Schools and Educational Facilities

Take measures to make your buildings as energy efficient and climate friendly as possible.

This could include:

• Keeping doors shut to keep heat in
• Make your space green by planting around your school
• Having LED lightbulbs 
• Having double or triple glazing on windows
• Having electric vehicle charging points for staff and visitors to use
• Switching to a green energy tariff
• Having insulation in lofts, cavity walls, solid walls and floors
• Installing solar panels and battery storage
• Installing a heat pump
• Having ultra-low flush toilets or dual flush toilets

Include teaching on the environment, sustainability and climate change as part of your curriculum.

Other aspects of environmental education that could be included in different parts of the school day include:

• Teaching about green jobs through your career services
• Encouraging work experience/volunteering in green jobs/the environmental sector
• Discuss climate news stories with children (age appropriate)
• Empower your students that they have agency and power to make a positive change for the environment

Encourage staff and students to actively travel to and from school for example by cycling or walking.

Some ways you can do this include:

• Ensure you have the necessary infrastructure for this, for example, secure bike storage, etc.
• Educating students/staff/parents on the benefits of active travel, not only for the environment but also for their physical and mental health.
• Host bikeability/cycling proficiency courses at school to teach children how to safely ride a bike.

Look into what you can grow on your grounds. This could include a vegetable patch which could then provide vegetables to be used in school meals, trees/hedgerows or a wide variety of plants.

Gardening provides many benefits for children, including:

• Responsibility
• Developing young children's fine motor skills
• Encouraging children to be outside in nature
• Sensory development
• Environmental education
• Encouraging healthy eating

A quick Google search will provide you with a huge number of international/national environmental days that you could celebrate within your school. Celebrations don't need to be anything big and could be as simple as discussing the importance of the day with the children.

Other examples of how you could celebrate international/national environmental days could include:

• Having as many students actively travel to school on National Walk to School Week- you could even make this a competition with a certificate for the student who does this the most to incentivise it further
• Celebrating Earth Day by having a day full of educational environmental activities for students to participate in
• Celebrate National Tree Week by learning about the importance of trees, how to look after them and maybe even consider planting one/some on your school grounds
• Raising money for an environmental/climate charity through a non-school uniform day/bake sale, etc, on a specific environmental day

School Streets are time limited road closures outside a school gate at the start and end of the school day, with stewards looking after the closure points. They can be in place for a one-day event, or on a more permanent basis. The street then becomes a walking, cycling and scooting zone.

There are lots of benefits for schools taking part in the School Streets initiative, including:

• It removes traffic on the street, which in turn creates a lot of space for walking, scooting and cycling, encouraging people to make active travel choices when travelling to and from school
• Vastly improved air quality outside of the school gate
• Brings the whole school community together in a fun and informal way, helping to build relationships between school staff, parents and students
• A more relaxed and enjoyable start and end to the school day for everyone
• Increased safety for everyone

If you are a parent, teacher or community member that would like to discuss School Streets in your area, please email: emma.wilson@doncaster.gov.uk or telephone 01302 734578