Recycle, Retail and Reap the Reward

Turners Hill Primary School have decided that their next major environmental project is to be a rainwater harvesting system. We plan to have three large tanks each holding 6500 L of water. The water will be used to flush the toilets within the school. We will also have a large educational display showing how much rainwater we have collected and how much mains water we have saved.  As with all of our projects we try and get the children involved as much as possible and with this in mind we have come up with a project called ‘Recycle, Retail and Reap the Reward’. Not only did we hope to educate the children involved but also raise a small amount of money in the process. The children decided that they wanted to set up their own business selling recycled goods. They wanted it to be modeled on a department store. Firstly they invited Santander into school who spoke to the whole class about writing a business plan. They allocated every member of the class a job ranging from Managing Director and Company Secretary to Quality Control Supervisor and Shop Assistant. The children decided to call their department store Green Tree.  They all designed a logo and voted on the final one. Using their ICT skills they each made a business card and headed paper was designed. The children wrote to local businesses and to parents explaining the idea and asking for quality second hand belongings. They sorted, priced and allocated the goods keeping records in Excel and once they had had their department store sale recorded who much money each department had made. Some of the class also gave some thought to designing various different ways of pumping the water from the rainwater harvesting system to our toilets. The most innovative resulting in a toilet with peddles attached, enabling you to pump the water to make it flush! By involving the children in this way we are able to cover many areas of the curriculum. This particular project has touched on Maths, English, IT, Design and Technology and Science.  This is quite an expensive project to undertake, however as a school we see that it has both environmental as well as educational benefits. We have already received donations from various sources; Southern Water - £1000, Santander - £150, NATS - £200 and our school PTA - £600, we are also waiting to hear back from the County Local Committee for Community Funding who we hope will give us a grant of £5000. The children’s department store raised over £200.