Appoint pupil energy monitors in all classes

The Stephen Longfellow Academy, Friday, 21 November 2025
30 points Change-maker KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4, KS5

I was able to take two keen Primary students around our school building to conduct an audit on light switches. Our students' objective was to see which classrooms needed new light switch 'off' reminders and which ones needed repair jobs. The Primary students liked measuring awkward double light switch panels as this would mean a more tricky design templates to make. Our students also politely reminded staff to turn off their smartboards when not in use.
As we have Primary and Secondary students on site, the chance for Primary students to speak to older children was really exciting for them.

Activity description

Pupils - you can have a huge impact on the amount of energy that your school uses and the carbon it produces just by influencing the behaviour of other pupils and the adults in the school!

There are many ways to do this.  As well as creating an Energy Team of dedicated individuals who have responsibility for your overall Energy Plan, you can involve more pupils by appointing Energy Monitors for each class.  They can carry out a selection of monitoring activities on a regular basis such as:

  1. Spot checks of classroom temperatures
  2. Spot checks to see if lights / electrical items are left on at lunch time
  3. Spot checks to see if lights / IT are left on after school
  4. Spot checks of the school's thermostat settings
  5. Monitoring whether adults / pupils are wearing warmer clothes inside the school building during winter
  6. Monitoring whether outside doors / windows are closed during cold weather

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 running these monitoring activities daily when you first start, and then move to weekly monitoring to ensure any improvements are maintained:

All these monitoring activities fit in with other Energy Sparks activities, so you can earn double points by appointing school energy monitors. 

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