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We are not just observers, we are actors in the universe, there to make a difference


Former headteacher Oliver Wright is a member of the Leader’s Digest team. This is educational resource publisher Twinkl’s dedicated hub for school SLT members who need informed access to the latest DfE/OFSTED policy updates. They deliver them in digestible chunks with supporting documents, and best practice examples.


A familiar story by Loren Eiseley, that I’ve often used in collective worship at school talks of an old man walking by the sea. Starfish are scattered on the shore and he can see a young boy carefully and gently throwing them back into the sea, one–by–one. When challenged about the futility of what he is doing, the young boy responds that he has made a difference for that one… and that one…


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Everyone who works in a school has an expectation that we will try to make a difference. We are familiar with talking with parents, staff and children about how we can make a difference for that one... and that one… Yet how many of us get caught up in the vital focus on teaching and learning, with everything that entails, missing the wider picture, just like the man in the story? Education exists within a wider world. One with challenges and difficulties that we can make a difference to.


Green school initiatives


Many of us will have green initiatives in school. Children responsible for collecting recycling, compost bins and even (for those of us in primary), elaborate bug hotels. Yet how many of us regularly take time to think about and examine what we are doing? Many of us are addicted to convenience, our justification being that we are already recycling/composting/lift sharing... or just that ‘it is what it is’.


Scientists use a method known as Life Cycle Analysis to evaluate the environmental impact of a product through its life cycle. This could apply to anything from simple packaging to a much more complex entity, such as a whole school. They balance and compare the durable model, where a product can be used over and over again with the degradable model where there is a danger that we are modelling and giving permission to throw away. By carefully comparing the environmental impact over time, they are able to make sure that products and services claiming to be sustainable are actually what they say they are, without which there is a danger of simply ‘greenwashing’.


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