|
|
|
How do you as a school leader translate your green ambitions into local action? Nick Bannister catches up with two schools with approaches that could offer a template for others.
Think global, act local. It’s been a guiding principle of the environmental movement since the early 1970s, when green activism was a fringe issue.
Now, with evidence gathering all the time of the impact of global warming, sustainability issues are at the forefront of the popular consciousness. Most of us want to play our part in creating a greener society. And it is school leaders who are better placed than many to translate this eco mantra into practical reality.
But how are they setting about this challenge? NCSL launched a major research project in late 2007 to capture the practical approaches to sustainability taking place in schools across the country.
Almost 100 schools entered the scheme with 56 - 35 primary and 21 secondary – finally being selected. Each received a £5,000 grant to form networks with other schools in their regions and share good practice in sustainable thinking. The schools will also help the College’s research into this subject.
Sustainability is already well-established at Crispin School, a 1,100 pupil secondary in Street, Somerset.
When it came to creating a new school development plan with its key objective of co-ordinating its specialisms (Crispin is a Technology College, a Leading Edge school and a Languages College) it was obvious to deputy headteacher Frances Thomson and colleagues that sustainable development could be a major force behind that aim.
“By driving sustainability as a key part of a development plan it helped to bring some coherence to our specialisms by having a sustainability theme throughout,” she explains. “It will help us as a school prepare our pupils to live sustainably now and in the future.”
The structures to help drive this coherence were already entrenched, says Frances. “We already have well established collaborative partnerships, within the school – in the form of cross curricular partnerships – and with our partner primary schools.
“It’s important to have such structures if you want to grow a shared vision,” Frances says.
An affecting example of the coherence that sustainability work can bring can be found in Crispin’s international links with Kenyan schools.
The school is part of a Kenyan cluster group with three local primaries. The schools are working on an organic gardening project and in the autumn will welcome their African counterparts during which they’ll share case studies and debate sustainability issues.
Year 10 peer tutor teams called the ‘Kenya Crew’ help to spread the sustainability message through educational workshops for Crispin’s partner primaries and the school’s own citizenship KS3 lessons.
“Our approach to sustainability has had a range of benefits,” Frances says. “There’s improved scientific and technological understanding on many issues, including sustainable energy, growing food and fair trade. There are also more opportunities for active citizenship, participation in the local community and the politics of change.”
Situated in an area of above average social deprivation with the buzzing M5 and heavy industry close by, St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary in Birmingham, seems a world away from rural Somerset, yet the school sees sustainability as playing a similar, driving role in the school’s development.
The 250-pupil school has published a sustainable schools action plan for many years and has renewed its local authority ‘Charter Mark’ for sustainable development three times.
Headteacher Mary Simmons says the whole community is behind the school’s sustainability work, with whole families making lifestyle changes as a result of pupil sustainability projects.
But it hasn’t always been like that. When Mary joined the school her priority was on improving the school surroundings for the children and bringing the school out of special measures.
It was the process of creating a new and exciting place to learn – and the impact this had upon the pupils – that led the school to realise that it could have a significant impact on the world beyond the school gates, too.
“We took the positive impact of caring for the building and started to think about the impact we could have if we were to address education for sustainability,” she explains.
It started with the leadership team articulating the vision to the school community. ‘Quick wins’ such as a community litter pick, an ‘e-link’ with an Indian school and composting were used to drive interest within the school.
Over time, sustainability became a feature of the school, with teachers and non-teaching staff taking on responsibility for leading and managing individual projects.
Links with outside organisations also followed. As well as building on already strong sustainability links with the local authority the school joined forces with a local litter charity, UNICEF, other schools and volunteer gardeners.
It is a very practical approach to sustainability which chimes with the learning styles of many St Francis pupils, Mary adds. “The children at St Francis know how to act sustainably but also understand why it is important to do so as well.”
For NCSL’s Operational Director for Research and Policy, Toby Greany, schools like St Francis and Crispin offer encouraging signs that schools are making real strides in leadership for sustainability.
“These examples really show the effort which schools are starting to put into sustainability. It seems likely that the government will expect schools to achieve significant reductions in carbon emissions in coming years, so the issue is becoming increasingly important.”
Next steps
Leading sustainable schools is a new support pack available from NCSL designed to support you and your leadership team and give you ideas for action. More information at www.ncsl.org.uk/sustainableschools. |
 |
|
|
|
