Schools - Getting Started

It is up to each school to decide which areas they want to start measuring first. Ultimately schools should aim to collect data for all areas whether action is happening or not. The sooner your school gets started, the sooner you will have a baseline from which to measure progress and some key information to guide decision making on sustainability objectives.

Data collection in the first year will require a bit more time as you set up collection processes, become familiar with the methods and get any monitoring equipment installed that is required. In the following years, data collection should be straightforward and take much less time.

Find out who in the school is keen to be involved and who will be responsible for taking the lead role. Teachers, the caretaker and administration staff, the Principal, the Envirogroup and other students may all have a role to play in Measuring Change. A planning meeting will help the team to work out what is achievable in the first year and to calendar in dates for data collection.

It might take a year until you have recorded all the information on your Annual Data Summary. This depends on whether you are regularly monitoring meters or accessing existing paper records. You may have a data collection exercise scheduled in for a specific day of the year, such as for your Waste Audit. Once you have this data, register for your school's Measuring Change password and enter the data into the Upload Data section.

Some questions to help you get started

1. Who will take the lead in coordinating Measuring Change at your school? 

2. Who will be involved? How will you make this a whole school approach to collecting data and interpreting results? Students, teachers, caretaker and administration staff are all key to making this happen. 

3. Which theme area will you focus on first? When will you do the measurements and collect data? What theme will come next and when will it be measured? 

4. How can you set up processes to ensure this data is collected annually? 

5. Can you set up a Measuring Change folder in the school office so that everyone collecting and recording information knows where to keep it?