Never has climate change been so important. With so much advice telling us how to reduce our carbon footprint and ‘go Green’, it’s hard to forget that we are not the only ones that can take an active part in saving the environment…
Never has climate change been so important. With so much advice telling us how to reduce our carbon footprint and ‘go Green’, it’s hard to forget that we are not the only ones that can take an active part in saving the environment…
So, UK School Trips have created 10 Top Tips for Children to follow, so that they too can help save our planet:
At Home
• Get the children to help turn off all electrical appliances e.g. TVs, at the wall to save energy. This can also include watching less TV, so encourage them to play outside, read or play games
• Use energy saving light bulbs or better still, instead of a night light in children’s bedrooms, use glow-in-the-dark stickers instead
• Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Make sure children understand why we recycle and get them to help sort out their household recycling for collection, especially materials such as paper and card which they tend to waste easily
• Composts are good ways to recycle unused food e.g. vegetable peelings, which also helps to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables
• Don’t waste water! Teach children to turn off the tap when brushing their teeth
At School
• Encourage children to walk, cycle or use public transport to get to school instead of using the car. Some schools have even made a School Travel Plan, where ‘walking buses’ are arranged for children to walk to school together under adult supervision
• Plant trees, hedges and wildlife in your school grounds to absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Allotments are even better, as they can also supply the school with vegetables
• Set up recycling schemes at school as well as at home. Encourage the children to use a recycling bin in the classrooms for paper, and one for plastic bottles/ yogurt pots etc in the school dinner hall. You could also suggest the use of a compost for the school kitchens
• Encourage the children to turn off computers at the wall when they’ve finished with them; don’t let them leave them on standby
• Encourage the children to use the schools library for class and homework. The reuse of books overtime and the use of the internet for research saves a lot of paper, so energy consumption is reduced
