By Lee Jowett Climate Change and Sustainability Research Fellow Sheffield Institute of Education
In July, the new Labour government announced a review of the national curriculum. Two of its stated aims are to ‘ensure children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work’, and to ‘reflect the issues … of our society.’
Today is the last day for submitting evidence which I am currently in the process of doing myself, my usual tact of leaving things to the last minute!
If the review is to succeed in these aims, it cannot ignore climate change — arguably the defining issue of our age, and certainly key to many jobs of the future as the UK moves towards net zero.
Over the last year, I have been interviewing senior leaders and teachers in primary schools, secondary schools, further education colleges and local authorities to find out how climate change is currently taught. I have discovered a lot of great work, instigated by passionate staff members.
But in all of my conversations, one thing was clear — for climate change to be given the time and attention it requires, it must be embedded in the curriculum.
The current situation — an inconsistent picture
The Department for Education brought out a climate change strategy in 2021, but crucially it wasn’t mandatory. This has meant that — with so many competing priorities and all the demands of the mandatory elements of the curriculum — many schools are only dimly aware of it.
Of course, schools and their staff recognise climate change as one of the most important challenges facing our species, and therefore they want to teach it to our children. But this is happening almost despite government policy, rather than because of it.
One headteacher told me, ‘The whole curriculum needs a massive overhaul, and schools shouldn’t be so outcome-driven. Climate change is as important as reading and maths. There’s no point in being able to read, write or do the times tables if we’re all living off rubbish heaps.’
In all of my conversations with educators, nearly every one of them has singled out a lack of time and space in the curriculum as a key barrier to teaching climate change.
It means current efforts at climate education are piecemeal and inconsistent, largely driven by the heroic efforts of individual members of staff rather than an overarching strategy. There are great initiatives happening, but whether your child will get to experience them currently depends entirely on where they go to school.
Interestingly, in the further education colleges I spoke to, sustainability was much more embedded in the curriculum. This is because these institutions tend to collaborate with employers, who need college leavers with these skills.
But the college staff I spoke to said that students were coming to them with a lack of awareness, because it’s not taught to the same level in primary and secondary schools.
Learning from success stories
The good news is that in all of the schools I spoke to, there was excellent work happening around sustainability and climate education.
From the Tiny Forests and Edible Playgrounds projects which help schools make the most of their outdoor space, to the Eco–Schools scheme for schools, children and young people across the country are taking part in practical, solution-focused climate programmes.
Alongside these national schemes, I found that local authorities can make a huge difference. Leicester City Council are the shining example. Their Sustainable Schools team provides free support to all Leicester schools, focusing on carbon reduction and increasing biodiversity on school grounds.
They also run a huge number of projects that schools can take part in, including Less Litter for Leicester, the Mealbarrow food-growing competition, and Sustainable Drainage Systems for Schools. As a result of all this work, Leicester has the highest number of Eco-Schools Green Flag Awards of any unitary authority in England.
So what can we learn from the best examples of schools teaching climate change and sustainability well? From my conversations, two things stand out as crucial to these success stories.
The first must-have is a passionate sustainability lead with the remit to oversee climate education across the whole school. Sometimes this is a teacher, sometimes a group of teachers, and occasionally it’s part of a wider leadership role. One eco-lead told me, ‘You need to have someone who’s willing to really champion it, to make it easier for the rest of the staff to engage in the projects.’
The second is senior leadership who recognise the importance of climate education and give it the time and institutional backing needed. Without this, climate change risks being lost among other priorities.
One college leader told me, ‘It is successful at our college because everybody from the board down has bought into it. When I’m speaking to colleagues from other settings, sometimes they haven’t got that whole organisational buy-in. They’re always battling against it because although it’s a good idea, it’s seen as an add-on.’
What needs to be done
The current climate change strategy needs to be strengthened. It talks a lot about buildings and procurement, but not so much about teaching and learning. The curriculum and assessment review is an opportunity to change this, and provide the political will to truly embed climate education in our schools.
Again and again in my interviews, teachers said they didn’t have time to focus on climate. This could be resolved by slimming down the overall curriculum. Teachers also need time to be trained in climate education and sustainability, so they have the confidence to deliver it.
Finally, climate education must be made a mandatory part of the curriculum. Having a sustainability lead in each school would mean it is embedded in all decision-making, in a similar way to safeguarding. This is already happening in the best examples I spoke to, but it needs to be rolled out nationally. Having attended one of the live events in Doncaster yesterday, I was encouraged to hear colleagues asking for climate change and sustainability to be part of the national curriculum. Becky Francis herself reflected on climate change and sustainability being a theme across many of the events.
Climate change should become a golden thread that runs throughout the curriculum. It’s what the teachers I have spoken to want. And it’s what our children and young people deserve.
Lee Jowett is a Climate Change and Sustainability Research Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University. Previously he worked for a local authority and has been a secondary school science teacher. He can be contacted on l.jowett@shu.ac.uk
Rob Chambers is the national lead for geography and the trust sustainability lead at Astrea Academy Trust, which comprises 26 schools. We spoke to him about working across a multi-academy trust to embed sustainability.
What is your role?
I am part of Astrea Academy Trust’s Central Education team, and my role is national geography lead, leading on geography education across the trust’s secondary academies. In addition, I have a voluntary role as the trust’s sustainability lead, leading on and coordinating our sustainability work across all of our primaries and secondaries alongside our chief operating officer (COO) Jonathan Timmis, working with eco-leads and senior leadership eco-links in our academies.
How many schools are in your academy trust?
We have 26 schools in total spread throughout South Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire. 17 are primary schools (all of which are in South Yorkshire), and the rest are secondary (Cambridgeshire, Barnsley, Doncaster and Sheffield).
Why is sustainability important to you and your trust?
Astrea Academy Trust fully recognises the importance of integrating sustainability within all aspects of the work that we do. Our CEO and COO are committed to supporting this, which has been crucial for driving forward our successes so far in embedding sustainability across both our academies and central team. The trust’s inaugural work on sustainability was a sustainable estates strategy launched back in 2022 by Jonathan Timmis (our COO), this was a crucial starting point which set the foundation for the work that we have gone on to do. Not only did it acknowledge the importance of investing in infrastructure to reduce costs and carbon footprint, but also the importance of considering all aspects of activities in our academies through an environmental lens, including the initial push for our Go Green Campaign.
To take this forward we used the Department for Education’s Climate Change policy as a framework on which to base our initial thoughts and actions and to plan ahead. On the basis of this we later created our Climate Action Plan, which sets out our goals and actions for tackling climate change and promoting sustainability.
Personally, I’ve always been passionate about global change and the environment, thanks to my geographical background. This personal interest has driven my dedication to embedding sustainability within education, and it is a privilege to be able to lead on driving forward our vision for sustainability through coordinating our GoGreen strategy.
We believe it’s crucial to teach our students about global change and sustainability. We want them to know how they can be part of the solution and help build a sustainable future. We also want to ensure that they have the opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge required for the growing green jobs sector.
It’s important for our students to understand how their decisions affect both local communities and the wider world and understanding social and environmental justice issues related to climate change and sustainability is essential to help them develop as global citizens who can make informed decisions.
In short, by fostering a culture of sustainability across our trust, we’re preparing our students to be informed, proactive members of society who can make a positive impact on the world whilst actively advocating for and demonstrating the principles and practices that we teach our students to ensure that they are a lived reality.
Have you had any training around sustainability or climate education?
In 2019 I undertook an online training course to become a UN Climate Change Accredited Teacher, which was run by UN CC:e-Learn in conjunction with eduCCate Global.
I have also taught climate change as part of the AQA GCSE and I have taught a climate change module as part of the OCR A Level specification which launched in 2016. I have attended numerous sustainability webinars online, including through Let’s Go Zero as well as other organisations, and attended conferences such as the ASCL Conference for a Sustainable Future.
I also network widely via X (formerly known as Twitter) with other sustainability leads and those involved in climate change and sustainability education.
What activities have you undertaken?
The first step in our sustainability plan was to ask each school to nominate an eco-lead. It was crucial that this individual was genuinely interested and motivated to take on the role, as they really need to be the driving force within their school. Additionally, we requested that schools nominate a senior leadership team (SLT) eco-link to ensure there was representation at that level, which is vital for driving initiatives forward.
Each eco-lead was then tasked with setting up an eco-committee, comprising students from as many year groups as possible. This inclusivity ensures a broad representation and engagement across the school community.
As the sustainability lead, I organise meetings of eco-leads once a term and provide termly bulletins. These bulletins showcase and share good practices happening within our schools, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
Our regional operations managers play a key role by regularly touching base with the eco-leads in schools. They help promote the GoGreen strategy, working closely with me and the COO to ensure alignment and support.
When we launched the GoGreen strategy in October 2022, we asked all our academies to focus on energy, alongside any other initiatives they wished to pursue. To support this, we signed up all our schools centrally to the Let’s Go Zero campaign. We also support three trust-wide events annually: Switch Off Fortnight in November, the Sustrans Walk and Wheel in the spring term, and World Environment Day in June.
For World Environment Day in June 2023, which focused on plastic pollution, we encouraged schools to raise awareness through social media. Two of our eco-committees visited a local waste recycling plant and participated in a workshop on plastics recycling with the charity Recoup.
Beyond these trust-wide initiatives, schools undertake their own activities, such as creating school gardens, organising community litter picks, and building bug hotels. These activities focus on various topics, including biodiversity, recycling, and litter. Some of our primary schools’ eco-committees have even collaborated to hold their own mini-COP-26 events, and several South Yorkshire schools have participated in the South Yorkshire Schools Climate Conference.
In July 2023, after running the GoGreen strategy for a year, we evaluated our progress. Based on the successes we observed, we decided to adopt a more strategic approach moving forward. We recognized the importance of integrating our efforts in a holistic manner, further strengthening the links between the central team and our academies regarding sustainability. Consequently, we decided to develop our first Climate Action Plan. Our goal is to evaluate our work at the end of each academic year to inform the development of a strategic plan for sustainability for the following year.
Tell us about the climate action plan.
Our Climate Action Plan (CAP) embodies our trust’s philosophy and approach to sustainability, with objectives set across various timescales and sustainability themes at the trust level. When we began drafting our CAP, there was limited guidance on the format, so we decided to proceed with our vision of what it should be. The key was to create a holistic plan that encompassed the entire trust, linking the efforts of our academies and the central team.
We started with a comprehensive meeting that included me as the trust sustainability lead, Jonathan Timmis as COO, and all major stakeholders from the operations side, such as the chief financial officer, regional operations managers, head of IT, head of estates, and head of catering. As a member of the Central Education team, I was able to represent the curriculum perspective.
During this meeting, we outlined what each area was already doing and had achieved regarding sustainability. We then set clear objectives under the following headings: energy, waste, water, IT, operations, healthy living, school grounds, biodiversity, climate literacy, green careers, and information campaigns. These objectives form the foundation of our CAP.
We structured our CAP by starting with the context and our ambition as a trust. We then established our sustainability leadership structure, which includes leadership at both the trust and academy levels. Our work aligns with the four strategic aims of the Department for Education’s sustainability and climate education strategy and is underpinned by the ten sustainability themes outlined in the Eco-Schools framework. Current objectives and examples of achievements then make up the bulk of the CAP.
In addition to our Trust Climate Action Plan, we have tasked each academy with creating their own mini-CAPs. These plans align with trust priorities but are also tailored to reflect each academy’s unique context and are driven by the students in the eco-committees. Currently, several of our academies now have these plans in place, and over the next year, we will work with those that do not yet have them.
Our goal for the end of the 2024–25 academic year is to ensure that every academy not only has an eco-lead and eco-committee but also has its own mini-Climate Action Plan outlining its objectives. This approach ensures a cohesive and comprehensive strategy for sustainability across our entire trust.
What benefits have you seen?
One of the most rewarding aspects of our sustainability initiatives has been witnessing the enthusiasm of the students in our eco-committees. Their creativity and drive have been instrumental in pushing forward various projects and ideas. It’s been incredibly positive to see students having their voices heard and engaging with each other on climate change and sustainability. This engagement has led to real innovations and a sense of responsibility among students to bring about change within their academies.
We are also working to ensure that students can collaborate with academy operations managers, allowing their voices to be heard and enabling them to see the tangible differences being made. For instance, as part of our energy-saving initiatives, we share academy energy usage figures with students. This transparency supports students in asking questions about energy use and identifying practical ways to make a difference.
We have also seen real potential for strengthening community links. For example, one of our schools is developing a school garden and is collaborating with a local rotary club. They are also receiving support from Skanska, a road construction company as part of their community outreach. As part of this students from one of our eco-committees have participated in a series of climate change workshops. Additionally, some of our primary schools have engaged in community litter picks, and we continue to focus on strengthening these community connections.
From the trust’s perspective, there are multiple benefits, including financial savings, environmental improvements, and fulfilling our ethical and moral responsibility to act on sustainability. It also represents good governance. Our efforts have been recognized with the Chartered Governance Institute’s 2023 award for social governance, where we were shortlisted alongside large companies such as John Lewis and Legal & General. We also recently won the Environmental Trust of the Year award in the MAT Excellence Awards. Some of our schools have also now achieved the Eco Schools Green-Flag award.
What barriers have you faced?
Time and money are the primary barriers we face in implementing our sustainability plan, which is a common challenge for most schools. While we have been able to use operational funding for sustainability investment in initiatives such as photovoltaics, increased building and roof efficiencies in energy retention and installing LED lights, there is little to no funding available specifically for more individual sustainability projects at the academy level. Projects like school gardens and eco-committee activities often rely on fundraising efforts or small grants, which are not only limited but also time-consuming to secure. Funding is often also targeted and not necessarily available to all academies. For example, a small number of our academies, those in Doncaster, have been eligible for funding from the National Education Nature Park (NENP) which they have been able to use to good effect to increase biodiversity in their grounds (for example Woodfields Academy).
Our eco-leads, who are crucial to driving these initiatives, take on these roles voluntarily without additional time or financial support. This inevitably limits what can be achieved. Additionally, time constraints and other pressing priorities, such as Ofsted preparation, can understandably divert focus away from sustainability efforts at times. Balancing these priorities can be challenging and sometimes acts as a barrier to ensuring all schools are fully engaged. For instance, while we have mini-CAPs in place for several academies and many have eco-leads and eco-committees we recognise the need to re-launch our efforts in some academies in 2024–25 to maximise buy-in across the board.
This ebb and flow is natural in schools, given their busy environments and the multitude of priorities that need to be managed. However, our trust leaders are deeply committed to supporting sustainability work. We continue to collaborate and explore ways to overcome these barriers, but in a fast-paced educational setting, this remains an ongoing effort.
How do you communicate with your schools?
I have found that Microsoft Teams is one of the best ways to coordinate and communicate across our large number of schools. It allows eco-leads to contact each other and contribute to discussions and ultimately, I hope it will foster a self-driven network. While I coordinate and moderate, my goal is for eco-leads to seek advice and share good practices amongst each other.
I frequently post about upcoming sustainability events, important links, and key stories. I also provide access to bulletins, meeting agendas, and videos of meetings for those who can’t attend live. Additionally, I have been using SharePoint to create a GoGreen hub, which includes a homepage, and academies showcase page where each academy will eventually have their own sustainability page to share good practice and news of what their eco-committees are working on. I am also developing a sustainability resources page based on the ten topics that sit under the Eco-Schools framework.
How are decisions made about what projects to take part in?
As mentioned, we have three trust-wide projects that we encourage all academies to participate in each year. This central guidance is particularly helpful for schools with limited time, as it provides focus, resources, and links to save time. This year, we have asked schools to concentrate on energy and biodiversity.
Beyond these trust-wide projects, we encourage academies to pursue their own initiatives. We believe the most significant gains come from the innovation and drive of the eco-committees within each school. For example, one school noticed a lot of plastic bottles left after sports day the previous year, so they implemented a water refilling station at the next sports day to reduce disposable bottle use.
We have also encouraged all academies to sign up for the National Education Nature Park, aiming to have all schools enrolled by the end of 2024–25. This approach ensures a balance between central guidance and individual school innovation, maximising the impact of our sustainability efforts.
How do you find out about projects and funding?
I use social media a lot, particularly X (formerly known as Twitter), where I follow various individuals and organisations involved in sustainability. We also have the Astrea Go Green X account, which helps us connect with others doing similar work. Additionally, I’m part of the UK Schools Sustainability Network operations group, which is a great source of funding ideas.
I’m in regular contact with the climate advisers from Let’s Go Zero, who provide numerous ideas and information about competitions open to schools. I make sure to flag these opportunities and consolidate them for our schools. I also network with one of the coordinators for the new Climate Ambassadors scheme.
Furthermore, some of our schools in Doncaster are eligible for the National Education Nature Park grant. Two schools have already been awarded £10,000, and I’m currently working with two more schools to access this funding in the current round.
Do you think your approach would work in other schools?
Absolutely. I believe our approach could be successfully implemented in other schools. However, I would strongly advocate for a holistic sustainability policy, and this requires robust connections and commitment from both the central team and operations and the academies and curriculum teams.
A key element is having a leadership structure in place which can effectively bridge these two areas. I have been very lucky as a sustainability lead as my background as a teacher in our academies has given me a deep understanding of the practical working of our academies and the curriculum but additionally as a member of the central team, I have access to the operations teams and the full support and leadership of the COO. This dual perspective has been invaluable in helping to drive our sustainability initiatives forward by being able to connect the two and working to foster a truly holistic approach to sustainability within the trust.
We still have a lot to do, but our priorities and objectives reflect curriculum as well as operations. For example, in 2024–25 we are looking to embed climate literacy and education into our curriculum and strengthen our work on green careers.
Kate White is a geography teacher who runs the Eco Club at Sir Jonathan North Girls’ College in Leicester. We spoke to her about her experiences of engaging secondary students in climate change.
What is your role?
I teach geography, and I’m also the lead teacher for student voice, which basically means I run the student council. About seven years ago I started the Eco Club, and we’ve had an Eco-Schools green flag for a couple of years now.
Tell us about your school.
We’ve got roughly 1,200 students. It’s a non-selective all-girls secondary, aged 11 to 16. We’re the only multifaith girls’ school in Leicestershire.
Why is sustainability important to you?
It’s one of the biggest problems facing us at the moment, so it’s absolutely vital that the students know about it and also that they can be proactive. I think quite a lot of them are stressed about the state of the world, so it gives them an opportunity to actually do something practical. It helps them to develop leadership skills and teamwork skills, which is really positive.
As a trust we are pushing Eco-Schools across all our schools and really focusing on the power of the students to make a difference.
Have you had any training around sustainability or climate education?
I attended the training by Energy Sparks, the Carbon Literacy one, and then obviously I’ve had all the Eco-Schools ones via the local authority.
What activities have you undertaken at your school?
Our Eco Club meets once a week and over the last couple of years we have undertaken several projects.
We’ve got a pond, and we’ve been replanting it and making it more nature-friendly. We’ve done lots of litter picks round school, but also in the local area. And last year we got some funding to plant an orchard. We have nine trees plus raised beds, and we also planted some trees on the field.
We’ve been planting bulbs and pollinator plants, that sort of thing. We’ve been making artwork out of plastic and dresses out of crisp packets.
And this year, we’re doing a hedgehog project with WWF. We have a hedgehog house and hedgehog training and we’ve made hedgehog pledges. We went to a local community evening at the school next door to raise awareness with the local community. Our students had a stand and they spoke to people about their project.
We have a common curriculum across the trust schools, so we’ve helped to design that and we’ve contributed to it. We do climate change in Year 7 and Year 9 and it’s also in the geography GCSE, so we do cover it quite a lot, which I think is very important.
How do you decide what projects to take part in?
I basically let the students choose what they want to focus on and then look for projects that work with that. So for example, this year the students wanted to do something about healthy living and food, and then I saw from the Eco-Schools newsletter that there was the mealbarrow competition for growing food in a wheelbarrow. We haven’t done that before, but because it fits with what they wanted to do, I’ve signed us up for that.
Over the years we’ve done different projects. When we did the Keep Britain Tidy litter pick, they gave us loads of litter pickers. So now whenever they want to go and do a litter pick, we just go off and we’ve got all the kit to do it. And with the orchard, we got funding for that and it also gave us trowels, so we can carry on with the planting projects over time.
What benefits have you seen?
It’s been really positive. It does really help to empower the students. It builds their confidence and teamwork. It gives them a chance for a bit of leadership.
They start off in Year 7 just wanting to make posters, and as they get older, they start leading the projects and coming up with their plans, doing assemblies and spreading the message. Even though we’re a little voluntary club, it’s probably the main one that everybody knows about at school, and it does give them so many different life skills.
It helps them make a real difference, and they all talk about it in their college applications and how it helped them grow in confidence. They are definitely worried about the state of the world, so I think it does give them a chance to feel they are doing something, however small. I think it’s good for their mental health in that way. And it’s just nice to get outside as well.
What barriers have you faced and how have you overcome them?
Time is always tricky. Whenever I’ve got meetings or a parents’ evening we can’t do the club.
Sometimes it’s budget, but that’s when things like Leicester Eco-Schools are really good because they apply for grants and get funding for projects, and then you can sign up for those. I think if I wasn’t in Leicester, it might be trickier because that team is so good and they send newsletters all the time with different things that are going on. And then because I’ve done certain things, sometimes they get in touch and say, ‘Would you be interested in this project?’
For example, last year we did the Saving the Saffron Brook project, which was the money for the orchard and bug hunts and various ponds and things like that. But that fed into them getting back in touch, saying we’re now doing this hedgehog project, would you be interested in doing that? And then they said, the swift charity has got these bird boxes and bat boxes, would you be interested in that? So it all feeds into each other which is really good.
The academy trust is really supportive too. They want to make it trust-wide. We had our first meeting last month for the Eco-School leads across the trust, and there’s only a couple of schools that don’t already have an Eco Club. The trust wants to get those up and running, and we’re having an eco rally day in June with lots of different activities that the students would complete. They want all the schools in the trust to get a green flag award, so they’re getting on board.
What makes a successful project?
In terms of student engagement, it’s topics that they’re passionate about, things that they enjoy. They like it when it’s practical and out of the classroom. They like it when we have outside experts coming in. It makes them feel valued. And if they see those people regularly, that’s good for them. They can get a nice relationship going.
Do you think the approach you’ve taken would work in all schools?
Yes, as long as you’ve got a supportive school and as long as you’ve some people who can help you out with projects or some people that can point you in the right direction of projects. The Eco-Schools website has ideas of what you can do. So if you’re a bit stuck on a topic, you can click on there and it’s got lots of ideas.
When I first started Eco Club, it was a bit ad hoc, we only met up once a half term and we just didn’t get anything done. Now, by coming in every week, we’re always chipping away at projects and it means that you get your regulars that keep coming. I really enjoy running it, and they’re such nice, enthusiastic students as well. They’re wonderful.
Laura Barke is an Education Officer (Eco-Schools) for Leicester City Council. We talked to her about how she works with schools to help them implement activities around sustainability.
What are the climate-related responsibilities of your role?
My main focus is going into schools across the city and supporting them with their Eco-Schools Green Flag applications. I work with designated members of staff, typically the school’s eco lead, to complete their application.
My team also runs workshops for students and discusses with staff what they want to do and how they want to make a difference. There are about 120 schools in the city, and we work with about 80 of them.
Are there any costs to schools?
Our support relating to the Eco-Schools Green Flag work is free for schools and we offer that support as part of our core offer for schools. However, there is anaccreditation fee for the Green Flag award. . And some of the other projects we run are externally funded, so they don’t have a cost for the schools. There are then additional parts that schools can pay for, like carbon literacy training for their staff.
Why is your work important?
As an ex-teacher, I know the sort of time constraints placed on teachers. A lot of the time staff are really interested in it, but trying to fit it into the timetable is more challenging.
A role like mine is really valuable for schools because they have somebody there to take away some of those pressures. I can support schools in whichever way they want. I can run sessions with the children without into much input from school staff, or equally I can go in and give the staff a starting point, or talk through some of their ideas.
Senior leaders can see that we’ve got a real network of schools across Leicester and they can see that there’s lots of staff working on this, so they value it more and they don’t want to be one of the schools that is left behind. They can see that 60 schools in the city have got the Green Flag, and they don’t want to be one of the ones who don’t.
What projects and activities have the council undertaken to enhance climate change education?
We’ve been working with classes of children teaching them about carbon literacy. We’ve also done a lot of work recently on outdoor education in nature. We’ve worked with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for a couple of years now, and in the most recent year we have been improving school grounds — planting hedgerows, adding or improving ponds, introducing nesting boxes and creating hedgehog-friendly spaces.
Alongside the physical work on school grounds, we run education sessions afterwards with the students, so they’re involved in things like the hedge-planting. Then we’re doing further follow-up sessions, getting them to understand why we’ve done it and how nature is important.
Tell us about your work with Eco-Schools.
We have an offer open to all schools. They can contact us and we will do whatever it is that they want to support them with their application.
We run training three times a year for school staff where we talk them through the process and provide ideas for what they can be doing to work on the project, and we also run projects throughout the year that specifically fit within some of the topics of Eco-Schools. This year we’re running a litter project, and we’ve also done the Grow Your Own Grub scheme.
What’s that?
Grow Your Own Grub has been going for multiple years now. It’s open to all schools across the city and the idea is to get schools growing their own food. This is run alongside the public health team. So this year we’ve got the ‘mealbarrow’ competition, where schools are tasked with growing at least five different fruits and vegetables in a wheelbarrow. Then they must plan and design a three-course menu using the items they’ve grown. At the end we bring all of the wheelbarrows together from across the city in a celebration event where members of the public can come and see the work.
It’s suitable for any school, because even if they are one of the more urban or concrete type schools they’re going to have enough space to put a wheelbarrow in.
Schools usually have to pay for the Green Flag award. Does the council offer any financial support towards this?
We do look to subsidise the Green Flag application. Normally it’s £200 for a school to pay, which may be off-putting to many schools because it’s quite a significant cost. It’s entirely worth it, but trying to get that through could be challenging for some schools.
As a council, we look for different sponsorship opportunities and use support from
our social value programme. So last year, schools had to pay £50 for their
application rather than the full £200.
How do you choose what projects to undertake?
I think it’s a combination of reasons. A lot of it is to do with the funding that’s available. But we also look to put on projects that fit within the Green Flag work in particular, helping schools with that overall aim.
It’s also slightly based on the skills within our team — we’re more experienced with outdoor learning, so that drives some of the project proposals like the work with WWF. And often the work fits with different priorities in the wider council, from biodiversity to the climate emergency action plan.
What benefits have you seen from these projects for pupils, staff and parents?
When we work with students, 90% of the time they really enjoy it. Having someone new come in is exciting and increases engagement. For staff, it gives them the opportunity to do work they want to do but may struggle based on the different pressures of timetables and teaching time.
We often get really positive feedback from schools after a project to say that students have enjoyed it or the schools have seen really positive outcomes.
What barriers have you faced?
Definitely timetabling is a huge barrier. Often our contacts are really keen to get us in, but getting that designated time signed off by senior leaders can be challenging. Having space in the school can also be challenging. We are very flexible and happy to work in any space, but a lot of the time schools don’t have anywhere at all.
How have you overcome these barriers?
By sharing the value of the projects and making it really clear to the schools what they’re getting out of it and why it’s so important. That can be shared at different levels in the school, so everyone is on board and everyone knows this is something that they need to make accommodations for.
We also remind schools it’s free. And as a team, we make sure that we’re flexible, working with the school to fit around their timetables and the spaces that they have.
How do you ensure activities continue once your projects end?
Ultimately we rely on schools to take it on and maintain it, but it depends on the staff that are there. As a team, we’re pushing for follow-up funding and future-proofing. For example, we try to make sure that schools have multiple members of staff trained so if somebody leaves there are still people there to take over.
But I think one of the biggest things is having buy-in from senior leaders. This has a trickle-down effect, and they can then make sure that there’s multiple members of staff working on it throughout the school. If senior leaders are on board from the beginning, they can see the benefits to the work that we’ve done.
Do you think your approach would work elsewhere?
I think it’s definitely replicable across authorities, if you have buy-in from relevant people to make sure that your team is supported to build those connections with schools. It’s not the sort of thing that can just happen in a year — it’s an ongoing process.
The climate change and sustainability strategy is still optional. Is that a problem?
It depends on the viewpoint of the school. Some schools will use that as an excuse to not be involved. But equally, some staff understand the value of having a written strategy on climate change.
For me it would definitely make our work easier if it was mandatory because we could go to the 40 schools in Leicester that we’ve not got strong connections with. Ultimately our goal is to work with all schools in the city. But I don’t think it would be fair to make it mandatory without offering suitable support to schools.
Kevin Elliott is the business manager for Meadowhead School in Sheffield. We talked to him about how he’s implementing sustainability into the school structure.
Can you give us some background on your school?
We’re a secondary school with a sixth form college, based in south Sheffield. It’s a mixed urban area, with half of the feeders from wealthy areas and half from probably some of the most deprived areas in the UK. We have over 1,900 students, 36% of which are pupil premium.
We’re also a PFI [Private Finance Initiative] school, so we ultimately hire the school’s facilities — we’re not responsible for them, which affects a lot of things that come with a sustainability plan, especially around grounds maintenance.
What climate-related responsibilities do you have?
I’m tasked by the governing body to monitor sustainability and to try and implement it into the school structure.
We wrote a sustainability policy for the school, and then we developed an action plan, and the action plan is run by an eco-group. The eco-group is run as an after-school club by two teachers from geography. They developed the action plan with the students and the students now work through it to see what we can do to become more sustainable. My role is to oversee that.
How did you develop your sustainability policy?
I was asked by the governors to develop a sustainability policy. I’d been to a South Yorkshire business leaders meeting, and they had someone there who was talking about sustainability in schools, and I took back a lot of what he was saying. We also bought a book about sustainability in the school place, and that helped us develop the policy and the action plan.
Why is sustainability important to your school?
I think sustainability is just becoming more and more prevalent in the daily life of everybody, and we thought we should get on board now rather than later.
I know a lot of secondary schools are not getting on board with it. I often go to sustainability meetings and there are no secondary schools there, they’re all primary. I don’t know if it’s because the children are older and they don’t want to be digging or messing in gardens. But we’ve got a group of eco kids that want to improve the area and want to improve society. All we can do is do the best we can for the school.
Have you had any sustainability training?
I’ve never had any training. It’s just been from attending events like the ones run by the local universities. And I’ve been in touch with local eco groups like Wild Sheffield.
What are some of the activities you have undertaken at your school?
We’ve built a forest school, and we’ve put in a huge outdoor classroom. We are growing our own vegetables, and we want some bees up there. The kids are asking for chickens too. They want an urban farm.
Our action plan covers lots of different areas. The eco group presents ideas to us and I take them to the governing body. We’ve got biodiversity, so the team has recently made a load of bird feeders in ADT woodwork. They’re now talking about building a pond.
We’re looking at getting better lighting with automatic turn-off, and we have energy-saving weeks where we have campaigns to encourage students to think about turning computers off.
We use the outdoor classroom and fundraising to support the local community. We work with the catering company around Fairtrade products and reducing food waste. We’ve done litter picks and we encourage everybody to learn about what bins to use. We’re rewilding the school grounds, for example with nature hotels.
For staff, we encourage the cycle to work scheme, and we’re reducing paper by banning printing things out for meetings. And we managed to get grants to install four charging points in the car park, which has encouraged a number of staff to get electric cars.
I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved in such a short timescale.
What benefits have you seen from these projects?
The charging points have been really useful because I’ve seen people charge their cars and that does provide us with an income. The litter picking obviously makes a difference. You can see it when it’s done.
We’ve seen big benefits from the forest area we’ve developed. We’ve just started running Forest School again for some of our SEND students who are really struggling. The outdoor classroom is a great help to them.
What barriers have you faced?
The PFI is a barrier because we can’t always do what we want to do. For anything to do with the grounds, we can’t just go and implement changes. We have to work with the PFI provider Kier, and there’s a lot of planning that has to go into it. For example, we just built some new steps to the outdoor classroom and it’s taken us a good six months to get them agreed.
One thing we’ve been working on for a couple of years is the traffic outside of school and trying to get some zebra crossings to slow the traffic down and remove some of the traffic. We’ve been working with the council for about two years now and hopefully a new traffic reduction scheme will be installed this summer.
How do you overcome these barriers?
Working with people. We work with Kier, we work with the council, we work with all parties to try and get the best outcomes for the students, for the school and the community.
I’ve also been working with a couple of primary schools in Sheffield. One of the barriers is that there’s hardly any secondary schools doing it. I’d love to link up with a secondary school that’s doing similar things, to share best practices and ideas really.
What projects have worked best?
The forest schools worked really well because of the people that have been involved. We were lucky to get some professional training on outdoor learning. And the teaching assistants were keen to be involved in it and they’ve now taken it on as their project.
The electric charging units have worked well because I’ve got staff that were travelling quite a long way in an electric car and panicking about getting home. But now they don’t need to worry because they can charge the cars while they’re teaching.
From a staff wellbeing point of view, I bought a proper coffee machine for the staff room, and now we’re using the leftover coffee grinds in compost for our vegetable growing and some of the kids are making candles from them too.
Do you think your approach would work in other schools?
I think it would. You’ve got to have somebody that will give some time to it, to attend meetings, create an eco-group, come up with an action plan. In the very busy environment that the schools are, sometimes it just doesn’t get thought about, but I don’t see why you couldn’t replicate it in most schools, because it is becoming more and more prevalent. But you have to dedicate time to it.
You have to pick and choose what you want to achieve, and then when you’ve achieved that, pick another thing and try and achieve that — rather than trying to spin all these plates and achieving nothing. I think that’s been our biggest learning.
Carbon Literacy is an awareness of the carbon dioxide costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis.
The course is the equivalent of one days learning and is best delivered face to face, but can be done over half days or one full day.
At Sheffield Hallam we are using a teacher and governor course, and student course to help individuals to understand their carbon footprint and take action on climate change in an education setting context.
For more information or find out when the course will be launched for teachers and governors please see below
To find out what staff and students think about the course please take a look at these YouTube videos.
For more information please email Lee Jowett, L.Jowett@shu.ac.uk