By Divisha Patel
Throughout the year, the blog series has followed the rise and development of sustainability education within Westminster Academy, and nationally. This blog series has already highlighted the importance of our role as educators to ensure that students understand more about climate change and sustainability, and are prepared for the incoming Government strategy shown here.
This post is the final post of three:
Where to start?
Current opportunities and curriculum planning
Goals for the future
As we start to include more teaching of sustainability in our curriculum, it is important to be aware of the following things: avoiding doom and gloom; harnessing social justice; and adopting an interdisciplinary approach.
Firstly, when discussing climate change, avoid doom and gloom! Whilst it is important for students to be aware of the challenges, such as flooding, sea level rise and extreme weather events, they are still children and may be feeling eco-anxious, given that it is their generation that will likely suffer the immediate effects. In discussions with students, talk about some of the success stories such as the involvement of local councils offering grants for sustainability initiatives in schools and businesses; or the power and promise of student-led events to advocate for the environment; or the many, many companies in the UK and around the world, who are adapting their processes to be more environmentally minded. For example, Iceland has banned all palm oil goods for their shops to protect orangutans, who are an endangered species in South-East Asia. This approach helps promote resilience amongst our students.
Secondly, our student body is incredibly caring of each other and others, and so it is important that we harness this character trait to instill a sense of social justice and responsibility. We have a diverse student body which may have friends or family living in countries that are experiencing the effects of climate change much more so than here in the UK, therefore it is important to share and discuss topical news events from countries around the world.
Finally, from a curriculum perspective, it would be good for subject leaders to come together to consider how our subjects can approach teaching climate change and sustainability. Through a critical lens, students can be taught to understand the science behind climate change and sustainability, whilst understanding the socio-political aspects of the global issue. For this, out of classroom learning could and would be of benefit for students to apply their knowledge and understanding. An effective use of resources could be to organise guest speakers; invite local charities and businesses; launch advocacy campaigns.
There are many activities and projects that a school can put in place for the promotion of sustainability.
Create a school garden: Students can learn about plant growth and the importance of locally-grown food. Funding to start such projects can be found here, offered by Westminster Council.
Implement a recycling program: Students can work together to set up a recycling program at the school and educate their classmates about the importance of recycling.
Plan an energy-saving campaign: Students can brainstorm ways to reduce energy consumption at the school and implement their ideas, such as turning off lights and unplugging electronics when not in use.
Take a field trip to a local farm or nature reserve: Students can learn about sustainable agriculture and the importance of preserving natural habitats. For example, Bedzed in London was the UK’s first major zero-carbon community project.
Participate in a beach or river clean-up: Students can work together to remove litter and debris from local waterways and learn about the negative impact of pollution on the environment. This could be combined with the GCSE Geography fieldwork visit to West Wittering beach.
Students can digitally record all the sustainability activities and showcase it as part of their study portfolio. We have started to do this in Geography, with our Year 9 students participating in a playground pollution study.
What are the opportunities for professional development?
Most of these courses are free and/or self-guided.
