March 2023

In this issue we share with you the success of our first face-to-face schools conference. Also included:

• how you could easily run your own conference
• a request from the DfE
• supporting food growing in Sheffield Schools

Keynote speakers (left to right): South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, Yorkshire Water, Richard Souter (SCESY), Juanita Shepherd (DfE), Hafiz Anwar Zahidy.

We were delighted to welcome pupils, teachers and headteachers from 13 primary and seven secondary schools from all four regions of South Yorkshire to Victoria Hall on 2nd March. Many travelled by public transport, and pupils brought with them clothes for the clothes swap and their entries for our competition!

In the morning keynote address Richard Souter (Schools Climate Education South Yorkshire) welcomed pupils and teachers to the conference. He was followed by Juanita Shepherd (Sustainability and Climate Change Policy Lead from the DfE) who spoke about the National Education Nature Park and the Climate Action Award scheme.

Pupils then thoroughly enjoyed a variety of different workshops run by enthusiastic session leaders!

Development Education Centre South Yorkshire (DECSY) helped students understand what practical steps schools can take to respond to the climate emergency. And School Energy Efficiency emphasised the importance of working together, showing pupils how to use their online energy management app, Energy Sparks, which allows schools to monitor their energy use.

Activities in the School Energy Efficiency, DECSY, and Well being workshops.

Lunchtime provided the opportunity for students to participate in a quiz and to investigate a variety of interesting stalls.

In the afternoon South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard answered challenging questions from students, read out by Rafia Hussain (SCESY), such as ‘What are you personally doing to reduce your carbon footprint?’ and ‘How are you working to help promote green skills and jobs in our region?’

Students were very moved by the account from Hafiz Anwar Zahidy of the impact on his family of the dreadful floods in Pakistan last year. And Yorkshire Water on behalf of the charity Water Aid gave an insight into the life of a child living where there is not enough water.

Juanita Shepherd (DfE), Mark Lallemand (SCESY) and Cllr Abtisam Mohamed had a challenging time when it came to choosing winners of the competition from some truly amazing entries! The primary category was won by Meersbrook Bank Primary with a playful and ingeniously designed home-made marble run, showing what actions lead to negative impacts and what lead to positive impacts in relation to the climate emergency. Meadowhead School won the secondary school category with an interactive educational exhibit highlighting the significance and long-term impact of litter on the environment. 

Fabulous competition entries - such a difficult decision! Councillor Abtisam Mohamed announces the winners.

Pupils loved Greenhill Primary's brilliant performance of 'Heartwood', a poem written by Robert MacFarlane. Author of the well-known book, ‘The Lost Words’, he sent a personal message of permission to the school stating that he gave the poem as a "gift to the tree-defenders of Sheffield".

Greenhill pupils' superb performance of 'Heartwood' by Robert McFarlane.

A huge thank you to all teachers who gave up their time to enable their students to attend the conference. And well done to those schools who came by public transport!

A particular thank you to all staff and students who filled in feedback forms at the end or who wrote to us after the conference. Your comments were incredibly encouraging! We are already using your feedback in planning for the next conference.

We really hope that this conference will encourage you that you are not alone in what you are doing, and will help kick start further action in your school and local community.

There is an online write up about the conference in the Sheffield Star here:
https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/environment/environment-climate-and-nature-emergencies-on-the-agenda-for-pupils-at-conference-4071048

And there is a longer article in the South Yorkshire Climate Alliance newsletter here: https://www.southyorkshireclimatealliance.org.uk/2023/03/a-climate-for-action-in-schools-across-south-yorkshire

Our conference this year was massively oversubscribed. We were delighted by the scale of interest, but very disappointed that we had to turn some schools away and to drastically limit numbers from those schools who did attend. If your school was one of those that did not get in, or if you wish your pupils could have attended, then why not have a look at all the pre-prepared conference sessions already available on our website from last year's online conference! All the speakers contributed high quality videos and resources. You can find them here - just keep scrolling! The booklet with the links to the accompanying resources can be found here.

Register your school's interest in the National Education Nature Park here:

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/national-impact/national-education-nature-park-and-climate-action-awards-scheme.html

If your school is already doing great work on biodiversity within the school grounds, or on other sustainability and climate change issues, then the DfE would love to hear from you! 

Contact: DFE.SUSTAINABILITY@education.gov.uk

Regather is a community co-op working to produce fair, healthy and sustainable food for Sheffield. Regather was set up in 2010, employs over 20 people and delivers boxes of great value organic produce to over 600 households per week all across Sheffield. We are passionate about supporting food growing in schools and communities.

Regather invites all Sheffield schools to complete the ‘Supporting Food Growing in Sheffield Schools’ short survey. Completing this short survey will help your school to access a range of fully funded and low cost opportunities to support food growing at your school and in your school community.

In 2022 Regather successfully applied for funding from the Carbon Innovation Fund and the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre. This funding enables the Regather team to support food growing in Sheffield schools over the next 3 years. The survey has only 5 short questions and will enable Regather to learn about your food growing support needs and to contact the right person at your school to support food growing activities.

Complete the ‘Supporting Food Growing in Sheffield Schools’ short survey.

Full link: https://forms.gle/GMpRP78bVdBQfLvJ7

The information you provide will only be used by Regather and trusted partners to support food growing in Sheffield schools. If you have any questions about this survey please email info@regather.net using the subject line 'Supporting Food Growing in Sheffield Schools Survey'. Thank you for taking the time to participate. We look forward to supporting food growing at your school.

Best wishes, the Regather team.

If you have not yet signed up with Schools' Climate Education South Yorkshire, click the button below.