Explore the Let’s Go Zero map to see where else teachers, students and school communities are taking action to become zero carbon by 2030.
Let’s Go Zero school action:
St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi Academy Trust, England
St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi Academy Trust are a mixture of 20 primary and five secondary schools. They have four strategic aims one of which is:
‘To ensure that all activities of the trust reduce the negative impacts we are having on our environment and improve sustainability.’
All schools that are part of the trust have been asked to take action on environmental sustainability. Some of the initiatives they are taking part in are:
- Monitoring energy consumption and running switch off campaigns.
- Encouraging plant-based meals with huge buy in from students.
- Running uniform exchanges.
All the areas the Trust acts on also has a global element to it, encouraging their students to become global citizens.
The teachers and students leading the action:
“Children are already fully engaged in these issues; they just need the adults to support them”
Jo Pettifer
Assistant Head/Sustainability Project Coordinator
What are they doing in their school?
Due to being a Catholic Trust, the schools have a large catchment area, so many students need to travel by car to get in. To reduce the number of vehicles outside the school gates some schools organize a walking bus where three members of the staff collect students from a 5min walk away for three days a week, and 15mins walk away for two days a week.
18 out of the 25 schools organise uniform exchanges through parent evenings or donation/swap events run by the PTA.
75 – 80% of students voted for the option to have a plant-based meal as their first choice with a second choice of meat for anyone who wanted it. Using this knowledge, the Trust wants to have centrally procured catering for all of our 25 schools and encourage more plant-based meals.
One of the Trusts secondary schools is creating a Trust orchard and are aiming to plant 8000 trees – one for every student.
Some of the schools are monitoring their energy consumption and engaging the students by running switch off campaigns. A couple of schools are also contributing to global action on energy through donating to CAFOD (Catholic Agency For Overseas Development).
The Trust are carrying out decarbonisation strategies for all 25 schools and they have secured funding to adapt three.
There are lots of organisations that can help you take action in your school grounds. Take a look at the help available and discover what other schools are doing.
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