Reducing our carbon footprint in the classroom has never been so important. A recent poll was conducted on teachers on The Muddy Puddle Teacher Facebook Page indicated that teachers felt that paper was the most significant waste area in their school.
Record Nations on 3rd December 2021 states, ‘A typical school will use an average of 2,000 sheets per day, meaning that during a full school year of 160 days, a school will chew through over 320,000 sheets of paper per year.’
Ribble Pack explains that one tree potentially can make up to 10,000 sheets. This equates to 32 trees are being chopped down every year to support just one school with paper.
Besa states there are 32,028 schools in the UK. This includes nurseries, primary and secondary.
This shockingly results in a staggering 1,024,896 trees that are cut down every year solely for educational purposes and settings! Many use these sheets for minutes and never being looked at again.
Time for us all to reflect on this
How many schools then go and replant the trees they have used?
How many schools will further cur down trees in their play areas for space and ease?
How many schools now need to start to reduce their paper trials and do children need to have everything written down and recorded all of the time?
Is it time to ditch the worksheet and look to more practical ways to learn?
Remember, there is an approach that works towards supporting a zero approach classroom and its curriculum-linked, uses nature-based materials and is already being used by thousands of teachers and inspiring thousands more children.
Take a 14-day free trial and enrol as a Muddy Puddle Teacher. Train with us and save you time with our earth hugging lesson plans and resources.
