Your Switch-Off Fortnight
Campaign Guide
18 Nov – 1 Dec 2013
Page 2 of 12
Contents
p3 Your quick guide
p4 How Switch-Off Fortnight works
p6 Eco-Schools awards
p7 Energy-inspired activities for 4-7s
p8 Energy-inspired activities for 7-14s
p9 Spread the word activities for 7-11s
p10 Spread the word activities for 11-14s
p11 Keep the switch-off spirit going
p12FAQs
Page 3 of 12
Your quick guide to Switch-Off Fortnight
Short of time? Here’s your 5-point summary of Switch-Off Fortnight
5-point checklist
1.
Sign up to Switch-Off Fortnight in
the Campaigns section on the Pod.
2.
Download some free campaign resources to inspire students
from the Campaign Resources section.
3.
Run either the Goodbye Standby or Switch On to Switching Off activity to teach students about saving energy.
4.
Blog about your campaign – it’ll earn you Pod Points and could win your school a prize.
5.
Spread the campaign message by sending students home with the
take home sheets and encouraging
them to make an energy-saving pledge
with their family.
Turn over to page 4
to find out more...
Page 4 of 12
How Switch-Off Fortnight works
Taking part in Switch-Off Fortnight is easy and fun.
Here’s how to get involved in 8 easy steps:
3. Launch your campaign in school
1. Sign up and reserve your free pack
Visit the Campaigns section on www.jointhepod.org
and click on the red ‘take part’ button. If you’re one of
the first 4,000 schools to sign up, we’ll send you a
campaign pack containing:
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
Stickers
Switch-Off monitor badges
Posters
Instruction cards
Pledge templates
Light switch designs
School certificate
Most of the contents are also available to download
from the Campaign Resources section in the SwitchOff Fortnight campaign area.
Why not start your campaign with the Pod’s
Switch-Off Fortnight assembly to engage
the whole school? You could even get the local
community involved by inviting families and
friends along. Students could show the Busta films
about saving energy – why not play the song
and get everyone singing along too?
Don’t forget...
You don’t have to upload
pictures of students to the Pod
if you haven’t sorted out the
permissions. Instead, why not
take pictures of students’
artwork or ‘evidence’ from
their undercover surveys?
2. Choose your activity
To give your Switch-Off Fortnight campaign
a clear focus, we suggest running either the
Pod’s Switch On to Switching Off
or Goodbye Standby activity. Both
are about saving energy, come with
a lesson plan for two age ranges, and give
students a way of tracking the
effectiveness of their campaign.
Switch On to Switching Off
focuses on lights left on
and Goodbye Standby
is about appliances
left in standby mode.
Before you get
started, we recommend
downloading our Energy
information pack for ideas
on introducing the topic to
students and you might
want to bookmark this
link to the interactive
energy games to kick off
the lesson.
4. Run your survey
Both Switch On to Switching
Off and Goodbye Standby
contain an undercover survey
for students to check where lights or
appliances are being left on around school. We
recommend you take any photos or videos of any
‘evidence’ – it might be a DVD player left on standby or
a light left on in an empty toilet block – and blog about it
to earn Pod Points.
5. Share the energy-saving message
To celebrate our fifth year of Switch-Off Fortnight, we
want to promote the energy-saving message far and
wide. Download and hand out the take it home
worksheet so younger students can run their own secret
audit at home. Encourage them to make an energysaving pledge with their family at www.jointhepod.org/
energypledge. This year we’re also challenging older
students to put their campaigning skills to the test and
see who can recruit the most pledges from members of
their local community! Use the Campaign Challenge
take home sheet; or the Campaign Challenge Top Tips
factsheet if they need help getting their campaign off
the ground. Don’t forget, if your school uses social
media, tweet and post about your campaign (remember
to use the Twitter hashtag #switchofffortnight).
Page 5 of 12
How Switch-Off Fortnight works
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You’ll only be able to judge the
success of your Switch-Off
Fortnight campaign by running a
second survey afterwards to find
out how many lights or
appliances are still being left on.
Remember to blog about it (and tag your blog with
‘Switch-Off Fortnight’) to earn Pod Points. We’re also
running a free prize draw during the campaign with the
chance for your school to win one of five £100 Mindset
vouchers. All you need to do to enter is sign up to the
campaign, download the Switch-Off Fortnight assembly
and tag one blog with Switch-Off Fortnight.
Page 1 of
Updated
4
May 2013
7. Reward everyone’s hard work
Award
Certificate of participat
ion in the Pod’s
national energy saving
campaign
Switch Off Fortnight 201
3
Awarded by
Education Programme
Manager
at EDF Energy
Don’t forget...
It’s up to you
how much time you give Switch-Off
Fortnight. But the more you do, the
more fun your students will have and
the more Pod Points you could win.
Update the whole school with the results of your
second survey and let them know how the school did;
you might want to do this in an assembly and show any
pictures or videos from the campaign. You could also
use this an opportunity to reward those showing
special commitment to switching off – either with your
own awards system or by presenting the Switch-Off
Fortnight certificate.
8. Keep up the good work!
Remember, the most successful activities are the ones
that continue to help change your school’s behaviour
long after Switch-Off Fortnight has finished, so try to
encourage everyone to keep up the good work. Why
not appoint some energy monitors and update your
school’s Eco Code to ensure your school continues to
act sustainably? Deliver a regular switch-off assembly
with rewards for the class saving the most energy each
month. Or hold a competition amongst members of the
eco club to guess which appliances in the home use the
most energy. There are lots of other energy activities
you could try on the Pod: see pages 7-8 for more ideas.
Page 6 of 12
Switch-Off Fortnight and Eco-Schools awards
Taking part in Switch-Off Fortnight counts towards Eco-School awards
The Pod is the only schools programme
with activities written to complement the
Eco-Schools programme and accredited by
Eco-Schools England. By completing the
Goodbye Standby or Switch On to Switching
Off activities, and meeting some initial EcoSchools criteria, your school will have
completed most – if not all – of the steps
needed to achieve a Bronze or Silver award,
and significantly contributed evidence for a
Green Flag award. Here’s how Switch-Off
Fortnight fits into Eco-Schools’ seven-step framework:
Eco Committee
Your school’s Eco Committee is the ideal group to lead
the Switch-Off Fortnight campaign and keep the whole
school informed of their progress.
Geography, ICT and Maths. Remember to
save a copy of the lesson as evidence of your
sustainability-linked curriculum work to use
towards Eco-Schools awards. Visit the Pod’s
Curriculum Guide to see how our activities fit
in with the curriculums in England, Northern
Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Monitoring and evaluating
The surveys and resources sheets used in
Switch-Off Fortnight provide easy ways of monitoring the
impact of the campaign, which could be maintained
throughout the school year. Make sure you use these
findings in your Eco-Schools awards application.
Your Eco Code
Conduct an Environmental Review
If your school needs to develop or refresh its Eco Code,
Switch-Off Fortnight is a great opportunity to do so and
engage the whole school.
Action Plan
Remember, the Pod’s resources are only accredited by
Eco-Schools England at the moment. But Switch-Off
Fortnight activities could also be used by schools in
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales towards Eco-School
awards to demonstrate your sustainability work.
Switch-Off Fortnight activities incorporate surveys at the
beginning and the end to identify the impact of the
campaign. These support and develop the full
environmental audit Eco-Schools must undertake.
Energy is a compulsory Eco-Schools topic and taking
part in Switch-Off Fortnight activities is a great way to
tackle the topic in school. Why not incorporate any good
ideas from the campaign into your Action Plan?
Involve the whole school
and wider community
This year, involve not just the whole school, but also your
families and friends in Switch-Off Fortnight, so we can
save as much energy as possible together. The
campaign is also an ideal time to inspire and share ideas
with other schools, so why not see who else is getting
involved and link up on some of your activities?
Linking sustainability into the curriculum
Switch-Off Fortnight can be used in the following
curriculum areas: Art and Design, Citizenship, English,
The Green Flag is recognised as an
international symbol of excellence by the
United Nations Environment Programme.
Page 7 of 12
Energy-inspired activities for 4 -7s
Looking for something to engage younger children? Try one of these
free resources, available to download from the Teaching Resources section
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
snakes and Ladd
ers
Can you spot the 10 differences between these
two pictures of Peter the Owl? Look closely
and see if you can find Daisy the Bee too.
Download the quick activity
In this version of
sna
being as green as kes and ladders, the aim is to rea
ch the last square
possible. Land on
by
a ladder and you
environmentally-f
’ll be rewarded for
rien
you
activities could har dly actions; but land on a snake
and you’ll learn wha r
m the planet. Sim
t
ply roll a dice to
get started!
30
HOLD A LOW-ENERGY FASHION SHOW
Get creative with old clothes and spread the energysaving message with an inspiring outfit. Perhaps you
could design a slogan or a logo? Remember to take
pictures of the outfits you create for your blog.
Download the quick activity
MAKE YOUR OWN WEATHER STATION
Team up with an adult to have a go at making some
different instruments to measure the weather in this quick
activity inspired by The Big Energy Show.
Download the quick activity
BUNTING
How will you decorate your school for Switch-Off
Fortnight? Get started by downloading our
themed bunting.
Download the bunting
AROUND THE WORLD
In this international activity, students compare their
energy use to that of kids in other countries. Find out
how we, in Britain, compare to our foreign cousins.
Download the quick activity
BUSTA FILMS
Watch our Wastebuster friends, Busta and Pong,
work out ways of saving energy. Don’t forget to
join in for a sing-along!
Watch one of the movies
SNAKES AND LADDERS
Put your eco knowledge to the test in this green version
of Snakes and Ladders. Land on a ladder and you’ll be
rewarded for your eco-friendly actions; but land on a
snake and, uh-oh, you’ll take a step backwards.
Download the quick activity
29
25
20
Well
done,
you
walked to school
11
23
19
18
13
9
Uh-oh,
you
forgot to recycle
your drinks can
1
2
You turned the tap
off while brushing
your teeth
28
24
12
10
Oops, you
left your
games
console
plugged
in
27
26
Whoops!
You left the
classroom
lights on
22
21
17
16
14
15
Hooray, your
bug hotel has
new guests
8
3
Oh dear,
you didn’t
refill your
water bottle
7
4
6
You picked
up some
rubbish
in the
playground
5
You’ve
installed
some
hippos in
the toilets
If you enjoyed this
game, you might
the other games
like
and quick activitie
s on the Pod
Learn more about
energy
at
www.jointhepod.o
rg
ELECTRICITY ILLUSTRATIONS
Need some inspiration for your campaign posters?
Download the illustrations
PETER THE OWL NEEDS YOUR HELP
Are you able to help Peter the Owl save energy in the
classroom? Find the electrical items and see if you can
reduce the amount of energy wasted in this fun game in
Pod Primary, in the Student Zone on the Pod.
Play the game
Did you know?
Across the UK, the electricity wasted from leaving
appliances on standby is as much as the annual
output of two 700MW power stations.
Source: Energy Saving Trust
Page 8 of 12
Energy-inspired activities for 7-14s
Need some more energy-saving inspiration? Download one of these
free resources, available from the Teaching Resources section
energy vampire sl
ayer
Watch out! All arou
nd your school and
home there are app
nothing while gree
liances doing
dily sucking up pow
er – meet the ene
Some give the gam
rgy vampires.
e away with a tiny
red standby light,
harder to spot. It’s
othe
rs can be
your job to stalk the
school and slay a
vampires today, if
few energy
you dare... Mark you
r progress on this
sheet.
vampire
how to kill it
number slayed
location
Lousy
lights
ENERGY MIX
If the room’s empt
y,
you can probably
turn
the light off. How
many
had lights on?
Track how much electricity the school is using and set an
energy-saving target you can work towards
all year round.
Download the lesson plan
BUSTA FILMS
Watch our Wastebuster friends, Busta and Pong,
work out ways of saving energy. Don’t forget to
join in for a sing-along!
Watch one of the movies
n
£
THE BIG ENERGY SHOW
Look out for came
ra
and battery charg
ers
that are fully charg
ed but
still plugged in
Crafty
computers
o
Check monitors
and computers haven
’t
been left on
miL
L iona
can’t be
A. Tea
bags
Compare today’s energy use with that of 1985 in this
time-travelling game. It’s also the perfect chance to see
old pictures of your teachers or parents looking silly!
Download the quick activity
WHAT TYPE OF ECO WARRIOR ARE YOU?
Take our personality test to find out whether you’re a
Vintage Pioneer, Energy Saver, Waste Watcher or Groovy
Gardener.
Download the quick activity
THE HEAT IS ON
Saving energy isn’t just about turning the light off.
Insulating your school buildings saves power too.
Download the lesson plan
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printers, scanners
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learn more about
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Cheeky
chargers
Could you turn it
down?
Lowering the therm
ostat
by just 1ºC could
save
10% on your energ
y bills
?
Too-hot
thermostat
a
b£
How should we power the UK in the 21st century – and
beyond? Fossil fuels? Nuclear power? Renewables?
Something else? You decide in this Pod activity.
Download the lesson plan
If it’s a bright day,
do you really need
the light on? How
many can you turn
off?
r£
Watch out! All around your school and home there are
appliances doing nothing while greedily sucking up
power – meet the energy vampires. It’s your job to stalk
the school and slay a few, if you dare…
Download the quick activity
wh
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THE CARBON CRUNCHER
You now know the importance of switching off, but do
you know how much carbon you use in a typical day? Put
your knowledge to the test in this brainteaser.
Download the quick activity
THE BIGGEST LOSER
How much have you learnt about energy? In this switchoff-inspired quiz, each team starts with 1,000kWh and the
aim of the game is to reduce that down to zero.
Download the quick activity
WHO WANTS TO BE A GREEN
MILLIONAIRE?
Get rich in sustainability knowledge with this fast-paced
quiz for the whole class. Can you reach the £1m prize?
Download the quick activity
Page 9 of 12
Spread the word activities for 7-11s
Spread the energy-saving message to families and friends
Send students home on a
secret mission…
Download and distribute our take it home sheet
to students and challenge them to carry out an
undercover mission to find out how many
appliances and light switches are left on. Why
not persuade them to enlist the help of their
siblings and photograph any ‘evidence’? They
could include this in a blog post about the
school’s Switch-Off Fortnight activities.
Make a pledge
Encourage students to talk to their families about
the results of their secret undercover mission –
where are they wasting energy? What could they
do differently to save energy? Ask students to
make a pledge with their families at www.
jointhepod.org/energypledge – they could win a
laptop, iPad or HD Smart TV! You can find out how
many other people have pledged – and what
they’re going to do to save energy – on the
Pledges page at any time.
Invite members of the local
community to the launch
If you’re kicking off Switch-Off Fortnight in
assembly, why not invite some external visitors
so they can be involved in the campaign too?
Follow with a visit to a local business to find out
what they’re doing to reduce carbon emissions,
and invite everyone to the closing assembly to
update them on the success of the school’s
campaign.
Share Pod resources
The Pod has plenty of other resources students can
take home to keep the switch-off message going:
pledge sheets; ‘you left this on’ appliance cards;
and an energy efficiency tips for the home factsheet
to remind everyone about the importance of
saving energy.
Find out who else is taking part
Visit the new Map on the Pod and search by ‘Switch-Off
Fortnight’ to see which schools near you are also taking
part in the campaign – perhaps you could join up on
some activities?
Contact your local newspaper
Invite your local newspaper to the school. Explain your
plans for the two weeks and what you hope to achieve –
remember to include any highlights and high-resolution
photographs from the fortnight to ensure the story makes it
into the press. Use our template press release in the
Campaign Resources section to draft your school’s story.
Don’t forget…
to remind students that they could
win a laptop, iPad or HD Smart TV if they make an
energy-saving pledge with their family!
Page 10 of 12
Spread the word activities for 11-14s
Take your campaign into the community
Persuade people to pledge
The more people that save energy, the more we can do
to help our planet. It’s why we’re challenging older
students this year to go into their community and recruit
as many pledges as they can from families, friends,
neighbours, local businesses... it’s up to them how many
people they involve! Hand out the Campaign Challenge
take home sheet to get students started (there’s also a
Campaign Challenge Top Tips factsheet with more
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Page 1 of 2
Page
1 of 1
August
August 2013
2013
detailed advice to get them on the campaign trail.) Tell
students it’s their job to persuade as many people as
possible to make a pledge to save energy at
www.jointhepod.org/energypledge; any students
recruiting at least five people will be entered into a prize
draw to win an iPad Mini! You can find out how many
people have pledged – and what they’re going to do to
save energy – on the Campaign page at any time.
Distribute switch-off posters
Why not spread the word amongst local businesses by
encouraging students to design and distribute switch-off
posters to local shops and businesses? How many can
they recruit along the way to make an energy-saving
pledge? Don’t forget to ask them to include the name of
the student who inspired them when they pledge at www.
jointhepod.org/energypledge to give the student a
chance of winning an iPad Mini (encourage students to fill
in their details then cut out and distribute the printouts on
the back of the Campaign Challenge take home sheet).
Carry out local business energy audits
Find out if you can bring a group of students into a local
business to audit their lights and equipment. Arrange a
meeting afterwards with the people responsible for
looking after the building and encourage students to talk
to them about their findings. Suggest ways of reducing
electricity use and arrange a second visit at the end of
the fortnight to see if any improvements have been
made. Make sure to take any pictures of ‘evidence’, and
post these in a blog to earn Pod Points. If you’re not sure
which businesses to approach, start with the local
workplaces of parents or governors.
Did you know?
Home energy use accounts for over a quarter
ofthe UK’s total CO2 emissions.
Source: Energy Saving Trust
Work with other schools to promote
the switch-off message
Why not broaden out your Switch-Off Fortnight activities
to engage other nearby schools too? For instance, you
could use Switch-Off Fortnight to encourage transitional
activities with local primary schools – for example, by
inviting Year 6 students to carry out an audit at the
school. It’s a great icebreaker, and will help forge closer
relationships between feeder schools. If you’re not sure
where to start, you can find schools near you taking part
in Switch-Off Fortnight using the new Map on the Pod.
Page 11 of 12
Keep the switch-off spirit going
It’s easy to keep the campaign message going for the rest of the year and make
even more energy savings. Try one of these suggestions for starters
Track your school’s progress
Students’ energy saving doesn’t have to end when
Switch-Off Fortnight draws to a close. You can give your
Pod Points a boost throughout the year by blogging
about your school’s sustainability efforts.
Try another Pod activity
If you’re fired up about saving energy, why not dive
straight into some of the other Pod activities? The Big
Energy Show is a good way of raising awareness about
how much electricity the school uses – and the factors
that could cause it to rise and fall. The Energy Mix
activity is a useful starting point for class discussions
about different fuel sources. Or for some quick-fire
entertainment, try the Power the UK or Goodbye
Standby interactive games.
Keep pledging
Even when Switch-Off Fortnight has long finished,
students can still make energy-saving pledges and pin
these up around school to show their commitment to
saving energy. Use the pledge sheets on the Pod
and distribute to students.
Unleash your students’ creativity
If your students are big fans of Britain’s Got Talent, why
not ask them to create their own song, rap or dance
routine about cutting carbon? Watch Busta’s song and
films for inspiration! Alternatively, the thespians in your
class could write and produce a short play about saving
energy. Both could be performed in year assemblies,
maybe to the whole school. We’d love to see how
creative you can be, so don’t forget to upload your work
to the Pod in a blog.
Run a regular switch-off competition
Keep the switch-off habit going with monthly and termly
competitions tracking the class that has reduced its
energy use the most. During the final school assembly at
the end of the year, you could hold a prize ceremony for
the class that’s made the biggest improvement and
present them with a Switch-Off Fortnight certificate.
Report on your switch-off progress
Encourage students with journalistic tendencies to write
and publish a regular switch-off newsletter. It could
include articles about the school’s achievements and
pictures of teachers switching off lights. Don’t forget to
upload it to the Pod as well to earn some Pod Points!
Hold a Switch-Off Fortnight
awards ceremony
You could have awards for: best poster, best uploaded
article to the Pod, most original energy-saving idea by a
student (or adult)... the sky is the limit! Hand out
certificates to individual achievers – such as the switchoff monitors, maybe even the student who travels
furthest without using a car. And how about an individual
Switch-Off Fortnight Champion award?
What is a kilo-Watt hour?
It’s hard to visulaise what 1kWh looks like, which is
why we’ve created the what is a kilo-Watt hour
worksheet explaining different kWh amounts.
Page 12 of 12
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question about this year’s campaign? Find the answer here
Q: How do I get started?
A:
Register or log in to the Pod and sign up for
Switch-Off Fortnight in the Campaigns section.
Q: When will my campaign pack arrive?
A:
We began sending out campaigns packs in
September. There are 4,000 available and only one
per school,distributed on a first come, first served
basis. Remember, you need to be a teacher,
governor or administrator to request a pack.
Q: What if there aren’t any packs left – can I still take part?
A:
Of course! And remember, there are plenty of free resources to download from the Campaign
Resources section in the Switch-Off Fortnight
campaign area.
Q: Do I have to take part in both activities?
A:
No, we recommend you start and complete Goodbye Standby or Switch On to Switching Off so that you can track how effective your campaign is in changing behaviour, as both
contain a survey for students to run before and
after their awareness campaign. Blogging about
Switch-Off Fortnight will also earn you Pod Points.
Q: Do we have to run Switch-Off Fortnight on the dates specified?
A:
No. We recommend you take part between
18 November and 1 December as you’ll be able to get ideas and share advice with other teachers running the campaign then too. However, if you’re unable to take part on these dates, you can
choose another period – just remember to keep
posting blogs and check the website for the competition closing dates.
Q: What are Pod Points?
A:
This is our new award scheme. Points are
awarded for taking part in campaigns,
downloading resources and blogging. So the
more you blog during Switch-Off Fortnight, the
better your chances of rising up the leaderboard.
Q: How do I measure the impact of our Switch-Off Fortnight campaign?
A:
When you run the second survey for either the Goodbye Standby or Switch On to Switching Off activity at the end of the fortnight, you’ll be able to
see if the school is now saving more energy.
Q: Still got a question?
A:
Email us at [email protected]
Finally... GOOD LUCK
and have fun taking part.