Changing Climate For Schools

I have occupied my small space on the planet for just over half a century now. During that time, clamour around the sustainability of its resources has grown steadily. But, if I'm honest, until recently, I've never really done a great deal to regulate my consumption and depletion of them.

Sure, I’ve recycled where it’s been convenient, regularly turned off the many lights left switched on in our house, and, in recent years, have stopped driving a diesel car. But it’s not enough. We all need to do more – or less. The evidence is overwhelming.

The world has been getting hotter. According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years. 2019 set all sorts of records. Nearly 400 alltime high temperatures were set in the Northern hemisphere last summer. Even if the countries that are party to the 2016 Paris Agreement meet all of their promises, the planet could still be three Celsius warmer by the end of this century.

Climate change is set to cause major and irreversible changes to our planet: rising sea levels; a fall in food production, and species driven to extinction.

By definition, teachers are concerned about the future. Rarely articulated is their powerful responsibility to help shape the next generation of citizens and their society. We have taught them about climate change for a number of years. Now we must also model behaviours and shape attitudes that will encourage them to take better care of the planet than we have.

There will come a time when the environmental impact of all organisations is measured and published. Schools may come to be judged not just on their exam results but by their carbon emissions too. But we shouldn’t wait for this.

Of course, there is no quick, easy or cheap fix; no environmentally-friendly magic wand. The changes that are needed are significant. To be sustainable in all senses of the word, they require investment and a shift in our assumptions and attitudes. But we have to start somewhere and we have to start now.

Newcastle School for Boys is currently active in pursuit of relocation to a single site. One of the many considerations in such a project must be to reset our environmental impact.

But, in the meantime, we still need to be doing all that we can to preserve our children’s planet. There is much that we can do as a community. The traffic around our school sites at the start and end of each day causes many problems. Congestion poses not only a safety risk to our pupils and other road users, it reduces the air quality around our sites as well as contributing to longer term ozone layer depletion.

I am now more aware than ever of my responsibilities both personally and as the Head of a school. As Head, I recognise that I have to lead by example and recently found myself delivering an assembly on this topic. I pledged to the boys some small lifestyle changes. Trying to reduce the number of car journeys I make between home and school. More car-sharing with colleagues is an option and my journey is well served – albeit somewhat unreliably due to underinvestment – by public transport.

I have been eating a vegetarian diet for a number of months now. My motivation was partly environmental but I also happen to feel a great deal healthier particularly with no processed meat in my diet. The School is currently renewing its catering contract and whilst we won’t be imposing a vegetarian menu on the pupil body, sustainability will be an important consideration in the award of that contract.

Use of consumables: in my role like many people’s, I receive and generate a great deal of paper! Even without radically altering how the School or I work, this can be reduced. If the role of schools is to develop future generations and society, we can no longer ignore climate change. The education system is charged with many things. Arguably, this is one of the most important.