In recent years, the global climate crisis has reached new magnitudes. This issue is particularly important for younger generations, but many feel their calls for solutions are not being heard. As educators, we can and must change that. But how?
Motivated by the growing crisis and global peers like Greta Thunberg and Licypriya Kangujam, pupils across the 19 academies within Bradford Diocesan Academies Trust (BDAT) are working together to fight against climate change by driving forward sustainable practices.
These practices aim to make year-on-year improvements towards the trust’s net zero mission by considering the environmental impacts of every decision we make. These include everything from how buildings are run, to the partners and suppliers the trust works with, to pupil-led community activities.
While each academy has a slightly different focus, whether it be forest schools, recycling or hosting a local climate summit, BDAT’s academies are united in making changes which benefit their local communities.
To give pupils a platform to become leaders within the community, BDAT is setting up pupil-led eco school councils in each academy, which feed into a trust-wide sustainability learning community. The eco councils empower pupils to become confident leaders, giving them an outlet to demonstrate how they are driving forward changes in their academies.
They also lead on important sustainability changes within each academy, including rewilding academy grounds by planting trees and wildflowers, sourcing reusable stationary for classes to cut down single-use papers, and applying for a grant to fund a fleet of bikes for pupils to get to and from school, reducing petrol emissions.
Behind each academy sits a trust-wide workforce sustainability professional network. Sustainability leaders from each academy meet termly to share good practice and encourage other local schools to follow suit. This ensures the work and priorities of pupils, initiated in eco council meetings, drives the environmental improvements across the trust, magnifying the impact of sustainability changes across Bradford.
Many of the eco councils’ objectives are woven into the curriculum
The trust has also invested financially in driving environmental improvements. As part of a pupil-led goal to reduce energy emissions, we have installed solar panels on the roofs of 17 academies. This is already supporting a significant reduction in BDAT’s carbon footprint and promoting clean energy usage.
Working with Solar for Schools, each site was fitted with a bespoke panel configuration which together have the capacity to generate 2,255 kilowatts of energy for the trust and academies, 30 per cent of what is used annually, saving 382 tonnes of CO2.
Alongside reducing fossil fuel consumption, the panels also help reduce energy costs, allowing the money saved to be reinvested back into the education provisions at each academy. Pupils benefit from first-hand solar energy lessons and can access live online updates to see how much energy their academy’s panels are generating.
Many of the eco councils’ objectives are woven into the curriculum so pupils can learn about the science behind sustainable practices while they are delivering them. Pupils in the Eco-Councils hold assemblies to share their plans and garner peer support for upcoming projects, provide updates to classes and senior leadership on progress within each initiative and lead on peer-to-peer lessons on topics like recycling.
To bolster this work, BDAT has also joined the Let’s Go Zero campaign, which brings together a network of organisations supporting schools and young people to take action and cut carbon emissions. The campaign offers the trust a climate action advisor who supports our academies to understand their carbon impact, make effective plans and find funding and resources, helping the councils bring their ideas to fruition.
Equipping the next generation with the voice, skills and STEM knowledge required to thrive in green jobs and fight against climate change is a top priority for us. We work to help our young people become an unstoppable force for innovation by giving them the platform and encouragement they need to develop their ideas and achieve their goals.
This mission is not only driven forward by the trust, but is predominantly pupil-led, setting them apart as leaders within their peer community and as mobilisers of meaningful change.
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