Pupils can have a significant impact on the school's energy use by influencing the behaviour of adults and pupils.
Pupils of all ages can become ‘detectives’ to see if lights, whiteboards and appliances have been left on unnecessarily, and reminding their friends and teachers to switch them off. When the school’s heating is switched on, pupils can be made responsible for checking that doors and windows are not left open. Depending on your school’s heating system, they may also be able to monitor classroom temperatures and ensure that thermostatic controls are used to ensure optimum temperatures for learning.
Consider appointing Energy monitors with the following responsibilities, which should be carried out regularly. Consider monitoring daily when you first start, and then move to weekly monitoring to ensure any improvements are maintained:
- Spot checks of classroom temperatures
- Spot checks to see if lights / electrical items are left on at lunch time
- Spot checks to see if lights / IT are left on after school
- Spot checks of the school's thermostat settings
- Monitoring whether adults / pupils are wearing warmer clothes inside the school building during winter
- Monitoring whether outside doors / windows are closed during cold weather
All these monitoring activities fit in with other Energy Sparks activities, so you can earn double points by appointing school energy monitors. You may like to have a monitor in each class or set up an Energy team group to monitor energy related issues across the whole school.