Issue 9

April 2022

.... for working so hard to enable your pupils to be involved in the conference! And, especially, to those teachers and students who gave very helpful feedback! Our contributors did an amazing job, providing a superb range of insights and activities. And it was great to see pupils making good use of Padlet during the live sessions to interact with session leaders.

We know there are many schools who are planning to deliver climate sessions later in the school year, so here is a reminder of the links to our sessions:

Conference Sessions

Conference Resources and Teacher Notes

It has been really encouraging to see how schools have built on these sessions to get pupils thinking about action they can take. A pupil from High Storrs school has kindly sent us some of the notes she made following her attendance at the third day of the conference:

Twinkl, an Educational Publisher based in Sheffield, have started work on a new Sustainability Curriculum. Twinkl recognise that part of being an educator in the 21st Century will involve preparing students for climate and ecological challenges. It also involves inspiring hope and positivity about the future. For that reason, they are designing a sustainability curriculum and full complementary schemes of work, to make it as simple as possible for educators to teach this important topic.

As part of their testing and research work on the curriculum, Twinkl are offering to run free one hour sustainability sessions in KS1 classes in Sheffield using their new sample content. If this is something you might be interested in, please email rianna.forskitt@twinkl.co.uk. There are also two feedback forms that they would be grateful if you could fill out:
Content: https://forms.gle/bMYKqPeBv9fR5Xz19

Branding: https://forms.gle/7CmEJN1c3AZ2W4og9

Across the country, households of all shapes and sizes, schools, community groups and businesses, will gather new evidence. How much plastic are we really having to throw away, and what happens to it? Count your plastic for one week. Find out more here.

Watch the 2 min video here.

"My name is Richard Teasdale and I am a trained volunteer Greenpeace Speaker living in Sheffield. I am keen to engage with local schools with inspirational presentations. As you probably know, Greenpeace are a global environmental organisation, so the presentations are centred around the challenges our natural world faces and actions we can take to protect it.

These PowerPoint presentations are delivered by me, and are designed to supplement the curriculum, raise awareness, and empower pupils to take action. Themes of the presentations include Climate Change, Forests, Oceans, Plastics, Greenpeace and Activism. These are normally 20 to 30 minutes long and can be followed by discussions with pupils and environmental based initiatives.

This link gives further details of the Greenpeace Speaker Programme, along with free educational resources that are available to Schools. Please contact me directly at sheffieldgreenpeace@gmail.com if you have any questions or want me to present at your School.

Best Wishes

Rich"

Your school will be thinking about next year. Include in your plans learning about the Climate and Nature Emergencies. Schools' Climate Education South Yorkshire aims to bring you another Spring Term Conference in 2023 during the week beginning Monday 27th February.

Have your say! We are making plans for next year NOW! So, email us with what kind of conference you would like to see. Don't forget if early March doesn't suit you, why not build your own Climate Conference around some of our sessions that are freely available to you. If you are doing that, we'd love to know! Contact us at admin@scesy.org.uk or schools@scesy.org.uk

"I am contacting you to invite your school to join the Yorkshire & Humber Schools Sustainability Network. I teach at Greenhead College, a sixth form college in Huddersfield and am a member of the Yorks and Humber Climate Commission.  In November I accompanied two students from our region to the COP26 conference with the UKSSN delegation UK Schools Sustainability Network (transform-our-world.org) I am now hoping to establish an affiliated regional network for Yorkshire and the Humber. Initially I hope to enlist around ten secondary schools/sixth form colleges.  The school sustainability networks are student-lead, with teachers and other staff ensuring safeguarding, facilitating interaction and supporting students.  Each school needs at least one Year 11-13 lead student (possibly drawn from an eco-committee if it exists) plus a second rotating rep per school (optional) and ideally 1-2 observing non-participating younger reps for continuity from year to year.  The regional networks provide students and staff with a way to connect with peers, share ideas and resources, collaborate on local, national, and international initiatives, and develop personal, social and workplace skills. The first step is for interested teachers to meet online to learn about UKSSN, discuss practicalities such as parental consent and safeguarding and to start planning activities. 

Please email me to indicate your interest (sstrathdee@greenhead.ac.uk) and let me know your availability by completing the doodle poll below. https://doodle.com/poll/x42en7nyxwk4gg6b?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link I very much hope you will want to join this emerging network.  It was inspirational seeing what the regional networks and UKSSN are achieving while I was in Glasgow.  I very much want to give students from Yorkshire and Humber the same opportunities. 

Regards,

Stuart Strathdee"

Here at SCESY our goal is to create a supportive network of schools within the South Yorkshire region. So please let us know of your stories and successes so that we can share them in future newsletters. Send your photos, stories and video links to admin@scesy.org.uk or schools@scesy.org.uk

Previous newsletters can be found here. 

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