Interim conclusions

 As I have come reached beginning of year 13, I am going to start to plan and write my final dissertation as I Have reached a point where other subjects have become more important, however my EPQ is currently at a point where I have collected all my research and am starting to move onto the final stages of my project, so I am going to finalise my project and bring it to a close.

As I start to think back to the beginning of my project, it is clear to see where schools are lacking sustainability and environmentally friendly strategies. After studying many resources and case studies of schools and carrying out some primary fieldwork consisting of an interview with our school business manager, I have come to a conclusion, with a large backing of evidence, that many secondary schools in the UK are unsustainable. There are however anomalies as there are examples of secondary schools that are sustainable which gives me a range of examples that I can bring into my research.

to carry out my planning stage of my dissertation, i am going to outline some interim conclusions that will help give me a brief overview of the main points in my project that will play an important role in my final dissertation.

How well equipped are current schools to become more environmentally sustainable? 

At current, schools are not at all well equipped to be more environmentally sustainable. there is a level of  inequality between different schools as newer school buildings have been built to be adapted to be sustainable with many having more environmentally friendly features such as solar panels or insulation. to help keep heat in. The level of inequality comes in where older school builds are considered as these were not built to meet sustainability standards and are often lacking vital sustainability features such as  heavy electrical consumption lighting and a lack of insulation which makes these buildings highly unsustainable, and coming to a conclusion that schools in general are not well equipped to become environmentally sustainable especially with there generally being a larger percentage of schools that are older compared to newer modern buildings.

what needs to be done? 

when considering what needs to be done to make schools more sustainable, there are different ways that can be considered these include big things and small things.

big things to consider

Big things that can be considered could be ownership. Ownership is one of the biggest things that limit the sustainable development of schools as schools are often owned by a PFI (private financial investment) scheme. This scheme often limits the development as schools cannot touch the buildings  without corporate owners permissions which means some schools are often left to wait for ownership to be passed onto the school which can be a long term issue that means sustainability issues cant be looked into. Through this, it is clear to see that more control has to be passed onto the school to ensure that schools bare able to implement change that need to be made to adapt to the current sustainability issues.

Another big issue is funding as schools receive essential funding to survive from the government and trusts which means sustainability issues are often not financed meaning schools are unable to implement measures to make the school more sustainable. The government should give schools more funding to improve sustainability development in schools, possibly through a national improvement program.

National infrastructure plans are another big thing that can be considered for sustainability in schools. A program similar to the national rollout of interactive whiteboards in the early 2000's would be a suitable model to follow. A rollout like this would be a good idea as it would give schools things that they could implement into the infrastructure of the school. This could be for example a rollout of LED lighting or computer switch off timers that would help to see the electricity usage shrink, wich would especially help at the moment with the energy crisis.

little things to consider

lighting is a key way in which schools can become more sustainable. Effective LED lighting can save up to 60-80% of energy used on lighting, as seen in a rollout project in 7 schools across Swindon.(Pinnacle LED the Way for Swindon Schools - Pinnacle Group). As well, LED lighting has been seen to improve productivity suggesting that LED lighting as solution helps both learning and energy usage which is likely to be more highly favored by school leaders and parents.

Waste management is also something that can be helpful to school sustainability in the future, as currently waste management is something that is largely covered, especially coming out of a pandemic, where waste was not separated for staff and student's health and safety. Waste management is something that would play a big difference into the sustainability of schools as, using our school as a particular example, many schools produce a lot of waste especially in printing, with a large scale reprographics operation, and as well especially in the canteens as large numbers of drinks are sold in plastic bottles and plastic lined cartons that are likely to end up in landfill or in incinerators to help generate electricity, which is something to be concerned about alone in our school, never mind that there are 4,100+(2020/2021 data) ( • Secondary schools in the UK 2021 | Statista) other secondary schools producing the same, if not higher, amount of waste. A solution that could be carried out to eliminate this level of waste is for schools to stop selling drinks in plastic bottles and cut down on the packaging used on food too. Another way of resolving this situation is to look into recycling bins in the canteens to try to persuade school children to think differently about how to dispose of waste.

A bigger drive for sustainability across schools is another way to try and improve sustainability similar to a national infrastructure plan as carrying out this type of program would allow schools to have no excuse not to improve its sustainability, which would help create awareness for sustainable futures. This could also be carried out through the curriculum to allow students to gain an awareness of what should be done and how to do it.

Some of the extra projects and concepts that I have considered as part of interim conclusions include...

- Rollout of interactive whiteboards BSF Introductory Guide 2008.pdf (partnershipsforschools.org.uk)

- building schools for future project (PDF) The Introduction of Interactive Whiteboards into Schools in the United Kingdom: Leaders, Led, and the Management of Pedagogic and Technological Change, 6 (24) (researchgate.net)