Action Plan

Your LEAF Action Plan is the place where you can keep a track of your LEAF aims and activities. It is also a great tool for checking your progress at the end of your LEAF journey.

Your first step in starting your Action Plan is to choose one or more Themes for you LEAF journey. Your Theme/s will help you focus your LEAF work on subjects that are important to you. Visit our Theme page to help you choose your Theme/s.

Once you have chosen your Theme/s, you can get started on creating your LEAF Action Plan. You can use our Action Plan template or any other format you choose. Your Action Plan should contain your aims for your LEAF journey, how you plan to achieve those aims (your actions), who will carry out your actions and when, and how you will tell if your aims have been achieved.

You must submit a draft of your Action Plan for feedback by 30th November 2023 to check if you are on the right track. Please send your Action Plan to leaf@keepscotlandbeautiful.org and feedback will be sent to you within three weeks.

Action requirements

You need a minimum of three actions to qualify for your LEAF award.

You need to ensure your actions cover the following requirements:

More opportunities for pupils to connect with nature

Connection with nature can occur wherever access to greenspace is available and can include school grounds, local forests or woodlands, local parks, allotments, community gardens and home gardens.

The Nature Connection Handbook from the University of Derby is a fantastic resource to help you get started, including simple activities that are easy to fit into your daily routine.

If you are unsure where you can find spaces to connect with nature, you may find the NatureScot Greenspace Map for Outdoor Learning.

Progress in learning taking place outside

This could include an increase in time pupils spend learning outdoors or an improvement in the quality of learning outdoors, for example better facilities or more subjects covered.

Outdoor learning includes any learning that takes place outdoors, whether that is in the school grounds, or outside it.

Further support for outdoor learning can be found on our outdoor learning page.

Learning about, protecting and restoring forest-based ecosystems

Forests can include tree-based ecosystems (whether urban or in the countryside), marine forests (such as kelp or sea grass forests). You could even investigate micro-forests such as moss and lichen.

One of the best ways to learn about forest-based ecosystems is to take steps to protect and restore forests and biodiversity in your local area. This could include planting native trees and plants, creating homes for wildlife or helping to reduce wildlife damaging practices in your school grounds and local area (such as use of pesticides and weed killers).

Our LEAF resources page has lots of additional resources to help support you in meeting these requirements.