This next Headteacher’s Blog comes from Mr Highnett (two blogs in a row) who has led our work on our new climate action plan.
In line with new government guidance, High Storrs School has written and begun to implement a ‘climate action plan’, supported by the work of the sustainability group – composed of staff and key stakeholders across HSS.
The plan has four key focus areas:
- adaptation and resilience
- biodiversity and nature
- climate education and green skills
- decarbonisation and net zero
We have already taken steps towards improving our practice across these key areas.
For adaptation and resilience, we continue review our internal policies and procedures for period of extreme weather to ensure our site is safe for all. Working closely with Minerva Learning Trust, we have seen improvements made to the school site – for example, the roof and boiler – as part of ensuring our building continues to be fit for purpose.
Within the strand of biodiversity and nature, we are ever grateful to the work of our fantastic Eco-club – a student group, led by the wonderful Mr Russell – who are routinely fundraising and taking steps to improve biodiversity across our school site. As the new year approaches, we are exploring links the ‘National Education Nature Park’ which will involve mapping and further developing student understanding of our school site.
Our excellent team of subject leaders, working closely with our careers leader; Mrs Ford, continue to carefully review and refine their curriculum plans thinking about the ways in which we can promote the latest climate education and give our students knowledge of green skills for the workplaces of the future. Our ‘Learning Outside the Classroom’ coordinator, Miss Baker, has done some great work with the ‘Good Life’ project which has ensured students can now access our outdoor classroom and learning around sustainability.
Finally, we have sharpened our focus on reducing our whole-school carbon footprint by working closely with the catering team from Taylor Shaw to reduce food waste and to provide opportunities for students to internally dispose of food waste in specialist bins. Further work in this area has involved reviewing the packaging used for food across the site and seeking ways to reduce this. We continue to maintain our whole-school system of classroom-based card and paper recycling and promote this regularly with students.
The work doesn’t stop there as we continue to further develop and consider the ways in which our site, community and students can be supported throughout the years ahead.