In October 2025, Abbey School in Rotherham hosted an inspiring EcoTeachMeet, bringing together teachers, support staff and partners to explore how sustainability can be woven through everyday school life. The event offered a brilliant opportunity to see what Abbey has been doing to champion environmental learning, as well as to share ideas that other schools can adapt to their own contexts.
The afternoon included with a warm welcome from staff and a tour of the school’s growing range of eco-focused equipment and spaces. Staff were able to see how classrooms, outdoor areas and play spaces are being used to support pupils’ learning about biodiversity, food and wellbeing. From simple tools and sensory resources to more innovative outdoor installations developed with partners such as Lightmain
Short, punchy TeachMeet-style presentations showcased how this equipment is being used in real lessons—linking sustainability to science, as well as to communication and life skills. Colleagues shared honest reflections on what has worked, what needed tweaking and how pupils have responded, particularly those with more complex needs. The informal format created plenty of space for questions, peer support and spontaneous problem-solving.
Crucially, the EcoTeachMeet helped to strengthen a network of educators across South Yorkshire who are keen to move from good intentions to practical climate action in schools. Participants left with concrete ideas they could try the very next week, as well as new contacts to collaborate with in the future.
Special thanks go to Jill and Holly from Abbey School for hosting such a warm and well-organised event, and to Avika from Lightmain for sharing her expertise on creating sustainable, engaging play and learning environments. Their combined enthusiasm and leadership made the EcoTeachMeet a real catalyst for ongoing change.
You can find out more about Playponics on the slides below.
In 2025, the Royal Society is commemorating the 80th anniversary of the election of the first female Fellows, Kathleen Lonsdale and Marjory Stephenson, and celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). As part of this celebration, we are looking to develop resources for teachers to use in the classroom to help support and inspire more women and girls to get involved in science in the future. We are seeking your guidance to help make these resources as relevant as possible and are inviting you to participate in a discussion group about resources highlighting Women in STEM.
We would be grateful if you could sign up to one of our discussion sessions below to share your thoughts on what resources would be most useful to you.
Each session is scheduled for a maximum of one hour and will be conducted via Zoom.
The session leader will have some guiding questions, but we are most interested in hearing your perspectives – what resources you currently use to support learning about Women in STEM, and what resources would be valuable to you in the future.
Sessions are divided into Primary and Secondary phases; however, please feel free to attend whichever session is most convenient for you.
As a thank you for taking part, we will send you a copy for your school of the Young People’s Book Prize 2024 winning book Can You Get Rainbows in Space by Dr Sheila Kanani and the 2018 Young People’s Book Prize shortlisted book Women in Science by Rachel Ignotosky.
You may also be interested in our videos on the first female Fellows of the Royal Society to share with your students.
Thank you in advance for your time, we really appreciate your help. If you have any questions, please contact the Schools Engagement Team at education@royalsociety.org
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
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:
CPD, launch assembly and workshop delivery from the local officer
Step-by-step guidance and a pack of teaching resources and activities to support your school run the programmeup to an entire academic year.
Ongoing support from your Community Engagement Lead.
Funding of up to £2,000 to help you deliver the project
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.
Form a Good Life Group, explore the Good Life vs. the Goods Life
Create a Good Life project, gather support for your projects
Put your Good Life projects into action, celebrate and share your story
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).
Elena Clark – Another Way – An introduction to Another Way and about our schools work with Power of 10 (15 mins) – Slides
Lauren Mysiw & Kayla Thompson – Sheffield Family Hubs/Breastfeeding in Sheffield – Promotion of the Infant Feeding team educational offer and signing up to the Breastfeeding in Sheffield ‘Breastfeeding Friendly Award’ for public spaces and employers (15 mins) – Slides
Sian Buckley – Global Action Plan – information and promotion about the Good Life Schools programme currently being delivered and recruiting for 2025/26 in Sheffield (15 mins) – Slides
John Bray- Discovery Outdoors– Learning outdoors and connecting with nature and green spaces in Sheffield (15 mins) – Slides
Sasha Beswick- Barnsley College – 2030 SDG game and other activities/opportunity (5 mins) (no slides)
Michala Sullivan – National Energy Agency – fully funded workshops for KS3 – KS5 (5 mins) –Slides
If you would like a link to the TeachMeet, please complete this short eForm. A calendar invite will be sent nearer the time, so please block out in your calendar.
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.
