FEATURE FOCUS: SUSTAINABILITY
The Harmony Project, he shared how reviewing what food is served at your school can be a great way to reduce your climate impact. Is the food you’re serving seasonal? Has it been imported from abroad or produced within the UK? How often are you serving meat? If you’re serving it regularly, could that be reduced, or could it be sourced from grass-fed or nature-friendly systems?
Beyond this, you could look into food waste at your school. Once you figure out what is being thrown away the most, you can adapt the amount you’re ordering and serving. Water usage can be evaluated in the same way. Other than being good practice, the added benefit of taking stock and changing the food habits at a school is that it can be a brilliant way to engage your students. They can help measure the leftover food at lunchtime. You could involve them in the decision-making around the menu. You could even use it as an opportunity to start a small vegetable patch that the students help to maintain. Through this, the students can see the benefits of growing their own food – even in small quantities – as it eradicates the need for pesticides, fuel for transport and refrigeration, and much more.
• Embedding climate education into the curriculum
When it comes to the curriculum, we know that many teachers say that it is already ‘crammed’, so trying to add new topics related to the environment can be a challenge. This is why many teachers are trying to incorporate climate education into their existing curriculum.
As part of English, could students write about sustainability issues and adapt their writing for different audiences or purposes? At a primary level, could learners review age-appropriate climate news articles or pieces of media as part of their reading comprehension and oracy skills? For maths, perhaps students can apply their maths knowledge to figure out things such as the number of miles food has to travel, the efficiency of the school’s heating system, or the financial case for retrofitting buildings.
In art, students could be encouraged to think about the impact on the environment of the materials they are using to create their pieces. Could they be using existing materials more creatively to achieve what they want? Could
they adapt their processes or techniques to incorporate more sustainable mediums, or think about circular design when considering end use and waste?
There are lots of great ideas for embedding climate education into the curriculum of all subjects online. This Ark Campus article is a great place to start.
• Localise the issues
A very important part of getting people to care about climate change and sustainability is localising it. Research shows that localising climate change reduces the sense that climate change is a distant issue, impacting people in faraway places. Your learners are far more likely to engage in the conversation if they know the areas you’re talking about or can relate to a place they’re studying and, in education, it can be very powerful to think global and act local. Talk about local issues or changes they may have noticed – is it flooding in your region more this winter than in previous years, or perhaps there has been an unusually warm spell? Talk about and look into the reasons behind this. You may have to tread a careful line here, as you don’t want to create eco-anxiety amongst the students. However, there are ways to have these conversations that are solution-focused and empower the learners to take action, which Keya Lamba, co-founder of Earth Warriors, explores in depth in this free guidance.
• Utilise ‘micro-moments’
I was introduced to this concept by Holly Everett, Head of Programmes at Reboot the Future. The idea is to think beyond the formal curriculum and identify moments throughout the school day when you can explore issues like climate change and sustainability with your students. Teachers have multiple micro-moment opportunities throughout the day. As Holly puts it, ‘a micro-moment could range from posing a question in tutor time to setting an intention in assembly, sharing a fun fact as pupils come into the classroom or recommending a book/film/ show/podcast in the playground.’ These informal discussions not only allow students to explore the subject at their own pace but also create an open and non-threatening environment for questions, curiosity, and deeper reflection.
• Celebrate achievements
Finally, it is hugely important to celebrate your sustainability successes! It doesn’t matter how large or small the achievement is, make sure you mark it! Perhaps you could dedicate a display board to celebrate the schools’ initiatives, sharing any achievements or having a sustainable student of the week. This will be great for morale and encourage a bit of friendly competition amongst students. It is also crucial to emphasise that students do not need to be perfect environmentalists - being an imperfect one is brilliant and it can help to take the pressure off. It is not all or nothing: you can start with something small, and that is still worth celebrating. It’s also important to let the school’s wider community know about these wins. It could be a good idea to include a short paragraph on any sustainability initiatives within newsletters to parents and carers or governors. The more people who know about these efforts, the more likely they are to join the cause and implement positive change beyond the school walls! The journey to creating a more sustainable society will be a long one, but with a desire to make a difference and change our behaviours, we can become better ancestors and help the lives of those who come after us.
https://www.pearson.com/en-gb/schools/ insights-and-events/topics/brighter-futures. html
December 2023
www.education-today.co.uk 35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
