Topic of the month: food and drink.
Join the talk2learn online discussion about food and drink in sustainable schools.
Find out how schools have developed sustainability .
View the research report (pdf, 332kb, 54 pages) for more about the findings.
Nearly 98 per cent of respondents to our quantative survey said that as a leader, they rated the sustainable schools strategy as either very important or important.
In the schools where sustainability has been successfully developed, it is something that is at the heart of the school and is a vehicle for delivering the Every Child Matters agenda rather than an add on activity – it pervades every aspect of school life.
The research was led by WWF-UK and carried out by a project team consisting of colleagues from the Institute of Education in London, Education Direct and Dr Chris Gayford of Reading University.
Successful sustainable schools are involved in many activities beyond the core curriculum, such as Healthy Schools, Global Dimension, Eco-schools and Growing Schools. Leaders of these schools expand their role beyond the school and embrace the wider world. Most of the schools we worked with have developed good local, national and international relationships.
The case studies and focus groups give many examples of environmental impacts. These range from improving the school campus with art work; tree planting; incorporating renewable energy or sustainable build features; growing food; to changing attitudes and behaviours and creating a deeper understanding of the connection between people and place.
Learning is central to sustainable schools for all members of the school community, students and staff alike. From the case studies, schools are using sustainability to deliver the National Curriculum in ways that are relevant and real to the students, leading to high levels of attainment or value-added progress.
The emerging model of sustainable school leadership builds on what we already know of effective school leaders, but has distinct additional characteristics based on the personal values of leaders who choose to embrace sustainable development. These include fostering participation in decision making, an outward orientation looking beyond the school gates and an optimistic world view.
Distributed leadership is a feature of all the schools involved in this research, with different aspects of sustainable development being led by different members of the school community. Effective distributed leadership is essential in order to embed sustainability within the school and to get everyone on board.
Read the full report
(332kb, 54 pages)
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