Our new climate change programme was launched in September 2008 in partnership with ENCAMS, the administrators / managers of the Eco-Schools programme throughout England and CREATE. External funding of £120k to support the programme was secured from the North West Development Agency and covers the period from September 2008 to April 2011. This funding allows the education team to increase its support for schools and now targets 200 primary schools on the three-phase programme. The programme includes:
- A class of Key Stage 2 children visiting one of our environmental education centres to take part in an interactive climate change programme. This will highlight the consequences of rising global temperatures and actions the children can take to reduce their own carbon footprint in two key areas- water and energy consumption.
- Following their visit to the centre, two further visits will be made to the school by the education team to see how much has been remembered by the children and to start the process of a school audit and action plan.
- The programme requires the head teacher to sign an agreement with us to agreeing to support the class teacher in ensuring that the school fulfils its obligations by introducing all the recommendations made by our education team.
It’s anticipated that at the end of the programme all schools will be able to demonstrate that by changing their behaviour they will have made considerable reductions in their use of water and electricity.
To date 49 schools have participated in phase one and 27 schools have been visited in phase two and final visits. Assessments in phase three have yet to take place as it has to be at least nine months from the school embarking on the programme.