Climate Action - Sustainability Plan
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What do we believe?
The Church of England’s vision of education:
Deeply Christian, Serving the common good (2026) states,
‘Good schools open up horizons of hope and aspiration and guide pupils into ways of fulfilling them… rooted in God’s love and compassion for all people and for the whole of creation.’
As a Christian school, we encourage our children to:
· Be responsible and respectful of themselves, others and the world we live in.
· Respect life in all its forms,
· Look for hope in difficult times or situations and use resilience to overcome these,
· Be courageous to stand up for what we believe in.
· Love one another and the world in which we live.
Therefore, our Sustainability Climate Action Plan for 2025 (and beyond) is bound by these values as well as our common purpose to ensure all those within our school community live life in all its fullness (John 10:10) through the promotion and protection of God’s World.
What is Climate Change?
The dictionary definition is:
A change in global or regional climate patterns in particular a change apparent from mid to late 20th Century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produce they the use of fossil fuels.
There are many factors that can make the Earth warmer and colder including:
· greenhouse gases caused by human activity,
· deforestation, where more than half of the world’s surface has been ploughed and paved,
· ozone layer trapping heat closer to the Earth’s surface
· different types of air pollution which have different effects on the atmosphere.
The challenge of climate change is huge. For our children to meet it with determination, and not with despair, we must teach them not just truth, but also hope. Children need to know the truth about climate change – through knowledge-rich education. They must also be given the hope that they can be agents of change, through hands-on activities and, as they progress, through guidance and programmes allowing them to pursue a green career pathway in their chosen field (DFE 2023).
What can we do?
The DFE has called on all education sectors to create a sustainability climate action plan to show how we, as a school community, can support national and international initiatives which are aimed at protecting the world through direct climate action. As a school, we have an important role to play in this, particularly reducing our environmental footprint to work towards net zero and giving all children, young people and adults the knowledge and skills to thrive in the green economy and to help restore nature.
Through our sustainability climate action plan, we will engage directly with children and young people who are passionate about the natural world, want to do their best to protect it and can influence others.
Through their learned and lived experiences from early years to Year 6, our children will develop a broad knowledge and understanding of the importance of nature, sustainability and the causes and impact of climate change and to translate this knowledge into positive action and solutions.
Using the four areas identified in the DFE’s Sustainability and climate change strategy our sustainability and climate action plan will focus on:
1. Decarbonisation e.g. acting to reduce carbon emissions and becoming more energy efficient.
2. Adaptation and Resilience e.g. acting to reduce the risk of flooding and overheating.
3. Biodiversity e.g engaging with National Education Nature Park
4. Climate Education and Green Career goals e.g. knowledge rich comprehensive teaching about climate change.
It will also include:
Actions that are pertinent to us as a primary school, such as, developing our Eco Warriors group further and taking part in the Eco Schools program in order to gain our Green Flag Award (Bronze initially).