We have both had university exams recently, but have continued to be very busy and active in our role as Youth Focal Points for the Department for Education's Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy. We have continued our engagement with young people and stakeholders, conducted research and learned more about how sustainability could be fully integrated into every level of education.
Although our planned visit to Manchester Academy with Baroness Barran couldn't go ahead due to the General Election being called, we have continued to work on ensuring we are ready to support the Department for Education, whatever the outcome of the election.
Jodie has been working closely with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, sitting on their apprenticeship panel. She is supporting further integration of green skills and a sustainability focus in these qualifications, and ensuring that young people were being supported and equipped with the skills they need to be prepared for the green transition.
Jodie also attended a meeting of the Climate Action Advisors Network, run by Ashden’s Lets Go Zero. Climate Action Advisors are experts from across industry who support schools in working to minimise their emissions and climate damage, by supporting with energy use, capital projects, waste, catering and more. It was really interesting to attend this meeting and learn more about some of the experiences the Advisors were having on the ground, particularly around challenges faced with building and maintaining capital projects in schools. We look forward to discussing some of what we learnt at this meeting with ministers in the coming months.
Will recently attended Bexley Grammar School in South-East London to give an assembly to their students about the sustainability strategy and the DfE’s sustainability work and then hear from their eco-group about all the work they have been doing to improve sustainability in the school. It was really interesting to learn from them about how they are working to change behaviours by changing screen savers to remind staff to turn off projectors, and encourage recycling and waste sorting.
Will also attended the Education Estates Net Zero Conference, where it was great to learn about some of the background policy and funding for capital infrastructure projects like the ground source heat pumps we saw being built at Manchester Academy. By enhancing our understanding of how the building, architecture and energy use side of sustainability policy works we hope to be able to support the DfE in using some of these projects as learning opportunities.
We also both met with Oak Academy, an arm’s length body from the DfE who work to create online curriculum and resources to support schools. It was interesting to learn about how they are looking to further embed sustainability in their curriculum, and we look forward to supporting them with youth voice in the future.
We are excited for what the summer brings and engaging further with young people, the DfE and ministers!