Month: November 2019

Our school moto is – 1 world, no 2nd chances…

But what do our children really think?

As a school, we are trying hard to make sure our Climate Change message is positive and empowering message for children. We are trying to ensure our children understand the topic and know that they can make changes to help. However, we are aware that for some children they may need a little extra help at home to ensure they are clear about the issues and know they do not need to be worrying. We thought it may be useful to identify a number of helpful hints when talking to children who may be anxious about climate change.

What to do if your child is worried about climate change issues…
1. Stay positive and ensure your discussion is empowering and focuses on what  the child and the family can do to help.
2. Take notice when you see good climate change actions happening in the environment or on the TV.
3. Connect with other families, the school and community groups to show your child what others are doing.
4. Be active and show them what changes you can make as a family.
5. Research together, to show your child you are interested, listening and eager to help.
6. Make sure what you are saying is factual and age appropriate, sometimes the anxiety can come from them not understanding things properly. You may need to research yourself.
7. Encourage your child to talk, share what they have seen (in school, on the TV and in the community etc.), what they think about this and what it makes them wonder about.
8. Take advice from other agencies, always be keen to listen to advice
9. Use stories, which you can find online, in the library and we will share on our school blog to help them understand.
10. Make it fun and exciting, not something to worry about.

Our children are insightful; they are interested and keen to learn. I hope that they will be the generation that really impacts in this arena, but this only happen if they understand, but with understanding comes internalisation and what we do not want is any children worrying unnecessarily about this topic. We would always suggest empowering children to do something as the best course of action.

This week has been half term here in Derbyshire and while I have had opportunity to walk the shore line of our beautiful country (in Scarborough), it has given me opportunity to not only reflect on the Climate Change term we have just had, but also to think about how Climate change effects every part of our daily life.

This term has been immense on our climate change journey here at Bolsover Infant and Nursery School. The term started with me sharing with staff our new ‘Climate Change Scheme of learning’. This then led our year group teams off into planning groups to work on embedding this scheme into their year group learning journeys. At the end of this first day of INSET the staff in school made a huge commitment to ALL undertake the EduCCate Global Climate Change course and become UN Accredited teachers. I was staggered at the commitment by all of them to this topic. I managed to get my very supportive governors to agree to commit 2 of our INSET Days to the training, plus the one we had already had in September, a huge commitment to Climate Change from our governing body.

Our work didn’t end there! In the past eight weeks we have not only been teaching our children about climate change, within our revised curriculum, but staff have worked hard to ensure this topic does not go unnoticed. On September 20th we held a UN Strike with all the children, we have been visited by Milly the Dinosaur to help us understand extinction, we have had talks with Polo the Climate Change bear and we have introduced paper recycling bins into every classroom. And that’s just the tip of the iceburg!!!

Behind the scenes we have been blogging, communicating with parents weekly on the topic, discussing Climate Change adaptations in Parents and friends meetings and governor meetings, at building work meetings with the County Council and with our catering department. We have come a long way in 8 weeks, as has the community of Bolsover. On facebook the community has set up a reuse and recycle, sharing things that are no longer needed and offering them at no cost to other people, as well as a Climate Change discussion forum. The community has the bug. I have been so humbled by the messages of support both on social media, publicly and privately, as well as people stopping me in the street. The message is certainly rolling out in Bolsover.

But, as sit on the shore line of Scarborough, beneath the crumbling coast line and the mass costal protection scheme that is going ahead, I contemplate the magnitude of the task ahead. Without local and national government support, without the DFE, the UN and other national and international bodies realising this is not about money or profit, but it is about the survival of our world,  our changes will have little impact alone. So, with this in mind I implore all schools, educationalists, activists, humans to see the magnitude of the task in hand and dig in! To keep calm and carry on as Mel Harwood would say. We can empower our children and fill them with hope of a better, greener future, but without everyone doing their bit we will not survive. I don’t want to loose the beautiful geographical wonders of our coast line or the rich history our seaside towns bring to us. The wonder of what Victorian Britain is not lost on any visitor to Scarborough, with its vernaculars and its wonderful Victorian town. But this is not all that was achieved in those Victorian times, the industrial revolution has added to the state of the world right now and our coast lines are crumbling from the very thing that harnessed their beauty all those years ago.

So I move into Autumn 2 even more determined that the education world will play its part in this Climate Change revolution and I will continue to support the drive to bring climate change education to every child, in every school, across the world. Educating not only our children, but our families and our communities that their individual actions and voices do count, and that now is the time to make yourself heard. Shout it loud people…

Climate Change is here, its going nowhere, we either adapt or disappear and each one of you really can help the cause. Shout loud people!

On Thursday 23rd October we were asked by 2 of the publishers we have been working with to provide a few high resolution shots for the articles we are having published. Sarah, from Sarah Mann Photography, kindly volunteered to call in and take a few new shots. Thanks Sarah.

On Tuesday 22nd October I was invited to speak on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. I had to travel to BBC Sheffield to join the discussion. It was very strange sitting in a booth speaking to other panellists, but being all alone. You can listen to the piece here:

On Monday 21st October our school staff began the task of becoming EduCCate Global Climate Change teachers – accredited by the United Nations. We spent our first Twilight session working through Children and Climate Change together. The staff then logged on to the UNCClearn website to take the test. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to complete them, but we are looking forward to Monday 4th November when we get to spend all day finishing the course. Staff have been given 3 twilight sessions and a full day to complete the course, however, many have gone on in their own time to complet modules and one has fully completed the course in her own time over the holidays. Well done everton.