Climate change and sustainability
Our climate change and education programme embodies all three of our core values by teaching our students to not only respect the natural world, but also take responsibility for the guardianship of our environment as well as being resourceful in tackling the problems associated with climate change.
Climate change and sustainability
We recognise our pivotal role in educating both our students and staff about the significance of environmental sustainability.
Introduction
In keeping with our ethos of creating spaces to pioneer, CLSG has developed and is piloting a holistic climate change and sustainability education programme.
This programme provides deep and tangible learning opportunities to students, ensuring they leave school with a sense of agency in being able to make a positive contribution to dealing with the multi-pronged challenges that we face globally as a consequence of climate change.
The school is also committed to scaling up the delivery of this programme by helping other schools to deliver it.
Our students have created a game titled 'Check your carbon literacy'. Please click here to play and check your carbon literacy!
Our Staff
Sustainability at CLSG
The programme has two streams, as described below.
Throughout the school
All students in the school have multiple opportunities to engage with climate change and sustainability related topics in the pastoral and co-curricular spaces in the timetable. Sustainability reps in each form of the school are in charge of leading their form’s learning, as well as channelling student voice into the shaping of the school’s sustainability agenda.
Sixth form
Sixth form students have the opportunity to engage with sustainability topics more deeply as a subject option with an inhouse accreditation in the academic timetable. Outputs generated from this programme already include a protocol for estimating institutional carbon footprints, a game to promote carbon literacy and a petition that shows students on how to focus climate activism around SMART policies.
Each year we host a conference with Schroders at their offices to discuss the various challenges and solutions within sustainability. A group of sixth form students studying the inhouse Climate Change course participate in the organisation of the conference and one of them also speaks on the panel.
Please click here to watch a recording of the sustainable investing conference held in June 2024.
Green Shoots
We are proud to present Green Shoots, our eco newsletter, written by year 12 students and Mr Kanwar.
Click here to read issue four.
Tree Connections
Our Tree Connections initiative facilitates a deeper connection between our community and nature, fostering an understanding of the symbiotic relationship between the trees surrounding the Barbican and ourselves. We have meticulously identified various tree types, providing students with the opportunity for collaboration and mutual learning as they delve into becoming experts on their assigned trees.
This collaborative endeavour will eventually culminate in the development of an educational app, ensuring accessibility for all visitors. Our commitment to this connection with nature lies at the core of our understanding of sustainability, as we establish a more sustainable way of coexisting with our natural environment.
The well-documented links between a profound connection with nature and environmental activism further inspire our mission. We aim to nurture this sense of belonging through both pastoral and academic initiatives within our Tree Connections project, always keeping sustainability at the forefront of our school’s agenda.
Please click here to view a bookletof student work following a poetry workshop at the Barbican Conservatory, run by Mr McDonald in the English department. Students were asked to use their surroundings as inspiration for their writing.
