The Green Shoots workshop gives an insight into seasonal food, nutrition and how bringing it to our tables accounts for about 20% of UK greenhouse gas emissions. Making hand made paper pots with seedlings to take home is an effective way of learning about food and where it comes from.

All plants and materials supplied

Subjects include

Recycling.

Global dimension.

Local food.

Organic.

Seasonal food.

Energy and water.

Travel and traffic.

Inclusion and participation.

Local well-being.

Pupils at Priory School, Lewes, have taken their first steps to make their schools more environmentally friendly. Priory Eco Group (PEG) have pledged to cut down their litter and count the amount of electric and water they use at the school. They were guided by a representative from Green up your act Education, a Sussex based organization which advises schools on how to make energy improvements.

Pupils were shown how to make wallets from Tetra-packs and a bike linked to a small generator was used to demonstrate how much energy is needed to power a light bulb. They drew up plans for future energy-saving projects and were awarded a bronze award for their effects.

Bronze Eco-School Award

After a year of growing seasonal vegetables, making compost, installing water butts and building habitats for wildlife, Iford and Kingston School has gained its Bronze Flag award! This is a great achievement for the Eco Club and for the school, after Christmas the Eco Club members will highlight what they have done and be presented with the award. Well done Eco Team!

Silver Eco-School Award

Green Up Your Act has gained a Silver Eco Schools award for St Mary Magdalene’s school by installing a rain watering harvesting system.

Louisa Broad, Brighton, had this to say about Home Grown Eco Activities

“At half term we had the pleasure of  one of Phil Hunton’s Home Grown – Eco Activities. He came for an hour and a half to do a session with three children.  It was a great thing to do in the rather bleak weather of the February holiday. He has a lovely way with the children,, educating and involving them in an enthusiastic and caring manner. He was very knowledgeable, the children learnt about composting and how to grow vegetables, whilst I had time to get on with other jobs. There was the additional benefit that he also gave me advice, and with the boys did some very useful gardening tasks. I would fully recommend him for any one who wishes to book his workshop”.

Workshops offered:

-Upcycling Craft.

-Growing Seasonal food.

-Origami Robots.

-Making Mini Bug Barn / Hotels.

-Green Gardening.

Full CRB check available on request

www.facebook.com/pages/Green-Up-Your-Act-Education/279226851612

philhunton@hotmail.com

Tel: 07739 318 569

“All of our school enjoyed the inspiring and hands on activities of making pots and planting them with food seedlings – all in just one hour for each class workshop. The activity had many links for each class with their science and creative curriculum, and with our Eco week themes. This was the highlight of our school Eco Week because it linked every aspect of our educational focus: food, transport, reduce, reuse, recycle, simplicity, co-operation. There was no preparation required on the part of the teachers and we were amazed at what could come out of two handmade baskets carried on the bus – enough to provide every child with their own pot making material, the compost and a variety of food seedlings to go in it. This was a workshop of huge educational value and one in which every child learnt a practical skill of immense value, as well as getting to take their seedling home to grow and eat. We are looking forward to more input another time.”

(Liz Williamson, St Mary Magdalen School, Brighton)

The Eco Guide to Sussex explores climate change in a local context; demonstrating the risks that climate change imposes on Sussex specifically. More than just an explanation of climate change the book provides Sussex residents and visitors with the knowledge and know how to make steps to reduce their impact on the environment, whilst showcasing local individuals and businesses that already do their bit. Examining a number of key themes including: biodiversity, inside, outside, shopping, leisure, transport, alternative fuels, beauty and children and the environment; this book is hands on, informative and fun.’

In this workshop schools will be taken through how to operate their own system, empowering students to reduce waste, and save the school money! The teaching explains how banana skins, apple cores, teabags, kitchen scraps, and school grounds waste can be turned into valuable soil enriching compost. Using composting and wormeries to combat waste is a clean and educational way to deal with organic matter.

This workshop includes;

• Life processes
• Humans and other animals
• Green plants
• Variation and classification, inheritance and evolution
• Living things in their environment

Green Up Your Your Act can offer safe, exciting opportunities for outdoor learning that can complement classroom-based activities and increase a schools green status.

Earthships enjoy the weather, regardless of season. If it’s raining they catch free water, if it’s windy they generate free power and if it’s sunny they are capturing free heat and electricity. Apart from using all the resources immediately around them they also employ extensive energy efficiency and water conservation measures, ensuring that the rainwater and renewable energy they harvest goes as far as possible.

It’s a challenge to create new and meaningful uses for objects we regard as rubbish. Our Up-cycling workshop uses the Tetra-Pack-to-wallet design to demonstrate such a transformation, creating a new and exciting use for material otherwise regarded as waste. In this case the cardboard, aluminium and plastic, which are hard to recycle, create a new object which cleverly borrows from the properties of a discarded juice carton. i.e: durable and hard wearing.

Subjects Covered in this workshop;

• Energy
• Purchasing and waste.
• Inclusion and participation.
• Global dimension.

Schools and colleges contribute greatly to the green house gases in our environment. Energy, water, waste and traveling to school become a part of the schools carbon footprint. Targeting these areas and implementing a reduction in our carbon footprint is key to not only making your school kinder to the planet but it will also become an inspiring and empowering place for children to learn. This in turn will save the school money inspire the students to have a practical positive involvement in the future of our planet and learn more about the issues that concern us all as responsible citizens of planet earth.