Communication and English Good Practice: Collaborative approaches to our Sustainable Solutions Project

‘Sustainable Solutions’ is a two year education and culture project sponsored by the EU Comenius programme. It commenced in August 2010 and the Partnership consists of nine colleges/schools located in seven EU countries. Stevenson developed the concept for the Project and is the co-ordinating Partner. The aim of the Project is to devise models for embedding education for environmental sustainability into the existing curriculum. Students are encouraged to investigate environmental problems and come up with sustainable solutions. What follows are the minutes I wrote up from a recent partnership meeting in Rome. My thanks must go to my travelling companions Kirsty and John who helped make this trip a memorable one. The project is an excellent way of discussing the wide variety of excellent teaching and learning happening all over Europe and illustrates how a collaborative approach to the subject of sustainability can yield brilliant results.

Minutes of SusSol Partnership meeting

IPSIA Carlo Cattaneo, Rome, Italy (19-23 October 2011)

Thursday 20^th October 2011

Sinead Kellett (Marriotts School, Stevenage, England) opened the meeting by showing attendees a wonderful video made by her Drama students on the topic of ‘the sustainable global environment’ where her older students were teaching the younger students about sustainability by performing a series of short informative sketches.

John O’Neill and Marzia Zabbatino welcomed all delegates to the meeting and gave an overview of the programme of cultural and educational activities proposed for the visit.

The co-ordinators from the partner colleges delivered presentations which detailed the following information:

John O’Neill (Stevenson College, Edinburgh, Scotland)

· Summarised SCE participation.

· Embedding skills to facilitate projects.

· Student targets.

· Showed SCE and EU SusSol websites.

· Information from projects communicated via college website and in-house newsletter (SCEne.)

Maurice Schoffelen (Stedelijk College Eindhoven, Netherlands)

· Outlined the ‘It’s not easy being green’ interdisciplinary project.

· Students were involved in projects designing different types of windmills as a wind efficient energy source.

· Problems were addressed with learners encouraged to ‘think outside the box.’

· This was a good example of different departments working together.

· A You Tube video highlighting the possibilities for solar bottle lights was shown.

Tomas Diaz Gomez (Instituto de Educacion Secundaria Abyla, Ceuta, Spain)

· Detailed information about recycling and environmental issues, giving an overview of different topics covered.

· The sustainability of beaches in Ceuta, analysis of mobile consumerism and other aspects were discussed.

· The importance of working productively with colleagues was presented.

· Different modes of assessment such as essays and educational videos were used to increase students’ awareness of sustainable problems.

Joanna Omachel (Zespol Szkol Elektronicznych i Ogolnoksztalcacych, Przemysl, Poland)

· Gave information about the ‘Clear up the world’ event on September 20^th.

· Visit to an ecological farm was presented.

· PowerPoint presentations about the dangers to the environment and a list of pros and cons concerning the issue of how to be eco-friendly were constructed.

· Results of a partner meeting with Stevenson College was discussed, including a visit to a bird sanctuary and a discussion (in English) about the advantages and disadvantages of zoos.

· A blog created to showcase the work done in European projects was shown.

Heather Bullen (Marriotts School, Stevenage, England)

· Details of the ‘your community and sustainability’ project were given.

· The issues of solving global warming and doing something by the students were communicated using a colourful mind map.

· Pathways to poor health were reviewed as was an extended school map of ‘is there a place for sustainability?’

· A final thought was offered – a school does not become ‘green’ by conserving energy, collecting batteries or sorting waste. The crucial factor must be what the pupils are learning from participating in such activities.

Marianne Herzog (Schulheim Schloss Kasteln, Switzerland)

· Details of the short student made film ‘The Princess of Littering Castle’ were explained.

· The premise that this institution is free to create a curriculum of study was raised.

· Sustainability issues were clarified in terms of student work, such as heating of the castle and wooden heating efficiencies.

· Recycling of litter in terms of project work was illustrated.

Marzia Zabbatino (IPSIA Carlo Cattaneo, Rome, Italy)

· This institute’s focus is on technical aspects: sustainability and sustainable energy.

· Collaborative approaches with colleagues from English, Thermohydraulics, Maths, I.T and Mechanics were clarified.

· Classes were divided into groups and produced group projects about issues such as heat pumps, solar power, solar water heaters, heating swimming pools, heating systems of vehicles with liquid cooled engines and the meaning of sustainability.

· Meaningful evaluations were shown and these included the co-operation of students, improving IT skills and the challenges of using English.

Friday 20^th October 2011

Arrangements for partnership meeting to Zespol Szkol Elektronicznych i Ogolnoksztalcacych, Przemysl, Poland

· Joanna and John clarified the arrangements for the meeting in 2012 as follows: 10/4 delegates to travel to Krakow for overnight stay, 11/4 sightseeing in Krakow and travel to Przemysl in the evening, 12 and 13/4 meeting business, 14/4 cultural activities, 15/4 travel to Krakow (depending on flight times for various partners).

· Joanna will source costs for hotels, train travel, possible trip to Ukraine (it was reinforced that students will require passports for entry to Ukraine, but visas are not required.)

· John noted Joanna’s industry in organising this trip.

Proposal for future Comenius project (Heather and Marianne)

· The title of this project is entitled ‘Good Food, Good Mood’ with the focus on fewer food miles, more food smiles.

· Delegates were invited to join the project and it was highlighted that new partners from Germany, Turkey, Sweden, France, Slovenia and Romania had expressed interest in possible collaborations.

· The planning meeting will take place at Schloss Kasteln, near Zurich from Wednesday 25^th January until Sunday 29^th January 2012.

· Funding can be claimed from national agencies for attendance at the preliminary meeting.

· The deadline for colleagues to confirm participation is 15^th November 2011.

Presentations from lecturer delegates outlining student project work

Mark Hetherington (Stevenson College, Edinburgh, Scotland)

· An overview of how the SusSol project was used as a vehicle to develop reading, writing, speaking and listening skills was given.

· Working examples were given to clarify how communication skills underpin almost all personal, social, learning, and working activity.

· The importance of clear planning and how a strong collegiate approach can enhance learner engagement was outlined. This included communication with the Communication Lecturer from the 2010-11 session, lead Lecturers in Science and the Head Librarian.

· Vocationally relevant examples of formative and summative assessment were distributed in a handout.

Kirsty Nicholson (Stevenson College, Edinburgh, Scotland)

· Sustainable solutions within the HND Tourism curriculum were analysed.

· The aims of the unit were clearly outlined, namely to examine and analyse the concept of sustainability and its application within tourism planning and development, comment on the positive and negative impacts arising from tourism development and put forward sustainable solutions.

· The concept and application of a paperless class with paperless assessments was explained.

· The importance of students being able to recognise and discuss global issues and problems due to unsustainable development practices was clarified.

Matthias Hugli (Schule Kuttigen, Switzerland)

· A project entitled ‘Rubbish in the City’ involving kindergarten, primary and secondary school pupils was described.

· Other topics of sustainability research by students included desertification and how to save energy in everyday life.

· It was explained how the students take all the rubbish they find in the city and build an artwork distillation to demonstrate to citizens what has been thrown away.

· Students are keen to explore relationships between disasters like Fukushima and our daily use of energy.

Nikos van de Klundert (Stedelijk College Eindhoven, Netherlands)

· Activities in years one and two were communicated to delegates including successful student trips to Stevenage, London and Ceuta.

· The results of the SusSol (mini) Science Fair were also used for the 3TTO Science Fair for all bilingual 3^rd classes, which took place in April.

· Again, the importance of a collaborative approach was highlighted, including working with teachers of various vocational areas.

· Dissemination of information was showcased using the following methods: SusSol (mini) Science information booklet, SusSol (mini) Science Fair projects, school website and newspaper.

· Future plans include running a science fair held in the evening time so more teachers and parents are able to see the results of the project, producing a signpost to all the participating schools in Europe, placed centrally in the auditorium where the Science Fair will be held.

Tomas Diaz Gomez (Instituto de Educacion Secundaria Abyla, Ceuta, Spain)

· The students’ study of different aspects of Ceuta’s beaches and their sustainability was discussed.

· An inter-disciplinary approach was used between lecturers in subjects such as Geography, History, Economics and English.

· Research projects have included work on wide ranging topics, such as discussions on sustainable habits, conclusions about consumerism, preservation of the environment and a visit to a workshop in Granada.

· The onus on the work of the institute is ‘learning from our environment.’

Martin Greenacre and Sinead Kellett (Marriotts School, Stevenage, England)

· An understanding of how sustainable Marriotts School is and how they relate to the local, national and international pattern was broken down.

· Energy usage has been a research topic for the students and staff at Marriotts, including questions such as: How do we use Energy? Do we switch off appliances? Do we waste electricity?

· ‘Opening Minds’ is a theme explored at this school in an attempt to understand an Ecological Footprint, how it is measured, where it varies around the world and how it can be reduced.

· Students have carried out research with surveys and questionnaires.

· There is no fixed curriculum at Lonsdale School (for students with learning difficulties) and an innovative project between the two schools was highlighted. This was demonstrated using a short drama clip outlining a project on the sustainable world.

· The video showed how students were using scripts to teach each other about the issue of sustainability in a creative way.

Dissemination, communication and evaluation activities

John concluded the meetings with the following action points:

· Delegates to use the ‘shared treasure’ function on respective institutional websites where possible.

· An improved evaluation questionnaire to be discussed and devised at the next partner meeting in 2012.

· Maintain collegiate approaches with COMENIUS colleagues.

· Links to innovative practice to be linked to respective websites and on the SusSol hub.

The advent of a new project, provisionally entitled Good Food, Good Mood was initiated by colleagues from England and Switzerland, and this will be explored further and formalised at a meeting in Zurich in February 2012.

John thanked all delegates for their contribution and enthusiasm and in particular representatives from the host institute in Rome.

Mark Hetherington, 23/10/11.