CLIMATE WEEK SWAP SHOP

Get swapping for Climate Week 2013

PTA-UK is proud to be supporting Climate Week (4 – 10 March 2013), the UK’s biggest environmental occasion, by encouraging our member PTAs to get involved. The inaugural Climate Week took place in March 2011 and was a resounding success. Half a million people attended over 3,000 events around the country. These events ranged from pub quizzes to office workshops, sustainable fashion shows, film screenings, conferences and walk to work and school schemes. The range of events and the breadth of organisations involved made Climate Week a truly national occasion, with 28% of all UK adults aware of Climate Week. This success was repeated in March 2012, when events such as an interfaith conference, a Climate Week ‘Play in a Day’ held at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston, East London and the launch of a new rainwater harvesting system at Turners Hill C of E primary school, in West Sussex encouraged action and engagement from all corners of society.

Climate Week is backed by manywell known individuals including the Prime Minister David Cameron, Sir Paul McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Al Gore. Organisations including the National Association of Primary Heads, the NHS, Girlguiding UK, the CBI, the Met Office, Manchester United Football Club and of course PTA-UK, are also supporting the campaign.

How can your PTA get involved?

New for Climate Week 2013 is the Climate Week Swap. We all have things we don’t want – clothes that don’t suit us, DVDs we don’t watch, toys that the kids have outgrown or books we’ve finished with. Now your school community can swap these unwanted items for great things they do want. And your PTA will be helping the environment, by giving items a new lease of life rather than just throwing them away – saving precious resources.

The simplest way to run a Climate Week Swap is to invite parents, teachers and other PTA supporters into school for an hour (or more!) of swapping. It’s easy, everyone simply brings as much or as little to swap as they want.

When your swappers arrive, give them a ticket for each item they have brought to swap. If someone brings in eight items they get eight tickets to exchange for other items. Your event can run over the entire Climate Week. You could set up a swapping area in the school that mums, dads, pupils and school staff can access before and after school – everyone can then take part when it suits them. This swap area could even be run as an ‘honesty corner’ – swappers simply leave the items they are donating in return for taking something they like the look of. For PTAs it’s a quick and easy activity – a great way to get everyone involved. If you want to fundraise you could make a minimal entry charge per swapper, of 50p or £1, plus you can of course sell refreshments. You could make the event part of your activities leading up to Easter. If you have a Spring fair planned, then you could have a swap stall.

There is also an opportunity for PTAs which organise a Climate Week Swap to enter into a draw to win a celebrity item for their event – celebrities involved include tennis star Andy Murray, singer Hayley Westenra, actor and comedian Hugh Laurie, and actress Zoe Wanamaker. Once your event has been organised, make sure your PTA registers it at climateweek.com – your swap will then appear on the Climate Week map and other parents and families can see what is going on in your area for Climate Week. It will also make sure your PTA is entered into the

16 PTA-UK Magazine November 2012