention has been, from the beginning, to collectively take action and do our bit within our context – So teachers and English language learners working together to make our school, local area and shared lifestyles more sustainable.
We began by arranging a series of lunchtime meetings to which all staff and students were invited. We regularly had 10-15 attendees -split into action groups, each identifying environmental issues and doing the ground work to achieve a related action point. We also have a Green Group Whatsapp group used to share ideas, research and so on. The action points that have taken place have included:
- The setting up of a Library of Things at our school -adaptors, umbrellas, hairdryers, textbooks, cutlery and crockery saved from landfill and used.
- homeless donations box –bedding, clothes, unused toiletries saved from landfill and used.
- TrashTalk – our weekly local litter pick and conversation class.
- The addition of litter pick and tree planting activities to our social programme.
- Increased energy waste awareness Switch it off stickers.
- Student-led improvements in our recycling provision- including joining Terracycle and collecting all used pens for recycling.
- Student-written emails sent to residences and host families re. recycling provision.
- Student-written emails to local politicians.
- Green Talks: 30-minute talks from local green entrepreneurs, Green Party councillors, ecologists etc
- Reuse of one-sided misprints across the school.
We have failed thus far / continuing to try and implement some of the following:
- Composting
- Water butt -rainwater collection ad use
- Bug hotels, bird boxes, bird baths
- Sustainability based workshops
- A carbon offsetting button on school booking forms
- A bike share scheme
- Increased nature walking and woodland based social activities
- An environment/ climate crisis themed week of lessons and activities
- A teacher car share system
Those involved in setting this up have without exception felt an immense pride in seeing what a small group of people working together for 30 minutes a week can achieve. We’re hoping that our Green Group could provide a model for other similar sized language schools to take action collectively against the climate crisis.
For further information please contact, Ricky Anderson, Academic Coordinator at Liverpool Schools of English.
