I’M A PARENT/GUARDIAN/COMMUNITY MEMBER
and want to help my child’s/nieces/nephews school sign up.
WILL YOU JOIN THEM?
Your school’s zero carbon journey starts here
It’s time to reach out to key decision makers at your children’s/nieces/nephews school, and explain why they should aim to become a zero carbon school by 2030 – and how the Let’s Go Zero campaign can help.
1. Spread the word about the important role schools can play in tackling the climate crisis.
The more parents/guardians and others in your community call for change, the more likely your school is to listen. So get on social media or speak to your friends directly, and explain why this issue matters to you, and why you’re asking for action.
Social media posts and images:
2. Get your school onboard.
It’s time to ask your child’s school to take action. We’ve created some emails you can adapt to tell your child’s school about Let’s Go Zero and how they can make the zero-carbon pledge.
You might want to talk to a particular teacher first, to get their support – maybe someone involved with your school’s eco committee, or someone who has talked about climate issues in their lessons. Or you could go straight to the head teacher.
Remember to edit the templates to put in your name, and the name of the teacher or head teacher!
Share your #climateaction with this ready-made Tweet, and choose one of the images below to go with it:
Choose an image for your post:
Use this text and image to share your #climateaction on Instagram:
“This is a great step that schools can take right now in the fight against #ClimateChange.
The @LetsGo_Zero campaign is uniting schools working to be zero carbon by 2030, harnessing the power of schools to drive change in communities and across the UK:
Because students + schools = climate action”
WhatsApp message text:
Have you seen the Let’s Go Zero campaign? Over 2,500 schools have already joined. They’re working to be zero carbon by 2030, with more sustainable school buildings, better food, and less waste – as well as talking about climate change in their lessons.
I’m planning on writing to the PTA group and Head Teacher to tell them about the campaign. The more of us that support the campaign, the more likely we are to sign up as a school.
Will you share this message? If you tell me you’re backing the campaign, I can include your name on the letter, and show just how much we all want our school to tackle the climate crisis. There’s more about the campaign here: www.letsgozero.org
Here’s some text you can use in an email to tell your colleagues about Let’s Go Zero and how they can help encourage your school to make the zero carbon pledge.
Feel free to tweak and adapt it as necessary.
Dear (HEADTEACHER’S NAME),
I am writing to draw your attention to the national Let’s Go Zero school campaign. Over 2,500 UK schools have already signed up and declared their ambition to be zero carbon by 2030.
As a (PARENT/ COMMUNITY MEMBER), I would like to see (YOUR LOCAL SCHOOL’S NAME) take more action on climate change and support its community of students. The school can get support and play its part in tackling the climate crisis by joining Let’s Go Zero, and aspiring to become zero-carbon by the end of the decade.
By joining, the school will:
Imagine what we could achieve if all 32,000 schools in the UK started working now to become zero carbon.
To become part of Let’s Go Zero, a member of the school leadership team must sign up here. Please join me in supporting zero carbon schools and show our young people and community that (YOUR LOCAL SCHOOL’S NAME) is taking action against climate change.
Yours Sincerely,
(YOUR NAME)
It can be tricky approaching your school when climate issues aren’t at the top of their agenda.
•Contact the school’s governing body about signing up to LGZ. Email them and be sure to include a link to the LGZ website/ signpost where they can find out further information.
•Ask your children to spread awareness. Children might be members of the eco-council/ school council or, if not, will be able to take the idea to council members within the school.
•If you are part of your child’s class’s WhatsApp/email group, use this space to make other parents aware of the LGZ campaign and build parent support.
•Find out who the sustainability lead is at your child’s local school and contact them. This information may be available on the website but if not, contact the school’s general admin contact to find out.
•Some schools’ eco teams may have a blog/ social media account. Ask the sustainability lead/ school media contact about writing something to promote LGZ on it.
•Contact the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) and ask them to talk to the Headteacher or Senior Leadership Team about signing up to LGZ. Most schools will have a page for the PTA and its contact details on their website.
•Contact your child’s school about speaking at, or running, a school assembly. Schools are often looking for external speakers and this would offer an opportunity to promote LGZ.
Use this text and image to share with your PA Facebook Group
Has your school been trying to reduce its carbon footprint, but struggling to find the resources and knowledge to do so?
If that’s the case, Let’s Go Zero is exactly what you need. Let’s Go Zero is a community of over 2,500 ambitious, forward-thinking schools aiming to become carbon zero by 2030. When the school signs up, they receive support on setting the school’s zero carbon targets and developing roadmaps for change; and your support helps us to open dialogues with local politicians to try generate further support for ambitious schools up and down the country.
Not only do you get support and advice from Let’s Go Zero to make your school more climate friendly and your children’s learning more inclusive and sustainable, we are able to signpost partner schools towards new grant funding to help your school become carbon zero.
Only authorised members of staff can sign schools up to Let’s Go Zero, so if you want your school to sign up, speak to the Head teacher and point them to our website: UK Climate Change • Let’s Go Zero (letsgozero.org).
If you can, share this post in other PTA groups. It really helps to expand the Let’s Go Zero network, making roadmaps and instructions on how to go carbon zero more accessible than ever.