St Saviours Infant and Nursery School has successfully raised the £20,000 it needs to install solar PV panels on the school roof. The solar panels should leave a long term legacy for the school which is celebrating its 50th year.
£10,000 of the funding was provided by a grant from BWCE’s Community Fund. In December £500 was raised by selling school tea-towels, they then raised £4,000 through an auction in March and received a grant of £500 from social housing provider Curo at Easter.
The funding should be enough to provide a 10 kW array of about 40 panels generating about 25% of the 40,000 kWh of electricity it uses each year.
The school also became the first Bath school to be awarded the coveted Eco-School’s Green Flag award in May.
More information is provided in this excellent video:
and the press release here:
“After almost a year of hard work, St Saviour’s Nursery and Infants in Larkhall has reached its target of £20,000 (the highest amount ever raised by a Solar School) to cover the costs of installing solar panels on the school roof. This has been achieved through a mix of crowdfunding via the Solar Schools website and other fundraising activities.
Led by a team of volunteer parents and staff known as SASSI (Solar at St Saviour’s Infants) the campaign to go solar launched last autumn. The school was delighted to secure a £10,000 grant from Bath & West Community Energy Fund before Christmas – this was dependent on match-funding (raising the equivalent amount from other sources). This kick-started the fundraising, which included a pre-Christmas sale of SASSI tea-towels featuring hand-drawn portraits of the children which raised a further £500, while a steady stream of donations to the website continued to top up the ‘solar-ometer’.
Then in March, a successful Auction evening raised over £4000, thanks to overwhelmingly generous support from parents and local businesses. A further £500 grant from Curo followed after Easter. The children continued to play an active role in fundraising, with a Colourburst burst fun run raising £700, sponsored scoot and bike rides, and a small Green Fair with upcycled crafts for sale. Staff also played their part, giving up their Saturday to run a Lego Day and supporting other events.
Meanwhile, in May, St Saviour’s had a further boost when it received the coveted Green Flag Award from Eco-Schools, the first school in Bath to achieve this. Teacher, parent, SASSI member and Eco-Schools lead, Louise Holloway (pictured) has worked with the Green Team which includes children from each class for the past two years. They have focused on energy saving and recycling, while the school has supported educational activities including solar energy workshops with Bath University scientists.
Louise commented: “The Solar Schools project has brought the whole community together. The children have enjoyed learning about how they can look after their planet and are very passionate about the subject. If you haven’t seen our amazing film yet made by local film maker Chris Harris, please visit the website and hear about the project from the children. We were thrilled when we received the Green Flag award which recognises the high quality environmental education our children receive which is now embedded in our curriculum.”
The solar panels will be installed ready for the new term in September, when the school is planning a switch-on event and celebration.”