WHAT YOU CAN DO IN EDUCATION
As a school there is so much you can do to inspire, engage and educate your pupils and staff about the plastic issue and there are also many changes you can make to ensure your school is reducing its impact on the environment. Plastic Free North Devon can help you do this…
We can provide schools talks delivered by our passionate team of volunteers, who come from varied academic backgrounds; ranging from teachers to GP’s.
We are able to facilitate age appropriate content and delivery at both primary, secondary and college level of education. The talks that we deliver focus on educating staff and students about the problems with plastic pollution and what can be done about the issue.
Most importantly, the talks invite the audience to build a relationship with the issue that is relevant to them. Whether that is understanding the impact on marine life, or recognising the threat to human health that is posed by the plastic pollution issue. Our talks encourage students to recognise the issue in both their daily and their school lives, to recognise themselves as consumers and identify ways to become positive environmental contributors. Our talks aim to inspire staff and students to feel empowered to make change – both individually and collectively.
Our talks plant the seed for long-term impact and behavioural change in schools. Often our talks have led to schools signing up to the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Schools campaign, setting up student-led eco-clubs or councils, introducing water refill points, researching and implementing improved recycling schemes, and taking steps to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics on the school premises.
Our interactions in schools can fall in line with the national curriculum in a multitude of ways. Be that exploring the global impact of the plastic industry on the environment with relation to Geography, looking at the harmful chemicals found in, and released from, plastics with relation to Science, exploring socially responsible consumption with relation to Personal Development and Citizenship, or campaigning and awareness raising through Art and Performing Arts, we can feed the content to students in line with current schemes of work.
WAYS IN WHICH WE CAN DELIVER THE MESSAGE
ASSEMBLY-STYLE WHOLE SCHOOL SHORT TALKS
One or two members of the PFND team will present an interactive PowerPoint and facilitate period of Q&A time at the end.
These talks last between 20 minutes and 1 hour, dependent on your requirements.
FOCUSED WORKSHOPS
Once a school has created an eco council a member of the PFND team can come to work with that group on a specific area of focus. That could be in-school recycling, reduction of single-use plastics, beach plastic art projects or awareness raising film making.
These sessions can last between 45 minutes and two hours dependent on your requirements.
FILM SCREENINGS
Through our relationship with the brilliant Croyde Deckchair Cinema, we have access to screening the documentary film A Plastic Ocean. We are able to screen both the full-length version (1 hour 40 minutes), and a short version (20 minutes). We also offer Q&A and group reflection at the end of each film screening.
In this adventure documentary, journalist Craig Leeson teams up with free diver Tanya Streeter and an international team of scientists and researchers, and they travel to twenty locations around the world over a four year period to explore the fragile state of our oceans, uncover alarming truths about plastic pollution, and reveal working solutions that can be put into immediate effect.
We can help to facilitate beach cleans, local park or environment cleans by providing equipment, information and a volunteer to lead the sessions (with the support of school staff). Not only do these sessions enlighten students about the scale of the plastic pollution issue in their locality, they can also be focussed around data collection and lead towards sustainable solutions work.
CATERING FOCUSED SESSIONS
Often school canteens are a primary source of single-use plastic consumption. We can offer informative talks to catering staff and management to raise awareness of the issue with single use plastics, and to signpost towards more sustainable consumptions systems and waste-management streams.
