John Northridge, Head of Technology Education

I’m so excited that we’re switching to 100 per cent green energy. We’re practicing what we preach – and the students can see that. Take our Beyond the Classroom service learning opportunity, where 30 students and I carried out a full study of the energy the school could produce. 

We’ve been designing a whole system around that study. It’s seen the students installing panels on the roof and connecting them to a battery unit in the MakerSpace. That battery now picks up eight hours of solar energy – enough to power the 3D printers and the laser cutters for two hours.

It’s important to keep these things going, so now we’re running the Charge Up project. A student can become a Net Zero Hero and make a class completely carbon neutral. All they do is sign up to use the solar power battery, which is on wheels, for a specific class. They wheel it in and plug it into any devices being used in that classroom – it’s now a zero emissions lesson. 

And when the big solar panels go up, they’ll be visible in so many ways – not just obviously on the roof, but in lessons, too. We’ll be able to look at how much energy the school is producing and how that’s being utilised in the classroom. 

Now, the students feel that they’re part of the school’s green energy evolution. It’s great for them to feel that kind of connection. They‘re not just learning about solar but kickstarting an entire initiative. 

That’s so important because they will be the architects of a sustainable future. We have to empower them. Preaching green energy in the classroom is one thing – seeing it and doing it are another. Putting these projects in place shows our students that sustainability isn’t for someone else to do: they have the power to control it.