Strengthening Sustainable Schools

The Bath-based education team works primarily to support and strengthen ‘Sustainable Schools’ in Bath & North East Somerset. It also has a distinctive global dimension woven into all its education programmes. 

Current work includes:

Eco-Schools Support

Resource Futures is working closely with Bath& North East Somerset Council on a new, three-year project. We are using the nationally-recognised Eco-Schools Award programme as a vehicle for helping schools to address challenges such as energy and carbon reduction, resource efficiency and environmental awareness. We aim to make a quantifiable difference in every school by 2012. At the same time we are supporting schools in the teaching and learning aspects of their journey towards whole school sustainability, making clear connections to national education requirements.

The project provides:

• training for teachers, governors and other school staff,
• pupil and class sessions
• support for pupil Eco-Teams
• energy audits
• opportunities for teachers to join a local network and share experiences
• information on funding and specialist advice
• teaching and learning resources
• links with local community initiatives
• input into B&NES Council’s Schools’ Carbon Management plan

Climate Change Connection

This project is working with secondary schools to help raise awareness of the global implications of climate change, and to support schools in identifying action they can take in response. 

The annual highlight of the project is a two-day conference on climate change, attended by delegations from almost every secondary school in the area. In 2009, around 200 students were able to learn, debate and interact with contributors ranging from Marks and Spencer and Arup Engineering to Comic Relief and Oxfam. 

Student participation is a key feature and we have recently established a Young Climate Change Activists group who will take things forward among their peers in Bath & North East Somerset.

 “It has made me more enthusiastic about stopping climate change – we need to change the whole school’s view.”

 “It’s really had an effect on me. I found it inspiring and it gave me hope.”

“The energy of the pupils was amazing. A well run and inspiring conference. Absolutely brilliant.”

 (Quotes from students and a teacher, July 2009)

Grow it Global

Resource Futures is working in partnership with the development organisation Send a Cow, on this three-year project. It aims to create better understanding of food production and security, sustainable development and climate change in primary age pupils in different regions of England and Wales. 

The project is working with a number of British farms, supporting them in hosting ‘African farmyard’ visits from schools to their farms. Each year, this programme is reinforced by visiting farmers from Uganda and Lesotho, who teach children about life, food and farming in their own country. Pupils also engage in hand-on practical activities ranging from making ‘keyhole gardens’ to water ‘tip-taps’. These skills and knowledge are taken back into schools, where hundreds of gardens now flourish as examples of sustainable development in action.

Grow it Global will soon be rolled out from the South West to schools in the Herefordshire / Worcestershire and South Wales.