Aspire Academy Trust is working hard to ensure every one of its 37 primary settings is fully prepared to deliver on the DfE requirement that all educational settings have a climate action plan and nominated sustainability lead by the end of 2025. 

On Wednesday 19th November, Aspire Sustainability Leads, Heads of School and trust senior leaders from 24 Aspire academies came together for a sustainability event at County Hall.  Also in attendance were representatives from other local primaries and secondaries, further education, as well as Eden Project, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Sustainable Food Cornwall and a Climate Ambassador representative. Organised by Aspire Academy Trust Sustainability Lead Helen Bingham, and Charlotte Clarke of Cornwall Council, the objective was a simple one - to finish writing your individual Climate Action Plan.  

Each Climate Action Plan acts as a roadmap setting out specific school sustainable actions and goals and is part of the DfE's Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy which aims to improve climate education, achieve net zero emissions, build resilience to climate change, and enhance the environment.

The school climate action plan must comprise short-term deliverables leading to a longer-term strategy covering goals up to 2030, with the following key components:  

• Decarbonisation: Actions to reduce the school's carbon emissions
• Adaptation and resilience: Strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change
• Biodiversity: Projects and initiatives to improve biodiversity on the school's grounds
• Climate education: How to educate pupils about climate change and embed within the curriculum

Contextual climate information, and detailed action plan writing support covering each section of the template plan was delivered throughout the morning by Jen Gale, Paula Malone and Will Ewan of Let's Go Zero. There were some stark figures that stuck in minds - did you know that the world has already warmed 1.3c compared to pre-industrial levels, and since 1970 there has been an incredible 73% decline in global biodiversity?   

Join Let's Go Zero
After lunch, Richard Irving of National Education Nature Park  gave a comprehensive presentation on ways to improve biodiversity in schools through pupil-led engagement, a key DfE action plan requirement. Nature Park aligns with the Climate Action Plan four key areas above, providing carefully curated free high-quality teaching and learning resources. From getting to know your space and identifying opportunities, to making project decisions, changing grey to green and recording change; there are a wealth of actions schools can take that are relatively low cost and high impact.

Register your school, college or nursery to join the Nature Park

"Changing grey to green is a WIN"

Nick Hayden gave a Cornwall Council climate update, in light of a new administration and prior targets.  With some fresh guiding principles set to take the Duchy through to 2030, the council is committed to embedding climate action in council operations and lead by example.  The development of a future energy plan and how Cornwall is going to get to a full decarbonised energy system is crucial, and net zero transition offers an important economic opportunity but must be achieved without burdening residents and businesses. Nick confirmed that the cabinet has overwhelmingly approved the revised targets - and the move to a more realistic timescale - this month. For more information, please click the link below:

Cornwall Council - Climate Emergency
Climate action relies on innovation and Jolyon Sharp of Cornwall Council has been working with Microsoft to develop a Minecraft Education programme for Cornish schools 'CoastCraft'. The audience was treated to his presentation 'Making Space for Sand', a partnership between Cornwall Council, South West Coastal Monitoring, University of Plymouth, Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Cornwall Community Flood Forum, which aims to understand how biodiverse and flood resilient communities are (or aren't) along the dynamic Cornish coastline. 

The challenge is how do adults share important climate learning in an interesting, enjoyable and age-accessible way? The MineCraft (Education) world has allowed the development of interactive educational platforms such as RiverCraft 2, and now CoastCraft which has been built in collaboration with a number of agencies, associations and secondaries; aligned principally with KS5, but also accessible at upper KS2. 

Helen Bingham commented, "With 26 Aspire settings now with a completed Climate Action Plan, this marks a huge step forward on our sustainability (zero carbon footprint) journey. As educators, we have a moral imperative to be encouraging and teaching positive environmental behaviours from early years upwards, equipping our pupils with the skills they need to build a greener future. Each school's Climate Action Plan is a live document and will be linked, where relevant, to individual school improvement plans".

Gemma Hooper, Head of School at Whitemoor Academy commented, "The sustainability day was really beneficial. We were given clear direction for shaping our climate change action plan and were provided with practical, achievable steps that will help embed sustainability across the whole school community. "

Grateful thanks to all parties involved, in particular Charlotte Clarke of Cornwall Council for allowing the trust use of its Council Chamber.

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For more information on how the trust is ensuring sustainability is , please click the link below:

Aspire Sustainability