Sustainability: Goals For The Future

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: 

1. Where to start?

2. Current opportunities and curriculum planning

3. 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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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. 

5. 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. 

6. 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?

• UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education: UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education | IOE - Faculty of Education and Society - UCL – University College London 

• National College: https://nationalcollege.com/categories/subject-specific/climate-and-sustainability?phases[0]=3 

• WWF: Teacher Development and CPD | WWF

• FutureLearn: Teaching Climate Change - Teacher Training Course - FutureLearn  

  
  

Most of these courses are free and/or self-guided.

Embedding Sustainability Into The Curriculum

 By Divisha Patel

As mentioned in the previous blog post, teaching sustainability is becoming increasingly important as schools and other educational organisations take steps to develop the Department for Education’s initiative titled: ‘Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy’. In the past few months, WA has made steps in developing how we discuss these issues with the students, including hosting a weekly climate change club; continuing to promote Meat-Free Mondays; electing Sir David Attenborough as a house hero; hosting the Grantham Institute to teach Year 10 about the importance of managing climate change; and working with UCL’s new Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education. The steps the school has taken put us in great stead on ‘Action Area 1’ on the government’s strategy shown here. Action Area 1 promotes the importance of learning in and about the natural environment as well as supporting teachers in both primary and secondary classrooms.  

This post is the second post of three: 

1. Where to start? This was posted in October 2022

2. Current opportunities and curriculum planning

3. Goals for the future

In order to write this, I reached out to three middle leaders about how they were incorporating sustainability within their subjects. 

English - Izzy Hilliard, KS3 Coordinator for English

As part of the English curriculum in Y7, we make our non-fiction writing unit all about climate change. For instance, one of the articles that the Y7 students have to write is pretending they are undertaking an initiative that will promote sustainability at Westminster Academy. Some students talk about making posters; planting a garden; doing a clothes swap etc. This is a great way to engage students with the concept of advocacy whilst also developing their transactional writing skills. We also read speeches by sustainability and climate change pioneers such as Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough that the students attempt to mimic, with the use of key literary devices such as persuasive writing and emotive language.

Geography - Lucy Taylor, Geography Coordinator

In Geography, when planning the new Key Stage 3 curriculum, we ensured we included lessons on sustainability and/or climate change in every single unit we teach. It is a key geographical concept that bridges both human and physical geography and therefore it is essential students have an in-depth understanding. An example of this is within the Y7 unit of Australasia, students study the challenges the indigenous groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders face and one of these is how they are more susceptible to the impacts of climate change compared to other groups within Australia. Within Y8 during the Africa unit students will study how different groups across the continent are tackling climate change through initiatives such as the Great Green Wall, whilst also introducing them to the concept of sustainability being broken down into economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environmental sustainability. In Y9, students study Central America and within this unit they look at how ecotourism is a sustainable way to contribute to the economy whilst preserving fragile environments. At both GCSE and IB geography studying climate change and sustainability is a core part of the course, so they can apply the knowledge they learnt at Key Stage 3 and gain a deeper geographical understanding of the physical and human causes of climate change and the various approaches that may be used to tackle climate change and promote sustainable living across the globe. 

Science - Jennifer Scott, KS3 Coordinator for Science 

In Science, we have climate change and sustainability built into the curriculum and across units. For example in KS3, students consider the composition of the atmosphere and how this is impacted by pollution/carbon emissions, and the effects of this. They also consider energy efficiency and how to insulate a home to avoid energy being wasted. In KS4, students study in more detail how the atmosphere has changed over time, not only due to recent human impact but over millions of years. We also look at 'life cycle assessments' - a tool for evaluating the environmental impact of a product all the way from the extraction of materials to its use and disposal or recycling. Another consideration is the environmental impact of extracting metals from ores using different methods. In KS5, ESS takes the obvious lead on environmental studies, but through all subjects this is a consideration. For example, in practical IAs, one key aspect is the consideration of the environmental impact of the use and disposal of materials for students' chosen investigations.

How could you use this in your own teaching: 

• How does your current curriculum support the sustainability initiative? 
• How do you approach these ideas when they arise within your curriculum? 

If anyone is interested in developing how they teach about climate change further, UCL is hosting a free webinar in the Summer Term: 

Webinar: Teaching about climate change: Principles and Priorities (4 July 2022)

Bitesize Research: Impact Of Pollution On Learning

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week so far - we’re so nearly at the end of term! Sustainability and climate change is an urgent priority for our world, and we know that this is being reflected in UK education policy - see here for the DfE document published in 2022. At WA, we’re looking to make sure we’re on the front foot with this, and we’ve collaborated with the IoE Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability since its inception, and we’re now part of their network of schools. Divisha has also published some great work on our blog around this theme - see here. 

As such, following a long standing and established correlation between pollution and poor health, I was interested to see the following article about how pollution may also impact learning as reported by TES. 

Objectives: To understand the possible impact of pollution on learning.

Summary: 

• There have been clear and established links between air pollution and physical health for a long time.

• One particular academic at the University of Warwick has been looking at the correlation between air pollution and student attendance. She notes that there is increasing evidence to point to a correlation between student absences and rising pollution levels.

• Another study from the US in 2020, found that after a ‘red air day’ (where ambient or outdoor air quality levels were deemed to be unhealthy) that school absences tended to double the next day.

• Other early indications from studies around the world tentatively suggest that air pollution impacts the working memory, behaviour, attention and academic outcomes of pupils of all ages.

• Further studies on exactly how air pollution particulates impact brain function are being proposed to see exactly what mechanisms are interrupted and therefore how we may best combat this. 

  
  

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How am I incorporating ideas about climate change, pollution and sustainability into my lessons and conversations with students?

• How could you spend time in finding out about students' living conditions and suggest actions they could to help their exposure, such as nurturing house plants? 

• What do I need to know to move forward with understanding this and incorporating this into my practice?

 

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Sustainability and climate issues across the curriculum- where to start?

By Divisha Patel

‘Sustainability’ has become a major buzzword of the 21st century, and will continue to rise in importance in the coming years. Teaching sustainability is often shoe-horned into Geography and Science lessons as some may not believe it is relevant to other subject areas or may not feel confident teaching the core principles of sustainability. However, teaching sustainability, especially climate change, must now go beyond science and data, and must develop knowledge and values that allows students to understand their role in a rapidly changing world. Given the changes in the physical environment, alongside the global resources and financial instability we are experiencing, it is important that we equip and support students in understanding how their lifestyles may change, and heed their wellbeing concerns, such as eco-anxiety. 

Over the year, I will be writing a blog post per term to help us towards incorporating sustainability and climate education in our curriculum:

1. Where to start?

2. Current opportunities and curriculum planning

3. Goals for the future

   
   

This week and the following week marks the period of time for which world leaders will be attending and discussing climate-related issues at the COP27 summit. COP27 is an annual summit for governments to agree steps to limit global temperature rises. This will be the fifth time a COP has been hosted in Africa. The IPCC says Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world. Currently, 17 million people are estimated to be facing food insecurity in east Africa because of drought. Not only will some of these communities have familial links with WA students, but also these communities may have been home for our first-generation immigrant students. 

Until now subject areas and teachers have been able to keep sustainability and climate education at arm’s length due to contending curriculum demands, however the UK Government have recently set out plans in line with their ‘Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy’ which is going to change the landscape of how sustainability and climate education is addressed in schools. 

Initiatives within the Government’s strategy include:

• Secondary school students will be able to study the natural world through an exciting new GCSE in Natural History which will be introduced by September 2025

• Greater support for teaching climate change at all levels, and by 2023, there will be new requirements for further education teachers to build sustainability into their teaching

• A new Climate Award in recognition for students’ work to improve their environment, with a prestigious national awards ceremony held every year

• The rollout of carbon literacy training to support at least one sustainability lead in every nursery, school, college and university

  
  

It is important that we are aware of these changes, and where possible, get on the forefront of them. WA recently welcomed the directors of UCL’s new ‘Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education’ and the Geography department have been working with academics at Imperial College’s Grantham Institute whose vision is to create ‘a sustainable, resilient, zero-carbon future.’ But our work shouldn’t and can’t stop there…

What are our next steps as a school? 

• Discuss the social implications of sustainability and climate change, for example, with your tutor groups, discuss the importance of public transport and recycling

• Celebrate the ongoing environmental science work by people such as Greta Thunberg and Sir David Attenborough 

• Use website such as Green Choices and Eco Schools to inform planning in your subject areas 

• Engage with and contribute to the research from UCL’s Centre for Sustainable and Climate Education here. They have great articles and webinars for you to learn more about their key foci

• Speak to members of the Geography and Science departments if you want further advice on how to incorporate sustainability and climate education into your curriculum areas  

  
  

There are many, many other steps we can take as a school to enhance our sustainability and climate education delivery, but hopefully, reading this article and giving pause for thoughts about what this means to you and your subject area, is a step in the right direction, for both our school; our local communities; and the global community. 

Bitesize Research: Sustainability & Climate Change In Secondary Schools

By Jaya Carrier

Welcome back - I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break, and that you’re having a good first week back. 

This week’s bitesize is a little bit different and I’m using it to highlight a really exciting research project that we at WA are taking part in. One of the most pressing global issues facing us and our students is climate change and sustainability. In light of this, we were delighted to be approached by the new Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability at the Institute of Education to take part in their research into how this issue is embedded into schools and education.

For this work, researchers from this centre will be coming into WA for two days in May to speak to our staff, to look at our current approaches to this issue, and to support us with devising future initiatives. 

Objectives:

To examine how climate change and sustainability are approached by schools in the UK currently, and then to devise and disseminate best practices on how to educate about these issues going forward

Summary: 

• The new Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability is reporting that a significant proportion of teachers feel underprepared to teach about climate change and sustainability.
• They acknowledge that effective education on this issue may also require a change in values education, careers education as well as better knowledge. They also acknowledge that this work is likely to be cross-disciplinary to be most effective. 
• They are looking to work with teachers across the UK to develop their work in tandem with teachers.
• The need for better support for teachers is also acknowledged in the Department for Education’s recent Climate and Sustainability Education draft strategy 

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

 

• What is the value of climate change and sustainability education?
• What am I currently doing to promote sustainability to my students?
• What would I like to do to support sustainability and climate change education?

 

If you would like to discuss this further with me or if you’d like to take part in some of this research - please let me know! I’d be delighted to hear from you!