Page 26 - Herioter 2021

EARTH showcase for sustainability. For example, we have implemented a new recycling
We continued by discussing what we have done as a school about learning
system with a bin shed, won competitions such as the Hunter Foundation’s
Heriot’s ‘Scotland’s Climate Champions’ competition, and integrated lessons on the
environmental impacts of fast fashion and smart phones in the Citizenship
curriculum. We then went on to talk about what we are doing now and
sustainability what we hope to do in the future. We feel it will be important to integrate
sustainability into the daily life of Heriot’s and the discussions we have had
at previous webinars will assist us with this. Other ideas we have had for
the future include a Green Careers Fair to help us all to make links between
journey sustainability and a wide range of different careers, and we are excited that
a new Sustainability Committee will drive change from ‘the top’ using our
input.
The next point we addressed was pupil experience and influence. We
Having previously attended several online sustainability webinars presented discussed how important it was to lead with a solutions-based message
by people from all corners of the globe, it was our turn as the Environmental and to avoid making the issue of climate change too intimidating or
Action Research Team at Heriot’s (EARTH) to offer our ideas on sustainability overwhelming, so that everyone sees that they have a crucial role to play.
and how we learn about its many related themes at school. Previous webinars Another point we discussed was how to make the issue seem relevant and
had been presented by educators, so we decided to look at ours from the how many ways there are to get pupils involved with sustainability.
perspective of pupils. We decided to present ‘Heriot’s Sustainability Journey’, We wanted to show how pupils have more influence than they often
highlighting our achievements and goals, and our online audience included realise, and how when they use this in an informed way it is an incredibly
pupils and teachers from Greece, Israel, South Africa and New Zealand. powerful tool. We discussed how schools had to engage, empower and inform
Our story started in the Junior School with Mrs Wilken, Mrs Duncan and a pupils for them to utilise their influence to its full potential.
group of pupils explaining what sustainability meant to them, and how it links
to their Rights Respecting Schools work. We heard about the projects they Esther Arthurson (S6), Alexander Crich (S6), Lucy Anderson (S4), Heather
had embarked on to improve sustainability within the Junior School, and how Monaghan (S4), Sarah Cayzer (S4), Hannah Reid (S3) and Sophie Sykes
they spread awareness to all pupils. (S2)

S5 biology pupils undertook gel electrophoresis to analyse DNA samples from a ‘crime scene’ and investigate the proteins present in different food samples

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