Bexley: Schools ecology areas project

Abstract:

The Bexley Schools Ecology Areas Project is an ongoing programme which was initiated by the Bexley Council's Planning Department in 1988 and today involves more than two thirds of the district's schools. Its purpose is to establish ecological habitats on school grounds as an educational tool which sensitizes the pupils for environmental questions. At the same time, it contributes to the improvement of the urban environment. The project is based on the continuous participation of pupils and teachers at the schools as well as other members of the community. The Bexley School Area Project is an outstanding and examplary initiative for several reasons:

• The project requires few financial resources to produce substantial and continuous results.
• Implementation is unbureaucratic and can be adapted to specific circumstances.
• It provides opportunities for self-determined public participation in environmental improvement activities.

Concept and aims

In the frame of the Bexley Schools Ecology Areas Project a wide variety of natural habitats have been established on local public school grounds. The majority of them include ponds with plants as habitat for amphibians and insects, wildflower and butterfly meadows, and a gardening area for the children. Depending on the locality of the schools, in some cases extended swamp areas could be established. Planting indigenous plants, hedgerows and trees and building bird boxes and nesting mounds for mini-beasts has changed formerly green waste lands or sealed surfaces and created small but nevertheless thriving natural habitats. While most Ecology Areas started out as small fenced off areas, many of them are now covering ever larger parts of the schools' grounds and have become a charcteristic feature of Bexley's schools.

The Schools Ecology Area Project is based on the concept of learning by doing. Its primary aim is to involve the pupils throughout the Project in the experience of designing and planning the Ecology Areas and caring for the plants, insects and animals in them. This demonstrates to them in a first- hand, immediate way the structural and ecological value of natural habitats. At the same time, taking over individual design and maintenance tasks exercises the childrens' diverse skills and helps to instill in them a sense of the importance of a continuously responsible attitude towards the natural environment. Thus, a great potential of the School Ecology Areas lies in their character as an educational resource not only for the biology department but all the school. Therefore, they are an ideal vehicle for cross-curriculum study.

Since its inception in 1988, the ideas and concepts behind the Schools Ecology Areas Project have been further developed and broadened in scope. From the beginning they were seen as outdoor classrooms which make the natural environment a part of the children's everyday experiences. Over the years, many of the projects have been extended to include almost the entire school grounds and thus to improve the total, external environment of the school. Some more recent projects have been designed to respond to the specific needs of the physically disabled or children with severe learning difficulties. Moreover, themes linking ecology and art have been realized. Today, the Ecology Areas are also increasingly seen as a vehicle to impart and clarify the concept of sustainability to the pupils. For instance, by utilizing second-hand building materials (e.g. old bricks or paving) and wood logs to create habitats for small mammals or collecting organic wastes for composting, the pupils are made aware of the value of these resources.

Another important aim of the Schools Ecology Area Project is to involve other members of the community. Not only the schools' teachers and students, but also parents and interested citizens of the neighbourhood, such as the retired or unemployed, can participate in the projects and take on different tasks. In some cases, the Community Service Volunteers, staffed with ex-offenders, have provided help in heavy labour parts of the projects, such as digging ponds or erecting fences. Thus, establishing the School Ecology Areas can have beneficial social side-effects for the community as a whole.

In summary, the following themes are covered by the School Ecology Area Project:

• Ecology
• Environmental improvement - Habitat creation
• Species and habitat conservation
• Education
• Community involvement

Implementation

Implementation of individual projects starts with every new financial year when all eligible schools in Bexley (private schools are excluded from public funding) receive a letter from the Planning Department informing them about the project. After this initial contact, interested schools are visited by members of the Environmental Improvement Team. They will assist the school's project group, made up of teachers, sometimes parents and, most important, the pupils, in choosing the area to be developed, the siting of trees and plants, the phasing of implementation, and clarifying resulting maintenance implications.

A building and maintenance management plan is then drawn up by the pupils and teachers, based on which the necessary funds are allotted from the Planning Department's budget. Implementation of the plan usually spreads over several years, so that many pupils can participate in realizing the project. In this process, new ideas and input can be integrated in the plan and it can be adapted to new needs and circumstances.

The District's Educational Department is only marginally involved in the implementation process. It mainly consists of the formal approval of the projects which is necessary because of its legal authority to decide on the school's budgetary decisions. In general, education officials have been supportive of the project and in individual cases have lent professional support.

Since 1993, the Bexley Planning Department has held the annual Bexley Environmental Challenge Competition. It awards the winning School Ecology Areas Project with a 600 to 700 reward for further investments in the Ecology Areas. This has given the programme new momentum and substantially contributed to its continued success, because through the competition the regular exchange of experiences and ideas among the schools has been prompted and institutionalized.

As many of the projects have become more sophisticated in their ecological design, professional advice and manpower support has been acquired from the North West Kent Country Side Project. (This organisation is an association of professional conservationists founded by a number of neighbouring Council Districts including Bexley. It has been established for the purpose of ecological improvement and management of the urban fringe.)

Finance

In addition, Bexley London Borough covers the salaries for the Environmental Improvement Team, whose three-person staff is occupied with the projects for about two months per year. Most of the work hours, however, are invested by the pupils, teachers, and other volunteers.

In some cases, funds have been supplemented by support secured from local businesses which are often willing to donate materials or machinery and tools in the building phase.

Results and Impacts

Over the years, most Ecology Areas have been maintained quite well, although some have been neglected over certain periods of time. Experience has shown that the projects' continued success strongly hinges on at least one person (mostly a teacher) who is willing to take over the responsibility for the Ecology Area's maintenance. However, Ecology Areas which had been neglected for a while were quickly revitalized once a renewed effort was made. Thus, while monetary requirements for the projects are relatively low, their success calls for considerable investments of time and effort of the people involved at the schools as well as of the Planning Department's Team.

Depending on the geographic environment of the school, the scope of the projects differs substantially. Naturally, schools situated on the fringe of wooded or other natural areas which can be enhanced and extended onto the school grounds can create the most authentic habitats. Nevertheless, experience shows that even at those schools which are located in densely build-up areas creative ways of establishing vital niches of natural habitats have been found. Furthermore, as in the course of time the Ecology Areas have been designed to include larger sections of the school grounds, they also constitute a valuable and ever increasing contribution to the community's natural environment and its visual amenity.

A positive side effect of the Schools Ecology Areas Project has been that the possibility to use the Ecology Areas as an outdoor classroom on the school grounds has avoided the school's need to travel longer distances to outside natural habitats. Due to this, transport needs of the schools have been reduced.

In summary, the project has been very successful in establishing links between the district's schools and the wider community. For the benefit of the children and, from a long term perspective, possibly for the benefit of society as a whole, the Schools Ecology Areas Project has expanded the pupils' realm of educational and personal experiences and raised their environmental awareness.

These successes of the Schools Ecology Areas Project were rewarded, when Bexley won the Edwin Williams Memorial Award of 1991 as well as the Royal Town Planning Institute London Branch's award of 1992.

As an at least indirect effect of the Schools Ecology Areas Project, one further activity of the Bexley London Borough's environmental development programme deserves mention: the Community Schemes Project initiated in 1995. It legally empowers and provides funds for local groups who are willing to initiate and carry out small scale environmental improvement schemes in their local neighbourhoods. The structure of this programme is in many ways modelled on the Schools Ecology Areas Project.

Evaluation

Source of Information

LB Bexley 1996: Report on Bexley Schools Ecology Areas Project, Entry for the 'Greening the City' Award by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, February

LB Bexley School Ecology Committee 1996: Report to Development Panel, 21 March

LB Bexley Environmental Service Committee 1997: Environmental Improvement Programme 1996/97 and 1997/98, Report to the Council dated 23 January

Contact:

Cities:

Bexley :

The Outer London Borough of Bexley lies at the south eastern extremity of the metropolis, close to the Kent countryside on the southern shore of the River Thames. The borough spreads over 23 square miles and has a population of 220,000 fairly evenly distributed. Public transport links to London and parts of Kent serve Bexley. There are four main industrial areas with premises of many internationally known firms. Efforts by the Bexley Planning Department to enhance the environmental condition and visual amenity of the industrial areas (Industrial Areas Improvement Scheme) have been quite successful and were awarded the Edwin Williams Memorial Award of 1992.The Outer London Borough of Bexley lies at the south eastern extremity of the metropolis, close to the Kent countryside on the southern shore of the River Thames. The borough spreads over 23 square miles and has a population of 220,000 fairly evenly distributed. Public transport links to London and parts of Kent serve Bexley.

There are four main industrial areas with premises of many internationally known firms. Efforts by the Bexley Planning Department to enhance the environmental condition and visual amenity of the industrial areas (Industrial Areas Improvement Scheme) have been quite successful and were awarded the Edwin Williams Memorial Award of 1992.

Population:

Project was added at 08.04.1997
Project was changed at 10.03.1998

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