Combatting climate change by educating our future

In response to global calls for a greater focus on climate change we have announced exciting plans for a focused Climate Action Week and a new Climate Change topic for the international Eco-Schools Scotland programme.

When term kicks off again in the autumn the new topic will be launched alongside a focused week of action from 13 September, to support children and young people understand the role we all have to play in a transition to becoming a Net Zero Nation.

You can register your interest in Climate Action Week today.

Ahead of COP26 coming to Glasgow, and in advance of the Climate Action Week, which will offer young people across Scotland the chance to attend daily live broadcasts on climate change and find out more about the actions they can take to combat it, there will be a week of professional learning support to help educators explain what can often been seen as a complex scientific and confusing topic.  

The international Eco-Schools programme, which runs in 70 countries and 56,000 schools, has since its inception in 1993, had raising environmental awareness to tackle climate change at its heart, woven through each of the main topics which support educators and pupils to achieve the top award – the Green Flag.

But now, with COP26 coming to Glasgow in November, and against the backdrop of an increasing demand from young people across the world to learn more about, and take urgent action to combat the climate crisis, climate change is being put firmly front and central in the Eco-Schools Scotland programme – the new topic will complement the commitments of Learning for Sustainability as an entitlement of all learners within Scotland’s Curriculum and will sit alongside other topics such as Biodiversity, Transport, Energy, and Litter and Waste. 

Barry Fisher our CEO said, “For almost three decades, Keep Scotland Beautiful has committed through our Eco-Schools Scotland programme to supporting the environmental education of more than a million young people, empowering them to understand complex global and local environmental issues.  

“The programme has its roots in schools but branches out into the wider community and we hope that our new topic and focused Climate Action Week will help amplify the message that climate change action can be taken by everyone by providing lots of activities that all ages can engage with; from writing about or filming the problem and solutions; to attending Climate Ready Classrooms training; to hosting a One Planet Picnic with friends and family.

“With COP26 just around the corner this dedicated focus on climate change in the autumn will provide a lasting national educational legacy.”

In addition to Eco-Schools Scotland Keep Scotland Beautiful has delivered a bespoke accredited training course, Climate Ready Classrooms, to thousands of secondary school pupils and educators over the last two years.