Rushcliffe, Hilton & Glenbrook in Energy Sparks Top 10 National Scoreboard
Rushcliffe Spencer, Hilton Spencer and Glenbrook Spencer have been recognised for their inspiring sustainability efforts to help tackle climate change and conserve energy usage in school, ranking in Energy Sparks’ Top 10 schools nationally. An extra spotlight goes to Rushcliffe Spencer for also ranking #1 on the East Midlands scoreboard!
The academies have been busy over the last academic year with a series of school-wide projects, working hard to demonstrate their approaches to reducing energy consumption and promoting a culture of sustainability within the school community.
Rushcliffe Spencer Academy have planted over 400 trees on the school site in partnership with the Woodlands Trust, recycled over 100kg of material that would usually go to landfill, set up a swap shop in school and declared a Climate Emergency to raise awareness about being as sustainable as possible. They are also in the process of renewing their ‘Green Flag Award’ with a Distinction and have been utilising Energy Sparks’ platform to gain points by completing a series of different activities and actions to make Rushcliffe as energy efficient as possible, as well as raising awareness in the local community. Over the year, their efforts have led to the school becoming regional champions, ranking top of the leaderboard against 172 other schools in the East Midlands and #2 in the nationals leaderboard against 319 other schools.
Student members of the Eco-Team at Rushcliffe commented; “It gave us more responsibility around the school” and “We enjoyed doing a lot of the activities…we really felt like we were making a difference!”
Hilton Spencer have also implemented a range of energy saving initiatives across school, ranking #5 nationally! The school council and site manager have driven efforts to turn off all light switches and appliances when no longer needed, source better options for the school to support their drive to reduce energy, arrange workshops and assemblies focusing on the environment and making sure everyone is on board with Hilton’s mission to make the school greener and healthier.
Glenbrook Spencer also ranked in joint 7th place on the national leaderboard after implementing a range of actions to improve energy efficiency and sustainability in school. The Eco Warrior group worked on actions such as turning the heating off over the holidays, turning the heating down by 1 degree on colder days, turning off all plugs at the end of the day and power sources on a Friday, closing windows and blinds on hot days and shutting windows when the heating is on and discussing various energy saving options in the kitchen with kitchen staff at the school. One Eco Warrior member said, “We started off near the bottom of the Energy Sparks table and now we are at the top!”
What incredible achievements! A huge congratulations to everyone who took part and led initiatives to support energy saving and sustainability across the Trust. We look forward to seeing what you get up to next year!