Suffolk’s authorities supporting sustainability in schools

32 of Suffolk’s schools recently attended a conference to help them write their climate action plans and deliver sustainability initiatives.

The Suffolk Sustainability in Education conference, held at St Joseph’s College in Ipswich, is the first of three events in the East of England to support schools to deliver on the objectives set out in the Department of Education’s Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy.

The government has said that all schools should have a Sustainability Lead and Climate Action Plan in place by the end of this academic year.

The event was co-organised by the Suffolk Sustainable Schools Network, an initiative funded by Suffolk’s public sector organisations and delivered by Suffolk County Council, to support the delivery of Suffolk’s Climate Emergency Plan.

Feedback from the conference was hugely positive, with one delegate stating they were “so grateful” and “feeling much less overwhelmed” by the process.

Councillor Gerald Kelly, Chair of the Suffolk Councils’ Environment Portfolio Holders’ Group, said:

“We know that developing climate action plans is a new and complex challenge for most schools, so Suffolk’s public sector leaders wanted to support them through the process.

“The conference was a fantastic opportunity for school leaders to investigate ways to reduce their carbon emissions, improve biodiversity onsite, adapt to more extreme weather and improve provision for climate and green careers education.

“This is one way that Suffolk’s local authorities are delivering the Suffolk Climate Emergency Plan, by promoting collaborative climate action in schools and communities to reach Suffolk’s ambition of achieving net zero emissions by 2030.”

Keynote speeches included updates from Joe Billington, Head of the Sustainability Unit at the Department of Education, and from Talia Hardie from Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) who gave an insight on youth perspectives from her role as a Cambridge student and Climate Action Plan co-ordinator.

Delegates had the opportunity to engage in a variety of workshops including climate literacy training, climate action planning, community climate action through schools, greening the curriculum and behaviour change for sustainability.

Hannah Fitzpatrick, Senior Project Manager at SOS-UK, said:

“This is a pivotal year for sustainability in education, with the deadline looming for all schools to have completed a Climate Action Plan and early indications from the Government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review that the new curriculum will rightly place a much greater emphasis on tackling the climate crisis.”

“Events like Suffolk Sustainability in Education play a vital role in supporting teachers on their climate education journey and it was a fantastic to see SOS-UK represented at the conference by young activist Talia Hardie, who is helping to amplify youth voice and ensure students are meaningfully included in conversations about the issues that will affect them most.”

Special thanks to The Science Hub for administrating the event and key sponsor, Barkers Associates.

Further events to support Suffolk’s schools will be taking place in the future, you can keep up to date with these at www.greensuffolk.org