The United Nations’ World Environment Day on 5 June is one of the world’s largest international days for the environment.
With rising temperatures, collapsing ecosystems and disruptive weather extremes, in the Diocese of Ely, we are inviting schools to focus on caring for God’s creation for the day. Together with support from NaturePark, Let’s Go Zero, Eco Schools and Energy Sparks, we have drawn together some approaches you might use for the day, along with inspiring stories from schools. You are welcome to adopt any one of these, a mix of these, or to create your own approach, whichever suits your school best.
We would just ask that you capture your activities or outcomes in your Climate Action Plans and that you tell us about what you did and how it went, it would also be fantastic to see any photos of the day that you’d be willing to share. We hope that World Environment Day, combined with the summer term Gods Green Guardians Project, helps your school community to find a way to respond to the growing climate and biodiversity crises.
Three approaches (or make up your own)
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Take your students outside.
This will depend on the outdoor space you have available, but could range from as many classes as possible to have one lesson outside, to all classes having all lessons outside.
In the meantime, indoor and outdoor classes could also have an environmental theme.
See Lesson inspiration and Inspiring stories sections below
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A switch off day.
Spend some or all of the day without using electricity, encouraging pupils and staff to think about how much energy is used. Energy Sparks has some ideas for how you might do this.
Items you could turn off: lights, computers, smartboards, monitors, printers, photocopiers, projectors, laminators, sound systems, microwaves, kettles, toasters. You could consider asking catering staff to reduce their energy usage by making a cold/picnic lunch and snacks
See Lesson inspiration and Inspiring stories sections below
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Just 3 Things.
Keep it simple… Sign the school up to:
- Climate Ambassadors – request a Climate Ambassador for your school
- Let’s Go Zero – join nearly 9,000 schools that have signed up to become NZC by 2030
- National Education Nature Park – register and start to get to know and improve your outdoor space
Lesson inspiration
- Eco Schools - 100 Eco-Education Ideas
- Eco Schools - Eco-Education Resources
- Learning Through Landscapes - Outdoor Lesson Ideas
- MuddyFaces – Curriculum Outdoors
Inspiring stories
- Let’s Go Zero – Inspiration library
- NaturePark – Success stories