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CURRICULUM LINKS
Education for Sustainable Development is becoming an increasingly
important topic in the school environment. Through ESD, pupils can
develop knowledge and understanding that enables them to make environmental
decisions on both a local and global scale. It encourages young
people to consider how we can improve the quality of our lives,
and the lives of others, without damaging nature. It also encourages
them to take personal actions, and see that no matter how small,
their actions can help to improve and sustain the environment –
both where they live and farther a field. Recycling is a simple,
yet effective method of teaching these principles, and is covered
in areas of Geography, Science and Citizenship. The information
below briefly outlines how recycling fits into the curriculum from
Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 3.
Key Stage 1
Science and Technology Scheme of Study: Environment
Pupils should be given opportunities to:
a) identify the range of litter in
and around their own locality – sort litter into different
types, find out what happens to waste
b) find out how human activities create
a variety of waste products – discuss how we can make less
waste
c) find out that some materials decay
naturally while others do not
Pupils should also know that there are many different materials
– wood, metal, plastic, fabric, glass, paper, etc. and be
able to sort a range of objects into sets of paper, cardboard, plastic,
glass, metal, wood etc.
Key Stage 2
Science and Technology Scheme of Study: Environment
Pupils should be given opportunities to:
a) find out how human activities create
a variety of waste products
b) find out that some materials decay
naturally while others do not
c) understand that some waste materials
can be recycled and that this can be of benefit to the environment
Geography Scheme of Study: The Environment
Pupils should have opportunities to learn about:
a) the importance and use of natural
resources in Northern Ireland
b) some of the ways in which people
affect the environment both locally and globally
c) issues associated with conservation
of the environment e.g. recycling and clean-up activities
Pupils should also be taught to classify materials into natural
and manufactured, sort materials which do/do not decay naturally
(are biodegradable) and those that are not. They should understand
that these lead to pollution. They should talk about the ways we
produce waste everyday and survey family recycling habits.
While these areas are directly covered in talks, classroom
lessons also allow us to cover other aspects of the curriculum e.g.
Key Stage 1 – communicating mathematically,
mathematical reasoning.
Key Stage 2 – as above, and also the use
of block graphs, pictograms, frequency tables, and mapping diagrams.
Collection, representation and interpretation of data.
Key Stage 3
Clearly, at Key Stage 3, areas covered by the curriculum are much
more specific. However, Recycling does appear in several different
programmes of study.
Within Geography, pupils should have the opportunity
to investigate the human impact on the environment (of which waste
is one), while in Science, ‘Environment’
forms a sub-section in ‘Materials and Their Uses’. Pupils
should have the opportunity to:
a) understand that some waste products
can be recycled, including glass, paper and aluminium cans, and
why this process is desirable.
b) Find out about the positive and
negative effects of the exploitation of raw materials.
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