Environmentally Friendly: Making your School Greener and Leaner

Greening your school carries a wealth of benefits; not only do you educate your students about the environment, why we should preserve it and how to do so, but creating a green school makes for a healthier school environment and saves on costs. Spending less on utility bills and materials will mean more money for cash-strapped schools.

Dealing with waste

Recycling can help to reduce the amount of waste that your school sends to the landfill. When you recycle large volumes of paper, glass and cans, you can get paid for your recycling efforts. Adding another source of income to your coffers while reducing your waste is an excellent way to go green.

Compost your vegetable waste and create a valuable resource for your own gardens. You can also provide parents with compost or donate compost to your local community garden.

Conserve

Make your school as paper-free as possible and print on both sides when you need to make hard copies. Switching to electronics like tablets will carry high initial costs, but you will have an excellent return on investment as you will not have to buy books or print out notes.

Turn out lights when you are not using a room. Use motion-sensitive lights at night rather than leaving lights on for security reasons and try to reduce energy and water consumption wherever possible.

Community Garden

This is a great way to get a source of locally grown, carbon footprint-free food. If you avoid pesticides and use the compost you create from your vegetable waste, you can grow organic fruits and vegetables too. Community gardening can really teach students about healthy eating, nutrition and the biology of flora. They will be more enthusiastic about eating salads and vegetables if they have grown the produce themselves.

Cleaning products

Use vinegar and water to clean windows and other surfaces. Vinegar is a great antibacterial and can be used to create great cleaning products (see more here) that are healthier too. When you use chemical cleaning products, they leave a residue which then releases harmful toxic fumes and makes your school’s indoor air unhealthy for students.

Rainwater collection

Use rain barrels on downspouts to collect valuable rain water which can then be used for cleaning and in your gardens. Reservoirs on rooftops can be utilized for flushing toilets too.

Get moving

Ask students to opt for greener ways to get to school like walking or riding bikes. This will also help you to get your students moving. In inclement weather or for students who live far away, the bus, train or carpooling will help to reduce the carbon footprint of their commute.

Green your scene

Plant trees to mitigate carbon footprints, put plants inside classrooms to improve the air quality and create large outdoor gardens. When making a garden, use indigenous varieties of plants that are accustomed to the local conditions and require little additional care or watering. Avoid lawns by using lawn alternatives. These lawn alternatives will reduce the carbon footprint of moving and reduce the need for watering while providing lush, green ground covering. 

Cutting Class: What Parents Should do When Kids Play Truant

Most parents have to deal with truancy at one time or another. Whether it’s your child saying they are sick to avoid school or if they are pretending to go to school and then going elsewhere, playing truant will result in poor grades and is dangerous as students remain unsupervised while their parents are at work.

Widespread problem

Skipping school is becoming a part of our culture and is a far more widespread problem than we would like to admit. The Get School Foundation recently investigated the issue and their report is disturbing. Their study showed that 15% of students miss 18 days or more of school a year. Most of these students cited boredom as the main reason why they skipped school.

Take stock

If you find out that your student has been skipping school or they claim to have fictional health issues that prevent them from going to school, its time to take stock. Find out what the underlying problems are. Many students are genuinely bored at school and can’t see the relevance of algebra or history to real-world applications. Here you need to outline the consequences of a poor education and how it limits choice. You may also try a more challenging course, class or school. Engaging a tutor to help students to find academic challenges is also a great idea.

Stop gap

If students feel overwhelmed and lost, they may also skip school. When they don’t understand what is going on, they may feel helpless and skip school because they fear that they may fail anyway. If this is the case, then you need to help them to catch up and understand what is going on in class. Get an in-home tutor to work with your student to help them to fill gaps in their understanding.

Bullying

Many students stay home because they are being bullied by fellow students or perhaps they don’t like a teacher they have been assigned. You can help by teaching coping techniques or changing classes or schools. All schools have anti-bullying policies that help to protect students, so speak with your teachers.

Always include your students in any discussions about their academic futures. You need to include them in the implementation of any strategy if you want them to participate. Try to understand the reasons why they are skipping school so that you can deal with these effectively or the behavior will persist.

Your school Councillors and teachers are a wonderful resource. They may have a better insight into the circumstances which your student faces every day at school and they can help with strategies on how to combat the causes of truancy.