Last week 14 Suffolk primary schools joined together to attend training for the innovative sustainability programme: Our Schools Our World.
This programme, designed by schools for schools offers a whole-school approach to sustainability. The programme follows four key aims:
– To integrate environmental education into the primary curriculum and support the development of green skills
– To enable children and young people to develop a close connection to nature
– To support work on decarbonising school operations
– To empower children, young people and their communities to become changemakers
Training took place across three sunny days at St. Joseph’s college.
Each day was full of enthusiasm, great discussion and great ideas generation.
The training was delivered by the programme leads from the Brighton and Hove and the Suffolk Schools’ Sustainability Team.
Day One: Leading for Sustainability 4th March 2025
Day one brought together headteachers, senior programme leads and sustainability governors. The day focused on developing knowledge of Climate Change and introducing the Our Schools Our World framework. It also focused on the importance of strong leadership when adopting a whole school approach to climate change.
Day Two: Greening the Curriculum 5th March 2025
Day two focused on ‘greening’ the curriculum, with senior programme leads exploring how to develop their existing curriculums and interweave climate change into each year group’s learning. In the afternoon, the group headed outside for activities on outdoor learning. The day concluded with a thought-provoking session with Thoughtbox on how to talk to young people about climate change.
Day Three: Climate Action Planning 6th March 2025
Day 3 was attended by senior programme leads, school business managers and school site managers. The day focused on school operations and climate action planning. We were joined by Max Evans and Nigel Stannett from Let’s Go Zero. Nigel shared practical tips on reducing emissions and advice on climate action planning. Attendees plotted a variety of sustainable operational actions on an impact graph; an activity that generated some very interesting discussion. Attendees were also able to find out more about the Count Your Carbon toolkit and learn how it can help schools audit their emissions and use this data in their Climate Action Plans.
The Suffolk Schools Sustainability team would like to thank all those who attended the training days. It was inspiring to see schools commit to integrating climate education into their curricula, to hear brilliant examples of current sustainability projects, and to learn about the ambition to work collectively, with one another and their school communities to become changemakers!
We would also like to thank Jonathan Cooper and Katie Eberstein for their pioneering work on this programme and for delivering the training in such an engaging way, to all our guest speakers and to St. Joseph’s College for providing an excellent venue.
As the programme moves forward over the next two years, the Suffolk Schools’ Sustainability Team will be supporting each school to implement the Our Schools Our World framework and create links with local businesses and communities.