Sustainable Schools Conference Kingston

On February 5th, 2010 Kingston Council held first (and I hope annual) Sustainable Schools Conference in Kingston, which was hosted in the beautiful Lovelace Primary School. The conference brought together representatives from several Kingston schools, officers from London borough, and a great selection of community groups including Transition Town Kingston,  Groundworks and School Food Matters. The conference title “Ideas Sharing” sought to address different ways that Kingston community, local government and schools may help each other to becomes sustainable by year 2020 a goal that UK government seeks to achieve. OpenDoors Kingston was also there, which I was very honored to represent and about which I will speak later.

Community groups setting up

The conference was broad yet practical. The day  was split into two parts, presentations and workshops. I would like to briefly mention a few main ideas that have come across:

On the definition of term ‘sustainable development’ it has been noted that it is not just about economic but also social and spiritual development, it is ‘equity between groups of people, space and generations and future generations’.

The leading schools in ‘sustainability’ shared key issues and practices in becoming sustainable:

The need for passion, interest and drive from the principal and staff and ability to sustain the momentum.

To be successful ‘sustainability’ should be embedded in School Improvement Plan and Curriculum Plan and be delegated rather than being under supervision of one teacher or principal.

Involvement of the pupils in planning and decision making, through Student Council and Eco groups becomes pivotal for sustaining everyone’s enthusiasm and participation, as well as changing behavior.

Taking action in award schemes such as Eco-schools or Healthy schools helps schools to stay focused on their targets.

Doing a workshop with School Food Matters

It was noted that funding for creating change exists yets need to be sought and be planned for; while multiple partnerships, networking and ability to take risks may create greater opportunities than expected. A great example is a secondary school that was rebuilt as a result of the Building Schools for the Future program to be a community hub that includes multiple services to the local community including a sky bar where parents may purchase a cup of coffee after dropping their children off.

Listening to presentations

A wonderful message of the day was that schools use creativity in how they use resources and include sustainability topics into the curriculum:
re-used doors and computer tops in its new BSF building as tables and plant holders,
theme days such as Water Day,
and creating a wind turbine noise to be a symbolic school sound

Sustainable Schools National Framework was used as a reference point by schools as well as the council. It allowed schools to note their strengths as well as their weaknesses, and every school noted that there is definitely a space for improvement in each category.

These are very exciting early days for Kingston community and it’s schools to move forward with the sustainable agenda. One of the topics to be brought up often was the lack of space where all the information may be found or shared. OpenDoors Kingston is a project that has potential to fulfill such need. I developed it during the MA Design for Development course in Kingston University, in collaboration with Kingston Council and Transition Town Kingston. OpenDoors is an online platform that enables, motivates and supports both community and schools to become more sustainable through the eight doors which are based on Sustainable Schools National Framework.

The project is currently work in progress, and has several potential outcomes including a place where teachers and headteachers may find resources such as lesson plans to general documents from the government such as sustainability evaluation tools. It also may be a place where schools and community share their ideas and knowledge on topics of sustainability as well as form partnerships and projects around topics of the eight doors, or invite and participate in local sustainable events.

Display of OpenDoors Kingston

The potential for the platform is wide and I am currently looking for a web developer and designer to continue my work as well as funding opportunities. If you would like to learn more about the project, or are aware of any such opportunities please do contact me at ksiuxak[at]gmail[dot]com

I would like to thank Lovelace Primary School for its great hospitality, Matthew and Carlos from Kingston Council for putting the conference together, and all schools and community members that have taken part in it! I hope to see you next year, with a well developed product

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