Frequently Asked Questions
Thank you for checking out our Frequently Asked Questions. Don’t see your question answered below? Call us at 03 9553 5914 or 1300 652 470 or send an email to challenge@bigbatteryrescue.com
What is The Big Battery Rescue?
The Big Battery Rescue is a national challenge that provides free battery recycling kits and collection from an accredited battery recycler. The challenge kicks off with a Live Performance called Eco Guardians. This 30-minute session presents a live lesson in STEM and Conservation for grades 1-6. The interactive educational theatre performance will introduce an entertaining story featuring a variety of characters in a professional theatrical production, and guide students to participate in a discussion on important curriculum of battery recycling, waste and conservation.
Students and teachers will also have access to an exclusive e-learning package that includes games, quizzes and lesson plans for the classroom that reinforce concepts from the live performance.
Participating schools also receive battery recycling kits that provide tools to take action – and make a real, measurable difference towards diverting batteries from landfill both at school and home. All participating schools will be rewarded for their effort based on the number of batteries recycled.
Is The Big Battery Rescue really free?
Yes! The Big Battery Rescue is completely free for your school and community to participate. The program in its entirety is valued at over $10,000 per school/location, but it is available at no cost to each individual school/community. Our friends at Stockland have generously provided the funding to make this program possible for a number of schools as well as general communities across Australia as part of their commitment to support sustainability, environmentalism and STEM education.
How can my school or community participate in The Big Battery Rescue
The Big Battery Rescue is a comprehensive program and takes a commitment from the schools and communities that host—from the school at large, from classrooms, from individual students as well as parents and the school community at large. To apply, email us at challenge@bigbatteryrescue.com and our staff will work with you to facilitate the next steps.
What space or equipment will our school need?
Live Performance & Materials
For the live show, the actors will bring all materials and equipment they need with them. All your school has to provide is a space for the show—and the audience. Typically a space of 6 metres wide and 5 metres deep is enough for our actors to put up their set and make their “stage.” The National Theatre for Children is accustomed to performing in a wide range of spaces like gymnasiums, school halls, auditoriums or multi-purpose rooms. In our ideal setting, your students have enough room to sit comfortably on the floor, with an aisle down the middle of the audience for our actors to utilise.
Battery Recycling Kits
While the live performance and educational resources teach your students about battery recycling, conservation and STEM, the free battery recycling kits provide the tools to take real action – and make a real, measurable difference towards diverting batteries from landfill both at school and home.
Your school will receive free 2 litre battery recycling buckets for every classroom! Plus 1 x regular 120 litre battery wheelie bin that can sit onsite alongside your other school wheelie bins. During the school year a free collection service from an accredited recycler who will take away your school batteries to be recycled.
What age/grade level is The Big Battery Rescue designed for?
The live performance and related classroom materials are for grades P-6. All primary school students are welcome!
What does the Program Administrator do?
When hosting The Big Battery Rescue, one person at the school will need to be in charge of liaising with our team at The National Theatre for Children and facilitating all aspects of the program within your school/community. We call this person the “Program Administrator.” Ideally this person would be a school administrator, curriculum coordinator, science coordinator, or other staff member who has the ability to coordinate with classroom teachers at your school.
The Program Administrator is responsible for the following:
- Liaising with the team at NTC and coordinating the Live Performance – Eco Guardians
- Distributing Eco Guardians curriculum materials to all the classroom teachers.
- Distributing The Big Battery Rescue battery recycling kits to all the classroom teachers, helping to facilitate placement of the battery recycling buckets into classrooms, along with a large battery recycling bucket for the central school administration area.
- Assisting classroom teachers to nominate Student Battery Ambassadors who will help to lead the charge at your school.
- Supporting classrooms and the Student Battery Ambassadors with weigh-ins of collected batteries to see who has recycled the most!
- Coordinating with the NTC team to organize the timing of our accredited battery recycler to visit your school, on average once per term, to collect the large recycling bin and take all your batteries away.
- Sharing results, news, videos and photos from The Big Battery Rescue web portal where your school can track their fantastic efforts and results.
What support does NTC provide to help us run the program
Never fear, your school is not alone.
First, your school will receive all necessary instruction materials as well as educational materials for all aspects of the program, including printed guides for the Program Administrators and teachers to use. The Administrator Guide has instructions and how-to’s, advice, resources and more. The educational materials are all curriculum-aligned and provide each individual student with engagement resources both in print and digital format. We also include resources for back at home to engage parents, siblings and extended family members.
How often do we collect the batteries from your school?
We attend your school for a collection around every 12 weeks, so approximately at the end of every school term. We will provide you with an approximate time frame, and the driver will come to the office for a signature. They will then collect from your 120L wheelie bin, and weigh your batteries – from which we will use the verified weights to update the School Challenge Leaderboard!
Please ensure all batteries from your classroom buckets have been emptied into the wheelie bin before your collection date.
What type of batteries do we recycle?
Our partner Ecobatt recycles all types of batteries: Industrial, Automotive & Portable.
You can find a full list of recyclable batteries on their website here.
Can we recycle car/truck/boat batteries?
Yes we can! Please let us know in advance of collection if you have any large batteries of this kind and send through a photo, so we can advise Ecobatt – they need to ensure they have enough space in their truck.
Who should we contact with additional questions about The Big Battery Rescue?
If you have any additional questions, please call 1-300-652-470 for assistance. You can also email your questions to challenge@bigbatteryrescue.com