Want to know where to go for all the resources you will need to introduce climate change, COP26 and the role of schools in shaping the future, for age groups from 7-16? Yes, please!
Well, look no further! WWF have chaired an effort to create such a pack with 30+ environmental organisations and twinkl educational publishers! You can access it here and on the Trust for Sustainable Living community website soon.
The pack includes:
- A COP26 presentation – a presentation for assemblies and classrooms explaining the who, what, when, where, why of COP 26.
- Mini Climate Summit Toolkit – containing fact sheets, discussion cards, and a step-by-step facilitator guide to support a versatile mini climate summit activity, helping students to get to grips with a range of global issues, local perspectives, and creating a plan of action for the world to achieve a positive future.
- Promise To The Planet Workshop – guided reflection and group discussion to encourage students and staff to use their new understanding of climate change and the aims of COP to their own lives, school and community. Students identify actions they can take in their own lives, and contribute to a School #PromiseTothePlanet.
- Video Library – designed to support independent research and to enrich classroom presentations and activities, this selection of bite-sized videos will bring students face-to-face with UN negotiators, climate witnesses and science experts.
- Educator and Youth Leader Guidance – climate change and international politics are challenging topics to cover with young people. This pack will provide educators, youth leaders and parents with information and advice to help them tackle these complex subjects with confidence, including eco-anxiety, the links between climate and human rights, and inclusion and social justice.
Taking your lessons a step further this November
On Friday 5th November 2021, at the end of the first week of the Climate Change Conference, young people in schools and scout troops across the UK will form a virtual forest of promises to the planet, in order to send a clear message to Boris Johnson and other world leaders just how much energy and resolve there is in local communities across the UK to play an active role in fighting climate change.
Young people across the UK are invited to create leaves bearing their #PromiseToThePlanet and a message they want world leaders to hear as they decide on commitments that will shape the future for humans and nature. Schools are asked to use these leaves to create a ‘Tree of Promises’ to form part of a virtual forest that will take root across the UK during COP.
These trees, each representing a community united in their resolve to work for a positive future, will burst into leaf on Friday 5th November 2021. Schools are asked to bring their communities together on this day to learn more about COP and climate change, hear the concerns and hopes of the students, learn what the school will do to fight climate change, and discover what they can do to support and contribute.
For more information about the #PromiseToThePlanet campaign visit www.scouts.org.uk/about-us/help-others/promise-to-the-planet/
Certificate of Participation for your school!
Schools can submit details of their COP26 activities and their school climate action plan, plus examples of student messages and artwork, in order to claim a certificate of participation and to allow us to amplify the work of the school and the voices of students in comms around COP:
Share details and photos of your COP26 activities to receive an official certificate of participation for your school, and to allow us to take your story to COP26: tinyurl.com/OurClimateOurFutureForm
Even more activities, events, and opportunities
- Let’s Go Zero – Sign up to the Let’s Go Zero campaign, and help realise the huge potential of UK schools to contribute to the fight against climate change.
https://letsgozero.org/ - Climate Action Project – Register to connect with teachers and students all around the world as you take a 6 week educational journey through climate change issues.
www.climate-action.info - Transform Our World – Already featuring a library of climate resources from a host of organisations, TOW will soon feature a School Action Planning tool, helping you to identify potential actions across the school’s campus, curriculum, community and culture that can reduce your environmental impact. Perfect for generating ideas to include in your School Promise To The Planet.
https://www.transform-our-world.org/action-plan - Free Teacher Training: Education For A Sustainable Planet – Take the free, online certificated WWF training course for teachers to gain confidence in teaching climate change, and for guidance on taking a whole school approach to sustainability.
http://tinyurl.com/wwfesdcourse - Host a screening of David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet – Reflect on this powerful witness statement and vision for the future from the world’s most trusted authority on the natural world, and the UK’s People’s Advocate to COP26.
http://attenboroughfilm.com/schools - Future Visions Challenge – Help your students to look beyond the environmental crisis towards the inspiring challenge to shape a positive sustainable future. Draw inspiration from a unique short film by the makers of Our Planet, and from moving visions shared by the likes of Benjamin Zephaniah, Kae Tempest and SOS From the Kids, then support your students to share theirs through visual art, creative writing, music or video. Selected visions will be shown at COP and shared online by WWF.
www.wwf.org.uk/futurevisions - RSPB Wild Challenge – Experience and take action in and around your school’s grounds using RSPBs Wild Challenge Award Scheme
www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswildchallenge - Explore and protect your local nature – Take action for biodiversity in and around your school grounds using WWF’s Our Planet LAB (Local Action on Biodiversity) Toolkit.
www.wwf.org.uk/discover-nature-seek-app - Young Climate Warrior Weekly Challenges – Bring action for sustainability to life for primary students by supporting them to complete simple weekly challenges that help in the fight against climate change. https://www.youngclimatewarriors.org/youngclimatewarriorweeklychallenges
- Letters for Creation – Church schools might be particularly interested in Christian Aid’s Letters for Creation project, prompting pupils to use their creative skills to develop a ‘think piece’ on the beauty of the natural world and the importance of climate justice.
https://www.christianaid.org.uk/get-involved/schools/letters-creation - Great Big Green Week – For more information about Great Big Green Week and opportunities to contribute to community projects and events feeding into COP contact The Climate Coalition: https://www.theclimatecoalition.org/contact-us
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