Our responsible business commitment is to develop a future generation schools programme on water
What is this commitment?
Research with our customers and community showed education about water was important to those we serve, in particular, to influence the next generation of water users. We have therefore committed to a five-year programme to increase our education activities to reach more young people year on year.
We plan to upgrade our education materials for our key visitor sites at Arlington and Ardingly reservoirs and, if we progress with any new surface water reservoirs, we will work with the local community to develop education centres for the site.
We will build on our STEM ambassador programme and run the Know h2ow awards for secondary schools – working in partnership with the STEM Hub to promote this and encourage other organisations to take part too.
This activity will contribute to the WaterUK Public Interest Commitment to promote social mobility in our industry.
Desired impact – For the next generation to understand where their water comes from, to value the work we do, and the part they play, inspiring future water workers from diverse backgrounds.
How have we performed?
In 2022 we launched AquaSmart, our children’s water efficiency interactive portal. This allows schools or parents to access materials and activities to help educate children on the importance of saving water. It also gives a way for schools to easily contact us if they’re interested in further educational support, such as school talks.
It is currently aimed at children in Key Stage 1, aged 5-7 years old, to complete at home or in school via downloadable activities and missions.
The aim of the programme is to promote water efficiency behavioural change and to engage with the younger generation, who are key influencers. We have found that once the younger generation engage in water saving ideas, they become brilliant ambassadors for persuading their families to cut down on the amount they use and influencing our Per Capita Consumption reduction.
We have had previous partnerships with local authorities such as Ashford Borough Council and Greener Kent, where we are able to deliver jointly branded campaigns to target schools in their areas. We recently extended our partnership with Maidstone Borough Council to support their sustainable schools project. This partnership will bring together all areas of sustainability including water efficiency. We are currently talking to other local authorities to support the schools in their areas.
We have worked with Wilder Schools, part of the Surrey Wildlife Trust to support schools in their area achieve their wilder schools’ accreditation. We are waiting for the confirmation of schools in the next academic year to hopefully re-establish the partnership. .
We participated in Ofwat’s innovation fund project on Water Literacy with Waterwise and Northumbrian Water. This project has been given approval to form a national water literacy programme, similar to the carbon literacy curriculum. The Water Literacy project seeks to raise awareness of the value of water and connect society’s water use to the environment and its role in reducing the impacts of climate change. It provides citizens with greater awareness and understanding of the systems involved and techniques to empower positive behaviour changes at home, in the workplace or in communities.
We’ve shared our work and experience with Waterwise through our membership of the steering group managing their strategic objective that “people value water through life-long learning about water and how to use it wisely”.
We have actively promoted AquaSmart at many of our community events this year, providing AquaSmart activity sheets to children about how to use water wisely, giving out free devices and directing parents and children to the AquaSmart website.
We are developing more AquaSmart materials for event days and children’s social clubs, including an interactive game, “H2Ohhh”. This will be used at events to promote the importance of saving water and people’s direct and indirect water use. We hope to have the game ready for summer 2025.
We are increasing the number of events which have a focus on water efficiency and where we will be able to share our Education platform. In particular we will be attending Living Land in May 2025. Living Land is in its 21st year and welcomes thousands of primary school children to the Kent Showground for a day of fun and learning centered around food, farming and the countryside.
We are also carrying out school water audits, where an engineer visits the school to undertake a full water audit, explain the findings and provide recommendations on where water can be saved through the installation of water efficient products. The engineer also looks for unaccounted water usage, or “customer side leaks” and repair any internal leaks, all funded by South East Water. Following the visit a full report is provided to the school.
“I now know how to save water and I think I can!” Pupil at Alton Infant school
