26. PROTOCOLO DE COMUNICACIÓN
26.2. Formato de la respuesta a la pregunta del ordenador
4.2.1 Main Themes
The three categories of theme in Table 4.1 appeared in all types of source, suggesting that the school’s public image of its relationship with sustainability
24
See Table 3.1 above.
25
Specialist school status has not attracted specific funding since 2010. I have used a capital ‘S’ for ‘Specialism’ in Chapters 4-8 to denote official status and a lower case, ‘specialism’, to denote a status claimed by the school but not subject to official government approval (or, therefore, funding).
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was very close to the ‘reality’ as described by members of the school (see Section 4.3.2 for a further discussion of this relative lack of a ‘rhetoric-reality
gap’ (Ng, 2008)).
4.2.2 The Priority Given to Sustainability
A great deal of evidence suggests that sustainability was not a priority at the
school when I visited, and had not ever been one. Several interviewees said as much, including the Principal, ‘Dave’, and a Governor, ‘Dougie’, who said that
the Governors had never discussed sustainability in his presence. The Deputy Principal with responsibility for school grounds, ‘Cliff’, said:
“I don’t believe I have ever been at a meeting…where people have discussed sustainability [having been here for about 30 years]”
Also, many interviewees did not have an informed understanding of the concept
of sustainability, either explaining it as environmentalism or not even making
that association: this was true of most of the staff, students and others
interviewed. There is no dedicated sustainability policy at the school (although
it is worth noting that schools are not required to have one, as they are with other issues like child protection, health & safety, and so on – see Section 2.3).
The School Development Plan did not mention sustainability, focusing on
examination results specifically and student achievement in general. Only one
of the documents I examined at Underwhin used the word sustainability.
Several school policies and other documents did include elements of
sustainability, with a particular focus on sustainable travel, links with the local
community and educating students for an uncertain future after they leave school (the ‘Promotion of Healthy Eating’ policy and the ‘Cross-curricular
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Days26’ policy, for example). However, no member of staff has a responsibility
for overall coordination or oversight of sustainability at Underwhin, and there
has not been any audit of existing sustainability at the school (although, several
years ago, an audit of where sustainability was covered in taught subjects was
undertaken; ironically, this was at the request of an overseas partner school
looking to increase their own efforts towards sustainability). Within this Main
Theme, several Sub Themes could be distinguished.
4.2.3 Individuals Working Towards Sustainability
Where there are pockets of sustainability inside and outside the taught
curriculum at Underwhin, it is principally because of the efforts of a few individuals who feel that it is ‘the right thing to do’. This current reliance on the
actions of a few individuals was described repeatedly by interviewees. For
example Ashley, a Teaching Assistant working with students to create a school vegetable garden, said of this work, “I’m very much left to get on with it on my
own”. Birney et al. (2006) claim that it is very difficult for individuals successfully
to integrate sustainability into schools, so the situation at Underwhin was not, in
this sense at least, conducive to sustainability being a success. Harris (2008),
Birney & Reed (2009), and UNECE (2008) all suggest that responsibility for
sustainability in schools must be shared, and that it is impossible for an
identified individual to lead sustainability effectively (see Section 2.4).
There was also no voluntary organised students’ group concerned with
sustainability or the environment (in a school with dozens of clubs and societies
for students). A staff group with half-a-dozen members was in its infancy and
finding it hard to make any progress, because members saw other duties as a
26
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higher priority, making it very difficult to meet, and because they also felt that
they lacked the understanding of sustainability in schools to decide how to
proceed, describing these problems to me in the meeting I attended.
4.2.4 Understanding the Concept: Lack of Interest?
My data seem to confirm Symons’ (2008) finding that simple lack of
understanding of the concept of sustainability can be a major barrier to schools
integrating it, but the lack of understanding of the concept of sustainability and
related issues was not universal. Four interviewees demonstrated a
sophisticated understanding of the concept itself, its combination of social,
economic and environmental issues (a model which was also used in
Geography lessons I observed), and the complex nature of their inter-relations.
Others showed a deep understanding of certain aspects of sustainability
(resource use, for example). My lesson observations, although targeted at
occasions when a topic related to sustainability was being covered, showed that
some students had a sophisticated understanding of sustainability, including
awareness of the complicated nature of sustainability issues, the model
mentioned above, and their own part in these issues, both at KS3 and KS4.
However, a group of students responsible for overseeing recycling in the school
showed little interest in the subject: only 1 of 5 had chosen to be involved in
recycling because they wanted to deal with a perceived problem with waste;
they were happy to be allocated a responsibility, but not concerned about what it was. Deputy Principal ‘Hugh’ discussed recycling, saying “as a school, we
haven’t got that embedded recycling message” (emphasis in original).
Recycling is usually considered to be a relatively easy goal to achieve on the
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describe schools not having come to terms with sustainability as having curricula that “…if [they mean] anything it is reinforcing a ‘do with less’, recycle,
you’ve heard it all before list of handy hints and small projects,” (Webster &
Johnson, 2009, in Scott, 2010, p.9). Even the teachernet website, criticised in Chapter 2, says that sustainability in education “means much more than
recycling bottles” (teachernet.gov.uk, 2009). However, Underwhin only recycles
white paper (with one exception – see Section 4.2.8), and this has been a
fraught process in itself (see Section 4.2.9). This suggests that recycling was not embedded in the school’s culture: neither surface actions nor espoused
values prioritised it (see Section 4.3.2). Other areas of sustainability in school
operations, like resource use, were not covered in any organised fashion.
4.2.5 Relationship with the Local Community
In terms of social sustainability, links with the local community are strong, with
visitors to the school for assemblies and lessons sharing experience and expertise. This relates closely to one of the eight ‘Doorways’ suggested by the
Sustainable Schools framework, ‘Local Well-being’ (DfE, 2012c; see Section
2.3), and is enshrined in school policies: for example the Cross-curricular Days policy states that visiting guests are a way of “bridging links with the local
community”. Local business influence in the School Trust27
and the Board of
Governors is strong (part of the land on which the school stands and one major
building are owned by a large local business which is also a member of the
School Trust). Students are involved in several local projects, especially in the
creative arts subjects in KS4 and KS5, and many taught subjects make links
with the local community in their teaching and learning. The last academic year
27
http://trustschools.ssatrust.org.uk/schools/trust_schools.aspx provides an overview of Trust
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before my visit in particular has also seen concerted efforts to communicate
with parents, via surgeries in local towns and villages attended by the Principal and Chair of the Board of Governors, and via the establishment of a Parents’
Learning Forum28. Overseas links (with ‘partner’ schools in Africa and Asia, for
example) were also clearly important at Underwhin: they were noted in the 2010
Ofsted Report and evident in displays in several buildings across campus.
The most recent Ofsted Report on Underwhin, in 2010, highlighted this strength and praised the school for it, noting the school’s highly effective strategy
regarding community links, opportunities for students to contribute, fund raising,
cultural exchanges and sporting links with local primary schools. These
comments can be linked to recommendations made by Symons (2008) that sustainable schools form external partnerships (see Section 2.4), and the ‘Eight
Doorways’ Sustainable Schools Framework (SSF), which emphasises local
well-being and the global dimension as two of the ways in which schools can try
to emphasise sustainability (see Section 2.3). More can be seen in policies at Underwhin: the school’s ‘College Aims’ document includes “learning from the
unique resources of our [local] area and contributing to them”. Cross-curricular
Days, where the normal timetable is ‘collapsed’ to allow focus on a single
theme, are described in the Promotion of Healthy Eating policy as a way for “students [to] gain knowledge and experience of the production and
sustainability of locally grown food through off-site visits to local farms and exhibitions”.
28
This body was still in the process of coming together when I visited, but was intended to be a forum for parents to have a say in what and how their children learn at Underwhin.
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Unfortunately, I do not believe that school members saw any of these links with the local community as ‘sustainability’ (see Section 4.2.2): this is likely again to
be because they were unaware of the full nature of sustainability.
4.2.6 Sustainable Travel
Underwhin’s very large, mostly rural, catchment area means that many students
and staff travel several miles, but many students, especially, do so by bus or
coach (approximately 75% of Underwhin students use transport provided by the Local Education Authority, according to the school’s Transport Policy). A focus
on healthy lifestyles, associated with Underwhin’s Specialist sport status, has
also led, albeit incidentally, to a school culture where sustainable travel is
important, for example walking and cycling.
4.2.7 Extra-curricular Activities
Also associated with the school’s emphasis on sport, and healthy lifestyles in
general, is a strong tradition of extra-curricular activities in the form of clubs and
societies. Many focus on sporting activities, but there are also plenty of music
and performing arts clubs, homework clubs, and other activities taking place at
lunchtime or after school. These are popular and well-attended (one Student
Council member in SV1b complained that they had no spare time to take on any
other responsibilities because they did not have any spare lunchtimes all
week!). These activities could provide opportunities – albeit not taken while I
was visiting – for some aspects of sustainability to be introduced. Maths teacher, ‘Diane’, noted a more or less total absence of coverage of
sustainability in her taught lessons (and there has never been a Cross-
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sustainability issues was in the (extra-curricular) walking club she helped to
organise.
4.2.8 Strengths Around Sustainability in the Curriculum
Relative to the overall situation at Underwhin, Catering is a centre of strength in sustainability. Partly this is owing to the school’s healthy lifestyles emphasis,
but ‘Micky’, the Head of Catering, who is responsible for overseeing the taught
subject and the provision of food, also described ethical reasons for their
policies which do not seem to have been considered, or at least not acted upon,
in other areas of the school. The Department has a written policy stating that,
wherever possible (and dependent upon cost), food is to be purchased from
local suppliers, and Catering Department staff have also had training to assist them in visiting suppliers and making judgements about the suppliers’ suitability
on ethical grounds (for example, how their livestock are treated and where they
source products from themselves).
Much is made of the school’s efforts to encourage students to eat a healthy diet,
with Catering staff (who are, as one interviewee pointed out, often mothers of
former or current Underwhin students) advising on choices of meal; the Student
Council has been closely involved in selecting menu items. When local and/or
seasonal items are included in the canteen menu, this is advertised to students
and staff using the canteen. Students from taught Catering subjects work in the
school canteen and help to produce the food eaten there; a small amount of
food grown in the school garden is also used in the canteen. The Catering
Department is also the only place in the school where anything other than white
paper is recycled: cardboard is collected. Finally, aspects of sustainability such
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and so on, are covered in the taught curriculum in the department, according to
Micky.
This deliberate coordination process has also included an audit to see where
topics about food and nutrition are taught in other subjects, and to try to ensure
that subject teaching and school catering convey the same messages (for
example, foods identified as healthy in Physical Education (PE) or Biology
lessons are served in the canteen). This continuing policy is described in the school’s ‘Promotion of Healthy Eating’ document as: “[Liaising] closely with
teaching staff to ensure that the practice of the catering underlines the theory in the classroom across the curriculum.” This was one of very few examples I
discovered of campus operation and taught curriculum being coordinated at
Underwhin.
The excellence in Catering regarding sustainability is relatively isolated, but
there is some very good teaching related to sustainability in other departments
too. Lesson observations and interviews with students and staff from the
Science and Geography departments confirmed that there are some staff and
students at Underwhin who feel that sustainability is important, and that it is
taught in KS3, KS4 and KS5. For example, the ‘Economy/Society/Environment’
model (see Section 1.3) was used as a familiar concept (it was recapped upon) in Geography; in Science, emphasis was placed on the idea of ‘life cycle’ in
manufacturing, and on students’ place in relation to others worldwide, and in
terms of themes like manufacturing, commerce, food production, pollution and so on. It seemed clear from students’ contributions in these lessons that they
understood these ideas, and were able to give examples of ways in which they
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The Geography Department was a focus for sustainability in Underwhin,
contributing 3 of the 6 members of the nascent staff sustainability group
including the teacher identified by many senior staff and other interviewees as the closest thing the school had to an unofficial sustainability ‘leader’ (the Head
of Department, ‘Eoin’). The department also used their allocated display space
to highlight issues like climate change, with a large display entitled ‘Ways to
Change: Change the World: We Are What We Do’ encouraging individual
responsibility and action in the area of sustainability. Student work on Fair
Trade, including hand-designed T-shirts, was also displayed outside the
Geography office.
The Science Department was not such a strong source of sustainability at Underwhin, but Science Technician ‘Jonathan’ made clear his personal passion
for recycling and minimising resource use, listing numerous ways in which this is practised as well as ‘preached’ in an exemplary fashion. However, there also
seems to be great pressure on the department to produce strong examination
results: this situation was also encountered in the English Department, where staff seemed to feel that they were too busy to do anything ‘extra’ on top of their
core teaching workload. This is significant also for the fact that sustainability –
or elements of it, at least – are seen as ‘extra’ and beyond the main job.
Symons (2008) is among many commentators who note that sustainability
must, if it is to be successful, be integrated with other initiatives and part of a
whole-school approach.
I formed a general experience of the classroom culture at Underwhin, based
specifically on the Science and Geography lesson observations I made and the
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events tied in closely with lesson plans (e.g. Lesson plan L1a: social and
international impacts of recent floods in Bangladesh) and lesson objectives
were clearly stated (although these did not make mention of sustainability, for
the most part). Also, students seemed very well engaged and keen to
contribute to discussions and by answering direct questions (see L1a: one student was prepared to argue from a ‘devil’s advocate’ point of view that we
should ‘abandon’ Bangladesh to deal with their own problems caused by the
floods; another asked whether climate change was “the dark reflection of capitalism”). None of the staff at Underwhin mentioned the idea that there was
a specific pedagogy they associated with sustainability, but teachers generally
seemed to make a point of including students through questioning and
discussion, which was a positive sign in this regard.
Sustainability was much more evident in terms of content, with lessons covering
life-cycle analysis, the social impacts of global environmental disasters, dealing
with pollution and the pros and cons for a local community of installing
alternative energy sources. These topics were all discussed within the class
(see L1b: after paired discussion, students contributed to a class list of criteria
by which they could judge the success of a renewable energy project), several
times beginning with some sort of inclusive recapping exercise to see what
students already knew about the topic, and working from their knowledge.
Interviews with teaching staff in other departments showed a lack of
understanding of sustainability and a lack of its inclusion in teaching and
learning; with the exceptions of Catering, Science and Geography mentioned
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taught curriculum. There was no sign of pedagogy specifically chosen to reflect
or promote sustainability values. This is not unexpected, given the situation
with regard to sustainability in the curriculum outlined in Chapter 2, as
sustainability has a low profile in the National Curriculum. I also saw very few
attempts consciously to include sustainability outside the formal curriculum, in
clubs, societies, assemblies and so on.
4.2.9 Behaviour
Another set of themes I identified focused around the behaviour of students and
staff in the context of sustainability. Members of both groups described a big
difference between their behaviour relating to sustainability at home and in school, particularly around waste and recycling. ‘Sally’, recommended to me as
a teacher who was keen on sustainability, was one of several staff interviewees
who mentioned that students had spoken to them about this. Recycling was
part of the normal routine at home, but was not at school.
The limited scope of recycling at Underwhin has already been described (in Section 4.2.4). Many interviewees mentioned the school’s recycling scheme,
which was established by the Student Council, initiated and supported by a
teacher, before the experience of any student currently at the school. The fact that white paper recycling has ‘always’ gone on, as far as current students’
experience is concerned, means that this is genuinely one aspect of
sustainability that is part of the culture of the school: it is accepted as the norm. However, staff described early difficulties in establishing the scheme, with ‘Cliff’,
the Deputy Principal responsible for working out how recycling would actually