Dinglewell Junior School’s Eco Warriors Visit The Gloucestershire Energy from Waste Facility
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Last year, we had the pleasure of hosting two groups of enthusiastic students and teachers from Dinglewell Junior School at the Gloucestershire Energy from Waste facility. Led by Laura Lyons, a dedicated educator with fifteen years of experience at the school, twelve eco-warriors representing years 3 to 6 embarked on a journey of discovery and learning during each visit.
Whilst they were not able to complete a full tour of the facility during their first visit in March due to a mini outage, the children still had a great time. They were treated to a glimpse inside our control room and witnessed some of the machinery in action. Laura remembers the children were particularly impressed by the huge grab cranes that mix and move waste in the storage bunker.
When they returned to school, the children were tasked with presenting their findings at the school assembly. They must have really enjoyed their visit, as Laura says children in the second group were particularly enthusiastic about their upcoming visit, likely inspired by the compelling accounts shared by their peers.
The second group, who visited in October, were able to enjoy a full tour of the facility led by Melanie de la Torre Zamora, Community Relationship Manager. Laura said that the whole tour was fantastic, but she particularly remembers the look of awe on the children’s faces as they peered through the viewing hatch into the furnace and watched the combustion process in full flame! They also really enjoyed watching the bin wagons unload materials in the waste reception hall. The children commented that the vehicles looked as small as ants, which really helped put the size and scale of the operation into perspective.
Children from both visits enjoyed looking through items that had been recovered from the ashes following combustion, which are on display in the classroom at the Facility. They took great pleasure in guessing what the various artifacts were. They also enjoyed learning about the importance of reusing items, which was demonstrated by Mel, who has a large collection of repurposed items on display in the classroom.
Laura commented that the children were particularly surprised to learn about the fact that the energy from waste process is used to generate electricity that is exported to the National Grid and can go to power homes. She said it was a real ‘light bulb moment’ for many of the young people, who have been learning about the importance of energy reduction in their classrooms at school.
As well as visiting the Gloucestershire Energy from Waste Facility, the eco-warriors have taken part in litter picking initiatives and learned about biodiversity and energy conservation in their quest to become more environmentally friendly. The school is also currently working towards the Ocean Friendly School Award, a curriculum-linked initiative that's all about inspiring and empowering young people to care for our ocean.
Following the visit, children were asked to write short notes about what they enjoyed most and learned from their visit. Here are some of their responses:
‘I learned how much litter they have to burn and how BIG the claws are!’
‘The claw and the control room.’
‘The most interesting things were the size of the grabber and the trucks that carry 25 tonnes.’
‘I found out that when they burned some of the metal things, they came out nearly exactly the same.’
Laura and another group of eco-warriors from Dinglewell Junior School are returning for another visit later this year. Laura says she would recommend a visit to the Gloucestershire Energy from Waste Facility to any school looking to learn more about how waste can be used as a resource to generate electricity.
For information about school and community tours visit www.ubbgloucestershire.co.uk/visitor-centre.
