ISLE of Wight charity The Footprint Trust has today announced that an incredible 14,000+ Bestival Adopt A Bottle water bottles have so far been distributed to Island schoolchildren at more than forty Island schools.
The distribution of the distinctive Adopt-A-Bottles has been backed up by Footprint Trust water workshops in twelve Island local authority schools. These have been presented to over 3,800 pupils to date.
The Bestival Foundation funds The Footprint Trust’s water workshops – which are now entering their third year.
Ray Harrington-Vail of The Footprint Trust said: “Water issues are very topical due to the drought and the fact that the Island imports over 25% of its water from the mainland… Thanks to funding from Bestival we have been able to educate a whole generation about the importance of water conservation”.
Thanks to this project the majority of Isle of Wight primary schools have now joined the International Eco-schools programme. In total 44 IOW Council schools are now members and 6 schools have now been awarded the Green Flag.
The pupils have all been left with an attractive fun worksheet to go over later with their teacher. Each class is also left with the powerpoint presentation that we have given – so that the teacher can go over it again at a future date. Leaflets and booklets are also left as a resource, along with details of the internet sites.
Eco-Audits have carried out in 11 schools – St Saviours , Brading, Summerfields, Shanklin, St Helens, Newchurch, St Francis, Lane End Primary, Wootton Primary, St Thomas of Canterbury, and St Mary’s Primary. In each case pupils from the school council or Eco-Schools committee have assisted. A report is then written by staff from the Trust and given to the school for the pupils and staff to act upon the points made.
The Footprint Trust have produced supportive information for teachers on their website www.footprint-trust.co.uk/sustainable-schools.html
Teachers can contact the Trust on 01983 822282.
