Q&A: Going greener at school

Greener living is catching on in schools everywhere: in the classroom, playground and canteen. Read on to be top of the eco class!

Can my lunchbox be ecofriendly?

The biggest issue with lunchboxes is how much of the content actually ends up in the bin! So make sure you eat what you’ve been given and use a refillable drinks container rather than individual cartons.

Buying foods with less packaging and using reusable containers for things like sandwiches, rather than foil or clingfilm, also helps.

It’s also worth having a word with your teacher about providing recycling facilities for packaging if you don’t have them already.

We drive to school, but I’ve heard something about Walking Buses. What are they?

The Walking Bus concept is a safe and environmentally friendly way of getting big groups of children to and from school. It cuts down on traffic congestion around schools, encourages a healthier lifestyle, saves parents money and helps you make more friends!

To find out more, visit the Walking Bus website here.

My friends and I want to go to school on our bikes, but there’s nowhere safe to leave them. What can we do?

This sounds like a project for Bike It, part of the cycling charity Sustrans.

Apparently, only two per cent of the nation’s kids cycle to school, although many more, like you, would like to. Bike It has quadrupled the number of children cycling to the target schools it’s been working with, and many of those have received new bike sheds and safer routes to school with the help of Government funding.

The Sustrans parents’ website is a good place to find information. Also, see if your school might like to organise a Bike to School week? Good luck!

My younger sister is always doing green stuff at her school, but at my school we hardly ever learn about eco topics. Why is this?

There are huge differences in green teaching up and down the country and there are a few schools that are still lagging behind.

Luckily there’s support in the form of the Eco Schools Programme, which encourages schools to compete for various awards.

A lot of conservation charities also run schools programmes and a particularly successful one is Duchy Originals Garden Organic for Schools. More than 10 per cent of UK schools have signed up to this free programme, which helps pupils learn about food and organic growing.