We were so thrilled to hear that a member of EBS staff had been shortlisted for the Let’s Go Zero Hero Award at the Education Estates People’s Awards that was being held in Manchester this year. We were even more excited to hear that Alison McDonnell had won the award! Out of 15 people that were shortlisted, Alison’s dedication to the eco responsibilities of the school made her the overall winner and we couldn’t be any prouder. Unfortunately, Alison was unable to attend the award ceremony, and even missed out on meeting Ben Fogle who gave out the award, however, we were able to surprise Alison at our Awards Evening when a representative from Let’s Go Zero attended and presented the award.
To receive this prestigious award, Alison was nominated by the school. The transcript of the nomination is below:
Why are you nominating this person?
We would like to nominate Alison McDonnell for this award. Alison has transformed the way we look at sustainability at East Barnet School. Three years ago, sustainability was added to our school priorities and Alison went about setting up a student Eco Council to look at improving our eco-footprint and created a sustainability policy. The group have created ‘lights off’ signs for all the classrooms and offices, introduced recycling bins into every classroom, set up a pre-loved shop for used uniform and created eco-videos with the group to show to other students. Alison has embedded sustainability into our conversations and culture. Behind the scenes, Alison has also reduced paper wastage by bringing down photocopying, and shouted about things other departments were already doing but not being highlighted, such as the changing all our lightbulbs to LED, installing sensors and timers for lights and computers and using vegware in our Kitchen instead of plastic. Alison is also currently working with
the Kitchen to remove single-use plastic bottles. Alison was part of our organising committee for our Summer Fayre, and when it came time to spend the funds, she was keen that we used the money to create an outside classroom for the students to learn more about nature, and installed binoculars for the students to see the birds. Once the classroom was up and running, Alison successfully applied for the Let’s Go Zero funding to create an allotment area which is now being used by students and staff to grow food for our Kitchen. No task is ever too big for Alison, and she is currently running a campaign to raise £40,000 to help with the installation of new solar panels, and working on content for a new sustainability page on our website. Alison truly is a Let’s Go Zero Hero!What have they done in the last 12 months to make them stand out?
In the last 12 months Alison has continued to work with the Eco-Council and created a new noticeboard with hints and tips for students and staff to develop their sustainability habits, and attended assemblies and sent round information to students in form groups to encourage involvement. During student volunteer week, Alison encouraged students to sign up for litter picking, which was very successful and gave the students a sense of pride when it came to looking after their environment. One big project that we have encouraged Alison to do is to shout about all the great things that have already been achieved and what more can be done. So, Alison has put together lots of information about what we have been doing to create a snazzy new sustainability webpage, which also attempts to show facts and figures that people can relate to. It is still a work in progress, but it is fantastic to see what a difference these changes are making. We are also now in the final stages of our outside classroom build and allotment which Alison has overseen the whole way. The challenges with suppliers, the weather, the unforeseen ground issues have not stopped Alison following the project through and it looks absolutely amazing! We are going to be having an official launch soon and invite people from the local community to continue to build links and show how a sustainability project can be achieved. For the first time this year, we were able to take part in Earth Hour, which is another great initiative where students and staff switched off everything electronic for an hour – it was really fun, and showed that we can survive without electricity if we need to, especially when we are learning. In addition to all of that, Alison has also launched our first big fundraiser for sustainability, in the form of solar panels. She has designed her poster and shared it to the whole community. It is a huge target of £40,000 but I am sure she will achieve it! Above and beyond the physical work that Alison does to achieve her goals, she is always so enthusiastic and passionate about the changes, even when there are stumbling blocks. Her attitude to succeed in this is infectious, and that can only be a good thing.
