In the summer term of 2006, our Y3 children (present Y4’s) were asked to take part in Severn Trent’s ‘Be Smart Water Award’. After agreeing to do so, Y3 looked at many different aspects of ‘Water’ in a 4 week Topic block, with the award being central to their investigations! In this time, the children had to concentrate on 4 specific goals. These were:

• Goal 1 – Water Audit
• Goal 2 – Promoting Water conservation
• Goal 3 – Promoting the Health Benefits of Water
• Goal 4 – Local and Global Water issues.

The children worked very hard to think of and find ways that they could cover each of the goals above.

To begin with, the Y3’s looked at a recent water bill to find out how much water we use in a week. The results were astonishing. We use aprox. 15,000 litres every week!! When you consider that a school week is only 5 days long, Y3’s were even more horrified as they discovered that that’s 3,000 litres being used a day!

As a result of the above, Y3’s completed a ‘Water Safari’ around the school to investigate how many water sources we have, including taps, toilets, urinals and water fountains. With this information they decided to think of ways to promote saving water. They ordered ‘Water Hippos’ and ‘Plug it’ stickers from Severn Trent for all the toilets in school, and designed posters on the computer to encourage pupils to turn the taps off.

                                        
                       
A Water Butt was also ordered with the idea of using rain water to water the plants in our garden/nature area that is being developed this year. This will hopefully help cut down a little on our water bills, and keep our new garden area thriving!  

Y3’s encouraged children throughout the school to turn off taps and conserve water by producing a short advert in ICT using the ‘Movie Cams’ and in Music they produced a water rap! Have listen to their rap by clicking on the link below:
                                   U:\Water topic\Water Rap.avi

To promote local and global water issues, Y3’s looked at water in third world countries and soon realized how lucky we are in this country! They decided to use their class assembly to share the idea of how poor the water supply is in these countries and how organisations such as ‘Water Aid’ help these countries considerably. As a result of their assembly, the Y3’s collected £100 for ‘Water Aid’ just from asking their friends across KS2 to offer their tuck change to this cause. They received a lovely thank you letter from ‘Water Aid’ and some information on how the money we raised as a school would be used.

Local water issues raised awareness in our homes as children in Y3 completed ‘Water Diaries’ to see how much water was being used in and around their homes. They came up with solutions as to how they could decrease this amount too!

As a result of the above work, Y3’s completed, and were awarded, the
‘Be Smart Water Award’, which can be found pride of place in the entrance hall! Well done Y3.