Schoolgen

Here is an update of the school's projects so far this year:







Term 2 2016.
"The Chosen Ones" (students who have volunteered to work alongside the Green Team, and take responsibility for leading the Schoolgen initiatives throughout the school) have spent the day working with Maggie Twaddle from Schoolgen.  They have discussed ideas and ways to remind CQS how to reduce our energy use.  There will be several ways that the team build on the successes of the Energy Audit crew from past years.













In May 2014, our school had solar panels installed as part of the Schoolgen and Wellington solar energy initiative. We held a big launch to celebrate the installation of our 4kW solar panel array, which now produces a portion of our own electricity.

So far we have produced enough power to run 422 computers for a whole day. That same power, if produced via coal powered plants, would have produced 0.2 tonne of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of driving 1040 kilometres.

Read more:

View our current solar use on a parent's website, this website shows you the usage of energy. 

The schoolgen website shows the amount of power made by the solar panels. 

Energy audit is helping our school save energy and making us all ask the question are we using it or are we wasting it?

Energy audit

We’re the Clyde Quay School Energygroup and we’d like to share what we do with you. The Energy Audit Envirogroup simply goes around each class everyday with a different person in the group assessing the classes This is what we call the audits. At the end of two weeks of assessing, we say the “Class of the Week.” This class is the class that has been most improved. Here is the process of the Audits: LIGHTS- Are we using them? Is there heaps of sunlight streaming in through the window? Our class is at P.E, do we really need the lights on? HEATERS- Do we need them on? Is it already really warm in the class? The door is wide open and the heater is on, are we letting all the heat out? COMPUTERS- Do we really need them on? Are there people working on them, or are we looking at pictures of kittens? There is no one on one computer, do we really need it on? DATA PROJECTORS- Do we need the data projector on? Has the teacher got something on the board that the students are copying? Or is the projector on with no use? The following shows how much energy we were aware that we were wasting over the last year. TERM 1: We were aware of energy wastage of the computers, some classes had “Turn off computers when not in use” signs. Without thinking we turned the lights off at lunchtimes. We never thought of just having one row of the lights on during class times. TERM 2: Energy Audit was created due to C.Q.S getting sixteen solar panels from genesis energy, The Wellington City Council and Schoolgen. There was a play performed by a few talented students to explain to us  how these new solar panels would make a big difference in our school. People were now more aware, “I don’t think we need the lights on right now.” and cautious, “These computers aren't in use, we don’t need them on.” But it was all about competition. “For goodness sake, we won’t win if we have the lights on, we have to come 1st place this week!” TERM 3: Energy Audit changed! Instead of saying, “The lights are on, you've lost a point!” we are saying, “The lights are on, are you using them, or are you wasting them?” This changed for the better, because now, you don’t have to have the lights off to win. It is impossible to go on a computer and do school work if it is off. TERM 4: We started doing an update every two weeks, just to juggle the scores up a little bit better, because the same 3 classes were getting 1st, 2nd and 3rd each week. This helps the classes who aren't as good get a chance to be mentioned in assembly. Energy Audit is now introducing a slightly more fair way of scoring the classes. One day, the Envirogroup received a letter from Matai classroom, saying that Matai doesn't have as much natural light as other classes, so that’s why we are not getting 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. So we put something into action right away, and we now don’t mark classes like Matai down during class times when they have the lights on. We have started to add new, fun routines for the school to participate in, (of the energy awareness category of course), and we plan to have these in full swing by next year. The The Energy Audit Team is planning a presentation to show to Schoolgen so Clyde Quay can earn their Bronze Award in being a Schoolgen school! We have been making graphs, and filming children to see what they think about Energy Audit, and of course, doing audits! FUTURE GOALS: To get a skylight in each classroom so we get more natural light in classes that need one. We also need to tell the classes why they aren't getting 1st, 2nd and 3rd, explain their errors, and tell them how to fix those errors.