Dovestones students receive Eco Award Mon, 08 June 2015 Dovestones and Pathway students at Tameside College were overwhelmed with their achievements when they received an Eco Schools Bronze Award for their contributions to the local environment. The Dovestones department at the College is purpose-built for students with learning difficulties and disabilities, specially adapted to help learners progress just as other students in the College would. Gaining this award was a fantastic opportunity for the students as they were able to look at what their course area and the College as a whole are currently doing to help protect the environment and influence any changes that are needed to improve the College’s carbon footprint. In order to help achieve the award the students involved gathered on a regular basis to discuss how they would help towards making a lower carbon footprint for the College. The students came up with the idea to create an action plan which they would work to, consisting of things they could do to reduce energy that the College uses, along with how to prevent littering, how waste could be better recycled, improve lifestyle of students through canteen changes and how they could carry out research about the local environment. Learning Support Officer, Katherine Toombs helped the students work towards their award and commented; “The students worked extremely hard compiling a questionnaire and producing an action plan from the information they received. They have also looked at different things they could do around the College to help improve our carbon footprint and as a result they have introduced a wormery into the Dovestones garden. They are now totally focused on achieving the silver award during the next academic year. We are extremely proud of the level of commitment and hard work the group has shown in order to achieve this award.”
