Climate change, sustainability and biodiversity education in South Yorkshire
An external engagement network hosted by Sheffield Hallam University – Institute of Education
All the documents and slides will appear here after each session and a way of sharing what schools are doing.
CPD slides (day 1)
Consent forms
About the project
Adapt-Ed is a collaborative project led by Sheffield Hallam University, working with The Green Estate, Sheffield City Council and Let’s Go Zero to support primary schools in responding to climate change.
Focusing on flooding, overheating and water scarcity, the project helps schools in Sheffield’s most climate-vulnerable communities to understand local risks and take practical action.
Through a combination of teacher development, curriculum innovation and outdoor learning, Adapt-Ed demonstrates how education can play a central role in building climate resilience—both within schools and across communities.
Project Team
Why Adapt-Ed matters
Climate change is already affecting schools in the UK. Rising temperatures, increased flood risk and water stress are disrupting learning environments and disproportionately impacting disadvantaged communities.
Despite this, much of the focus in education has been on reducing emissions, rather than preparing for the impacts of climate change.
Adapt-Ed addresses this gap by:
Sheffield provides an ideal context—combining high flood risk, urban heat island effects and socio-economic inequalities—making the learning both urgent and highly relevant.
What we’re doing
Adapt-Ed works with five primary schools, up to 10 teachers and around 300 pupils.
Key activities include:
Our approach
Adapt-Ed combines research, practice and community engagement through a mixed-methods, participatory approach.
We:
This ensures the project is both rigorous and practical, with immediate benefits for schools and transferable learning for others.
What difference will it make?
For pupils
For teachers
For schools
For communities
Beyond Sheffield
The project will produce case studies, resources and policy insights, shared nationally through networks such as Let’s Go Zero, helping scale impact across the UK.
Partners
Adapt-Ed is delivered through a strong partnership:
Timeline
Get involved
We’re keen to connect with:
Get in touch to collaborate, learn more or explore how Adapt-Ed can support your work.
Contact
Lee Jowett
Sheffield Hallam University
Climate Change and Sustainability Research Fellow
Sheffield Hallam University is recruiting 25 South Yorkshire primary schools to take part in an exciting programme supporting primary pupils (Y1-Y6) to run hands-on STEM investigations linked to climate change and biodiversity in their local area.
The programme is designed to strengthen working scientifically, build confidence in teaching climate-related science, and connect schools with STEM professionals (including postgraduate researchers and academics) who can bring real-world research and inspiration into the classroom.
We are in the process of applying for funding (deadline 27 February 2026) and will know the outcome before the end of the summer term. The programme will start in September 2026 and run for 3 academic years.
What schools will do
Each year, over a period of one school term (approx. 3–6 months), teachers and pupils (minimum of 30 students) will work with a matched STEM professional to plan and carry out a small-scale investigation. This might include activities such as exploring biodiversity in the school grounds, investigating local environmental change, or collecting and interpreting simple data linked to sustainability.
Each school will typically take part in:
What schools will receive
Participating schools will receive:
Who should apply
This opportunity is ideal for:
📩 Register your interest now (Science Lead or SLT sign-off required): Expression of Interest: Tomorrow’s Climate Scientists – Fill in form
📅 Places are limited and schools may be prioritised to ensure support reaches those with the greatest need.
For the 2024–25 academic year, Sheffield Hallam University’s Institute of Education collaborated with South Yorkshire Children’s University to launch Think Climate!, a climate-focused “Project in a Box” initiative offering eight themed, research-informed after-school sessions designed to boost pupils’ understanding of climate change, biodiversity, and local solution-focused actions, while also helping to reduce eco-anxiety.
Holding page – more information to follow
South Yorkshire Children’s University helps children and young people build essential life skills through learning activities outside of the classroom. For over a decade, Children’s University has been supporting thousands of pupils across Sheffield – and more recently in Rotherham, Doncaster, and Barnsley to grow their confidence, motivation and self-esteem. Research shows that children who take part in Children’s University activities not only enjoy richer experiences, but also achieve higher results in school, including SATs and GCSEs.
Project in a Box
One of South Yorkshire Children’s University’s most successful initiatives is Project in a Box – a ready-made resource kit that enables schools to run engaging after-school clubs for groups of 12 or more pupils. Staff are supported through training sessions before delivering six to eight weeks of activities, all leading to a celebratory event where pupils showcase their learning and take part in themed challenges.
Think Climate!
For the 2024/25 academic year, Sheffield Hallam University partnered with Children’s University to launch the Think Climate! edition of Project in a Box. Developed by academic staff at the Sheffield Institute of Education (SIOE), the programme introduces pupils to climate change and biodiversity through a positive, research-informed approach. The focus is on increasing young people’s sense of agency and reducing eco-anxiety by highlighting local solutions and actions they can take.
The project offers:
Impact and Reach
Launched in October 2024, Think Climate! has engaged nearly 50 schools across South Yorkshire – the highest number to date. Early evidence shows a positive impact on both teacher and pupil knowledge, skills, and motivation to respond to the climate and biodiversity crisis. A more formal evaluation is being undertaken and will be published soon (October 2025).
The project culminated in a celebration event taking place at the Institute of Education at Sheffield Hallam in July 2025. Over 100 children and staff attended from nearly 15 schools across South Yorkshire.
This collaborative project was delivered by Sheffield Hallam University’s Institute of Education, the Civic Partnership team, and Sheffield Children’s University, with support from our funding partners.
Funding Partners
Research Team
Further information and links
Prof. Aimee Ambrose, Sheffield Hallam University
Standing in the playground at my daughter’s school in summer, my eyes are always drawn upwards. Few other people seem to notice the fast and stealthy flight of the prehistoric birds overhead. They are Swifts and they have nested in the eaves of the 19th Century school for as long as anyone can remember. There are about six nesting pairs at the school these days and they cause no problems at all, going unnoticed most of the time, aside from their occasional aerial acrobatic displays. Children participating in the school’s Eco Club are encouraged to look up and appreciate the world’s fastest bird in level flight, that make their homes in their school.
Swifts are incredible birds – they migrate from central Africa every spring to breed in the cooler climes of Northern Europe. They can travel at 60mph and cover 500 miles a day on their migration. Swifts eat, sleep and breed while flying. They never stop for a perch or a rest- they simply rest half of their brain, while the other half keeps them moving. Swifts are truly prehistoric, having survived the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs. They navigate their way to the exact same spot every year to breed and do so every year of their adult lives. They are faithful to their nesting sites and if they are unable to access them, they will die trying to gain access. Swifts are just one variety of ‘cavity nesting species’, a group that also includes House Sparrows, Starlings and various species of Bat. House Martins and Swallows may also be considered cavity nesters, but they tend to build nest cups out of mud attached to the outside of a building, rather than tucking themselves on the inside.
Starling leaving a nest brick. Copyright Hugh Hastings. Accessed via Sheffield Swift Network.
All of these species are in steep and rapid decline (all with Red Listed status, meaning they are at risk of extinction). The threats facing cavity nesting species are myriad, but chief amongst them is loss of nesting sites. For millennia, cavity nesters have made their nests in our homes, tucking into tiny nooks and crannies under the roofline. But, we are blocking up these small gaps more than ever, often in pursuit of greater energy efficiency in our buildings. Many people making improvements to buildings, whether it’s installing a new roof, boosting insulation or just fitting new fascia boards or guttering, will have no idea that they are contributing to the decline of wildlife.
Government has recently launched a long overdue programme to boost the energy efficiency of public buildings, including schools. This investment is to be welcomed and will make schools more thermally comfortable and reduce running costs. But, there is a hidden risk in rolling out schemes like this. The preponderance of older school buildings in the UK, with their abundant imperfections in the brick and stonework, appeal hugely to cavity nesting species. Forging ahead with works without an ecological survey risks harming already vulnerable species and breaking the law. Disturbing or blocking access to an active nest site is illegal in the UK, whether you realise you are doing it or not. Erecting scaffolding that blocks access to the eaves, also counts as blocking access.
Cavity nesting species make important contributions to healthy eco-systems and will do no harm to a building. Indeed, hosting cavity nesting species in your school provides the best possible opportunity for children to learn about and be close some of our most astonishing and vulnerable wildlife.
If you’re (very wisely) considering taking advantage of subsidies to improve energy efficiency in your school, then take the opportunity to learn about the wildlife that might be very quietly securing its future within your buildings first. This is more likely in older school buildings, but can occur in buildings of almost any age, where there are small gaps in the brick or stonework or under roof tiles. Ensuring that any work (whether investigatory or more substantial) takes place outside of the nesting season (which runs from late April until September), will avoid any harm to wildlife.
Four Swift bricks installed in a gable end. Copyright Merv Page. Accessed via Sheffield Swift Network.
Whether you have wildlife nesting or roosting in your building or not, consider making provision for it while you’re doing work by installing as many universal nest bricks as you can- they can accommodate most types of cavity nesting birds and bats and never need any maintenance. They cost as little as £30 each plus installation costs and can be transformational for cavity nesters. Other solutions also exist if nest bricks aren’t possible, including nest boxes that affix to the outside of a building or integral nest boxes that sit inside soffits. For more information on solutions that can benefit all cavity nesting species, visit Sheffield Swift Network’s (SSN) website: www.sheffieldswiftnetwork.org
Feel free to contact me for further information: a.ambrose@shu.ac.uk
Sheffield Hallam University has partnered with Global Action Plan to deliver the ‘Good Life Schools’, a free programme for secondary schools and colleges, that brings communities together to create ways of living and learning together that are good for us, and good for the planet.
The programme has been running in 3 Sheffield secondaries this academic year (Meadowhead School, King Egberts School and High Storrs School), and have an additional 7 secondary school places for the 2025-26 academic year, available on a first come first served basis.
Join our supported Good Life Schools programme and receive:
How it works
Your school will be supported by an experienced Community Engagement Lead, who will work alongside a Lead Teacher in your school to deliver the programme as an extra-curricular opportunity during a term and time of your choice.
Please see below for more information or visit Good Life Schools. There is a short online information session taking place on Wednesday 30 April at 3.30-4.00pm featuring colleagues from GAP, SHU and at least one school running the programme this year. To sign up please use this link.
In the meantime if you have any question please email Lee Jowett (Sheffield Hallam University) or Sian Buckley (Global Action Plan).
Last updated: 18/10/25
Joint teacher-researcher training (face to face – 17 October 2025)
Key terms on climate change, sustainability and biodiversity loss
Planning document – for five sessions
Scanned planning sheet examples
Primary Science National Curriculum document
Explorify! website
Cover lists for all topics
Biodiversity topic
Trail cameras – how they work and investigating wildlife
Record wildlife on your site | Education Nature Park
Using the Seek app to identify wildlife | Education Nature Park
Biodiversity bar charts | Education Nature Park
Hidden Nature Challenge | Education Nature Park
Additional: Mapping your site | Education Nature Park suite of activities if you are keen to explore your habitats
Air quality topic
What are lichens and how they measure air quality in the UK?
What Can Lichens Tell Us about Air Quality? – Lichens guide
What Can Lichens Tell Us about Air Quality? – Lichens activity
What Can Lichens Tell Us about Air Quality? – Tree guide
Link to STEM Learning – What Can Lichens Tell Us about Air Quality? original resources
Indoor air quality monitoring (CO2) activity suggestions
Activities that can alter CO2 and can be investigated
Sustainable drainage (SuDS) topic
Investigating rain and sustainable drainage activity guidance sheets
School rainwater survey
SuDS Top Trumps
SuDS wordsearch
Great video showing water runoff in soil (LinkedIn post)
Energy efficiency topic topic
How thermal cameras work
Thermal camera imaging and iPad imaging
FLIROne camera guide
Coffee cups insulation activity
Energy generation topic
Solar explorer kit information
Solar explorer kit lesson cards