Go for Gold with the Primary Pledge!

The SWAP Pledge offers Primary Schools with a series of longer term challenges across three awards - bronze, silver and gold. Over 100 schools have so far won an award, and 10 have gone on and achieved the Gold Award. Why not be the next!

Find out if your school has taken the Pledge! - click here

The Bronze, Silver and Gold Wilbur Awards offer schools a variety of practical challenges which raise awareness of waste issues both within the school and the local community. The awards help schools to introduce reduce, reuse, recycle and compost schemes in a structured and achievable way.

BRONZE AWARD

Hold a ‘Wake Up To Waste’ assembly
This is a great way to increase awareness. You can book an assembly from SWAP or the pupils might like to organise one themselves. You could also invite parents along to help take the message home.

Start composting your organic waste
Turn your organic waste into a wonderful resource! Booking a visit from SWAP entitles your school to a FREE composter. We can also provide workshops to explain how you can compost organic waste such as fruit scraps, cardboard, grass cuttings, paper and tea bags! You can get up to two 330 litre compost bins and 5 caddies with lids for collecting the waste. Contact SWAP to order your bin. The only requirement is a free compost workshop from SWAP so we can help the students understand how composting works. Click here to find out how to run a school compost bin effectively.

Schools have high levels of organic waste (especially from the free fruit and veg scheme). A compost system can help you recycle roughly a tonne of waste a year free of charge. As well as saving money composting diverts waste from landfill. In landfill organic waste produces potentially polluting leachate and methane gas.

Click here to find out how to run a school compost bin effectively.

Complete the SWAP evaluation form
After a SWAP visit we would appreciate it if you could fill in our questionnaire. We want to know what you think and any feedback you can give us would be invaluable. We are constantly looking to improve what we offer and we also want to know what you’re doing in school to reduce your waste.

Set up scrap paper boxes in each classroom
Setting up scrap paper boxes in school is a great way to reuse paper and reduce waste. If you haven’t done so already, set up a paper reuse box in each classroom. If every school child in the UK used one piece of scrap paper a week it would save 70 tonnes of paper and 420 trees! If you use Somerset Total Communication in the classroom then the symbol below for scrap paper may be useful.

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SILVER AWARD

Reduce your lunch waste
Raising awareness of the impact of school lunch waste is an excellent way for schools to reduce the amount of rubbish they produce. This can be done in a number of ways. You can book a waste free lunch workshop with SWAP. Another option is holding a full lunch waste audit (by weighing the lunch rubbish on an average day and then on another “waste free” lunch day). We are very happy to come out and run assemblies, workshops and waste audits.

Write an article for the SWAP newsletter
SWAP produces a newsletter each term that goes to every school in Somerset. We would really like to know what you’re doing in school. Send in your article (about 200 words is great) together with a photo and we can share your good ideas with the rest of Somerset.

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GOLD AWARD

Set up an environment group
This could consist of representatives from each year or class who meet regularly to come up with ideas for tackling waste and environmental issues. Try carrying out a waste audit and find out where savings can be made. The children could think of ways to get parents involved and set up an awareness-raising display. What about arranging to have different items such as printer cartridges and mobile phones recycled?

Purchase recycled items
One of the best ways you can support recycling is by purchasing recycled products, such as paper, stationery, hand towels and toilet rolls. You could even give recycled prizes away for raffles and awards or sell them at the school fete.

Don't know where to look?

Try these places:

www.theconsortium.co.uk/Products.aspx?cat=9155

www.cutouts.net

www.remarkable.co.uk

Becoming a Gold School is a great springboard to becoming an Eco School. To find out more about the Eco Schools scheme you can visit their website, click here. Eco Schools looks at a broader spectrum of environment topics, including – waste, litter, water, school grounds, healthy living, transport, biodiversity, global issues and energy.

If you would like any help or support for your school then drop us a line. We’re always happy to offer advice and will help in any way we can.

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The SWAP team is based at the Carymoor Environmental Centre near Castle Cary. This unusual site is Somerset's first Eco-Centre , and is built on a capped, recovered landfill site. It is situated next to the working landfill at Dimmer, putting the team in a unique position to explain and promote these themes in schools. Site visits and tours are also available by arrangement; please contact Graham Jennings on 01963 350786.