Rochdale MBC/Rochdale Education for Sustainability Network
In 2002 Rochdale MBC felt a more co-ordinated approach to ESD was required. There were many external agencies already helping schools on ‘eco’ issues e.g. Groundwork, BTCV, DEP. The Council also had officer’s working with schools e.g. Countryside rangers, Clean & Green officer & energy officer and a handful of schools had registered for the Eco Schools programme and one school flew the Eco School Green Flag. The work was however ‘ad hoc’ and schools complained they didn’t always know who to speak to and where to ask for help. With this in mind the Council decided to allocate some officer time to provide a ‘one stop’ for school enquiries & support. They also decided to form & co-ordinate an ESD network and asked all the local agencies working in schools on ‘eco’ issues to be involved. The aim was to raise the profile & participation of Eco Schools, encourage partnership working, provide better support for schools and monitor ‘eco’ work in schools in the borough.
The Council allocated officer time – approx 1 day per week – to working on the RESN project and initially RMBC staff and external agency staff were asked to an informal meeting to discuss the forming or an ESD network. This meeting was a resounding success – over 20 people attended – including the head of Rochdale’s only Green Flag Eco School – and everyone was keen to forge links, work together to support schools and plan joint projects. RESN (Rochdale Education for Sustainability Network) was thus formed, emails & telephone numbers swapped and lively discussions to how we could promote the group to schools in the borough.
One of the first projects RESN organised was LEAF (Local Environment Action Fortnight). This was a fortnight of ‘eco’ themed workshops for KS2 pupils. RESN members/organisations were paired up and then each pair delivered 4 separate days of activities each (1 workshop in each of the 4 areas/townships of our borough). In all over 50 workshops took pace involving approximately 1500 KS2 pupils.
This helped to kick-start the profile of RESN – schools love interactive and free workshops! and since then it has been a steady but successful journey to recognition by schools.
RESN was given a logo which schools started to identify with. By giving RESN a logo it felt that schools – who get a mountain of mail/emails daily – could identify any information with the RESN logo quickly and know that it was part of the wider network and approved by RMBC. The next year was used to drip feed schools about RESN opportunities & use it to promote Eco Schools. Newsletters & e-bulletins were sent, physical projects developed & delivered, opportunities provided and consultations done – the rest they say is history!.
Since its inception in 2002 RESN is still the same – an informal network of environmental educators who work in the borough. It is still co-ordinated part-time by an RMBC officer who provides the one-stop shop for schools looking for information and advice and we still co-ordinate projects – LEAF ran successfully for a 5th year in 2007 – attracting approximately 2,200 pupils at 72 workshops in 7 locations across the borough – workshops booked up within 2 weeks of being announced! As a follow on from LEAF 2003 RESN produced a teachers resource pack of the activities that took place – including worksheets and teachers notes – this resource pack was picked out by the Education Guardian as a fabulous tool for teachers.
Newsletters, monthly e-bulletins are still successful in disseminating information and opportunities to schools and it has been realised that the many voices of RESN help spread the Eco Schools & RESN message further than one part-time Council officer can do on their own
In 2002 Rochdale borough had 1 Green Flag Eco School and approx 6 others registered. In September 2007 Rochdale borough had 68 registered Eco schools including
32 bronze, 20 silver & 2 Green Flags (one permanent) – our borough has a total of 74 primary, 14 secondary and 4 special schools.
The Eco School activity in Rochdale is now in the top 6 nationally. This activity is due to the constant drip feeding of information and opportunities, designation of an RMBC officer for information, advice or just sign-posting, and the enthusiasm and support of all RESN members to promote Eco Schools.
Rochdale LAA now has targets for schools reaching Eco School accreditation-with an emphasis on schools in NRF and SOA areas. The stretch target for 2009/10 is 42% of schools with an eco schools accreditation.
RESN has no core funding but RMBC officer time equates to about 1-2 days per week towards Eco Schools/RESN/Environmental Education activity. RMBC kick-started RESN by providing small pots of funding for publications, printing and the first year of LEAF.
Since 2004 RESN has received £20,000 NRF funding per year to deliver projects to encourage ESD work and Eco Schools progress. This funding has been used to deliver training to pupils and teachers, deliver practical projects and create resources for schools to use in school and within local sites amongst other things. The NRF allocation is co-ordinated by the Council but all RESN members can apply to the fund. Outcomes for the fund are to make Rochdale cleaner, greener and safer and to increase Eco School participation levels in the borough
RESN was formed in 2002 and is still going strong. It takes time to get to know schools, for them to be confident in you, to work up good working & support relationships and I feel that Rochdale is now at a position where a high percentage of schools know who and where to come for help. They now use RESN as a one-stop-shop and use the e-bulletins and newsletters to gain and share knowledge, apply for funding, take advantage of opportunities and just keep abreast of developments.
I must also say that RESN is not static – we are always looking for new ways to engage schools. We have just developed a project to set up and facilitate cluster groups of schools within areas – the aim to form self sustaining, self help networks of Eco schools. We are also working on a web portal for schools seeking information.
Its success is based on RMBC’s commitment to RESN & Eco Schools plus the enthusiasm of all RESN members
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