Teach Secondary Issue 14.7

– that related to culture. While most individuals will recognise a need for change, actually delivering it can be a big hurdle. Engaging and motivating your entire school around sustainability efforts will entail a huge culture shift, which should ideally be led from the top. This won’t just amount to asking staff to change their photocopying habits, but rather to adapt their core practice and routines . In some instances, this could have the potential to almost come across as a personal slight. In any case, there will be many senior leaders who are, understandably, cautious at the idea of changing practice in a way that’s possibly liable to impact upon all pupils, all at once. TAKINGTHE JOURNEY – ONE SCHOOL’S PERSPECTIVE Sarah Dukes, English teacher and Sustainability Leader at The Chase School in Malvern,Worcestershire, recalls how the school’s waste disposal procedures changed in response to student demand... In 2019, a group of pupils concerned about paper waste asked about our school’s recycling policy – and The Chase Eco Committee was born. For our first mission, pupils investigated the potential for our recycling to expand beyond just paper, to include cardboard, cans, aerosol containers, glass and plastic. Recycling bins with newly designed labels were placed in classrooms, along with themed posters, while the Committee delivered school assemblies. The local recycling centre even ran virtual workshops for us during tutor time. Our students wanted to reduce the school’s use of non-recyclable plastics, energy and water consumption, whilst encouraging greater use of sustainable transport and planting more trees. ‘Greening up’ Since then, we’ve also increased our volume of working solar panels; banned single-use plastic drinks; enriched our green spaces by planting new trees and maintained our sedum roof.We’ve also expanded our science garden and endeavoured to improve the school’s air quality. Our lighting systems have been linked to proximity sensors, and we’ve installed a new set of EVC chargers. Thanks in part to our newly established Putting it into practice It may surprise you to learn, however, that navigating the green transition in schools isn’t the alien process it’s often made out to be. The DfE strategy begins by advising all schools to appoint a ‘sustainability leader’, who will then draw up a climate action plan for the remainder of the year, and can turn to the Sustainability Support for Education website (sustainabilitysupportforeducation.org. uk) for advice and assistance, if needed. Alongside this, a network of Climate Ambassadors has been recruited, whom schools can reach out to for further guidance, information, resources and mentoring. A useful template, available from climateactionplan.org.uk, can assist you with creating an individual climate action plan based upon your school’s particular needs and context. The finished action plan can then be re-uploaded to the website to track progress over time. The strategy consists of four pillars, which should ideally be reflected in your climate action plan. To help get things moving, you can turn to a range of different organisations for helpful information and suggestions – including the following: Curriculum: By making just a few small tweaks to the existing curriculum, schools can potentially deliver some great outcomes with respect to climate ‘Sustainability’ staff steering group, all job descriptions posted by the school now include as a ‘desirable’ trait a willingness from candidates to help support our Climate Emergency pledge. This has helped to attract interest from a cleaning company with a commitment to reducing waste, and shown how ‘greening up’ school operations can help to save money. We’ve embedded nature connectedness and climate awareness across subjects, adapting lessons and creating new units of work. We’ve face some challenges stemming from changes in staff, leadership and across wider society. A top-down push for booklets presented a struggle when trying to reduce our paper consumption. A request to plant more free Woodland Trust trees was rejected, due to lack of space. The inbuilt obsolescence of some hardware and software used across the school has resulted in increased volumes of electronic waste. A core priority The school’s passionate sustainability lead, Eco Committee and staff steering group understand that sustainability and broader environmental concerns must become a core priority for everything taking place in school – from the planning and delivery of lessons, to how resources are delployed, behaviour is managed and attitudes are talked about. Our students are encouraged to carefully consider their own and others’ methods for getting to school and work, as well as how sustainable our choices are when it comes to what we eat for lunch. Though it’s easy to forget that not everyone thinks the same way... 46 teachwire.net/secondary