The 10 best practices of schools

Goal: Reduce them, in particular by reusing last year's waste and opting for eco-designed products.

At the end of the school year, Cours Saint-Maur collects boxes of felt-tip pens and pencils and sorts them before asking parents to buy new ones. It also collects binders at the end of the school year so that they can be reused at the start of the new school year.

In kindergarten, there are only binders managed by the kindergarten assistants for the management of sheets etc., which avoids notebooks being used by only a third, for example at the end of the year. This requires convincing the teachers, as some want a specific notebook.

There are more and more eco-designed supplies. Most suppliers have a dedicated range.

Nursery schools in the Principality have been ordering their own supplies for many years. Parents then pay at the start of the school year.
It should be possible to set up the same system for primary schools and then extend it to secondary schools by involving a few teachers.

As far as the method of learning to read is concerned, the ideal situation would be to standardise within a school so that all classes at the same level use the same textbook, with continuity between nursery and primary where appropriate.

Most nursery schools have opted to do away with snacks in the morning. For the afternoon snack, schools are communicating with parents to encourage them to choose unpackaged snacks, recommending fruit or vegetables in particular.

Many parents give compotes in disposable bottles, but washable bottles are also available.

The Lycée Albert ^Ier has invited volunteer students to become ‘eco-delegates’ under the supervision of Cécile Mouly. This year, eight students were able to set up recycling workshops and a sewing workshop on Wednesday afternoons (one of them donated shirts for upcycling). They also produced bow ties to mark International Women's Rights Day (which will be worn the week of the new school year, starting on 11 March).

Elsewhere, there are also ‘eco-responsible pupils’, ‘eco-schoolers’, and ‘energy-saving responsible pupils’ at Petit Cour Saint Maur (the last one to leave switches off the light).

At Ecole de la Condamine, things change every week.

At FANB in 6e, pupils are working on a Science and Technology project on eco-responsibility and one group is looking after the school vegetable garden.

The Collège Charles III is working on a project for ‘eco-responsible pupils’, whose role would be extended to improving practices in the school (CSR role - Corporate Social Responsibility).

Goal: Installation of bike/scooter parks/lockers for helmets and bike accessories

The Ecole du Parc has a station to allow bicycles, scooters etc. to park all day at the school entrance (spaces with different spacings). It was made by the factotum. This avoids the disorganised accumulation of numerous machines on the pavement. There is a sign above it stating that it is unguarded (but no theft has been reported to date).

This bike/scooter station is a great success, with all the spaces used almost every day. The majority of families come on foot, especially since the station was set up, driven by their children (some have abandoned their pushchairs, or even their cars): with a scooter it's even quicker!

L'Ecole du Parc has also asked Monaco Parkings to provide 3 cycle parking spaces for accompanying adults; these are very popular and are almost always used.

It also invited a father who is a professional cyclist to appear with his racing bike in front of the pupils to give a one-hour bike safety workshop for each class; this worked very well.

Le Cour Saint-Maur has also been involved in bike prevention and awareness-raising for older pupils.

At the Lycée Albert ^Ier, the ‘eco-delegates’ are planning to install lockers so that pupils can put on their bicycle helmets, as they are not allowed to keep them with them during their day at the lycée. These would mainly be Monabike users, and this would encourage other pupils to use them (the Collège has lockers that it could give them).

The pedibus, when it comes to getting pupils to school in the morning, mainly concerns nursery and primary schools. A few years ago (before the COVID period), the Ecole des Révoires began a project with the APEM or a group of parents to organise a route for pupils to walk to school in the morning, thereby avoiding car journeys.

Schools in the Principality tend to use it to get to sports facilities (FANB, Saint Maur).

The Collège uses it for nearby sports and cultural outings (to the Princess Grace Theatre and the Larvotto).

CM1 and CM2 pupils from Cours Saint-Maur can walk to the Stade Louis II or to the Rocher, but most of the time they are on the same perimeter as the collège.

The Ecole FANB du Rocher has tried to set up a scheme to accompany groups of pupils from the Parking des Pêcheurs, but this has had little success with parents. Pupils from CE2 to CM2 walk to sport unless it is raining (in which case the teacher reserves the bus the day before) and they return by bus.

Pupils from Collège FANB walk to the Théâtre des Variétés or Monacollecte, but this can be a problem if some of them are on crutches. In this case, an accompanying adult goes with them by bus.

At the Lycée Albert ^Ier, during a day dedicated to the theme of well-being, a teacher arranged for students to meet at the Place d'Armes to show that it's not complicated to walk up the Place d'Armes. There was also an hour's walk on offer, which was a great success.

Ecole des Carmes has introduced returnable cups for fairs and events. The volume of the cup is equivalent to that of a can. It's working very well, with the vast majority of cups being returned, and the families have readily embraced the concept, given that it has already become part of everyday life, particularly at the Christmas Market.

Most of the time, APEM organises, with the help of the school, a collection of uniforms over one or two days or a week, in order to give them a second life. Schools also collect forgotten and unclaimed uniforms so that poorer families can benefit.

Classrooms and playgrounds must be equipped with sorting bins to collect snack wrappers when they are not zero waste, paper, cardboard and other waste compatible with the yellow bin. The SMA is there to advise you.

Primary schools use the information displayed on the light screens at the school entrances to show how much electricity is produced by the photovoltaic panels during the day and throughout the week as part of their educational projects on renewable energy.

There may also be other subjects involving a variety of themes, such as the one run by FANB for secondary school pupils to discover eco-responsible professions, or an ‘upcycling’ workshop such as the one offered at the Lycée Albert ^Ier.

The eco-delegates from the Lycée Albert ^Ier came up with the idea of using bread collectors to raise awareness of food waste.

FANB Roqueville has also installed bread collectors and this has helped to reduce the amount of bread left over, so awareness-raising has been effective!

The Ecole des Révoires donates its food waste to the Terrae company for its chickens in the vegetable garden at the Tour Odéon (but the maximum volume they can ingest has already been reached).

In the fight against food waste, there is also the initiative of Cours Saint-Maur and Ecole Saint Charles, which offer 2 ‘low hunger’ / ‘high hunger’ portions in the canteen.

Other good practices are being studied, such as recycling water in the canteen to water the school's plants, and reusable cloth napkins for nursery schools. We will be able to share the results of these projects at a future review.