Appoint pupil energy monitors in all classes

Woodberry Down Primary School, Thursday, 17 October 2024
5 Change-maker KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4, KS5

What you did

Each class has an Eco-Champion who will also take on the 'energy monitor' role - their jobs include making sure lights are off when no-one is in classroom (such as PE, Music lessons or even for a 15 minute assembly). With permission, they will turn screen off at the end of the day and make sure you plugs are left switched on. Older students will check wider school rooms (library, halls) to make sure their lights are off when unoccupied. 

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. 

All activities