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Policies and projects
The Department is in the unique position of being able to create, support and promote policies and projects that incorporate the principles of sustainability into schools, the curriculum and services for children and families.
The 2003 Green Paper, Every Child Matters, aimed to improve the daily experiences of all young people in England, focusing on their well-being, personal development and future prosperity.
ECM, though, was published before the Government’s sustainable development strategy, Securing the Future.
In June 2007, the Sustainable Development Commission published Every Child’s Future Matters, a report that combines commissioned research with the experience of nine local authorities to demonstrate how attention to the environment provides a powerful way of meeting ECM’s aims.
The Department is now seizing the opportunity to join up these areas of policy to better support children’s well-being, now and in the future.
Other policies and projects include:
- Sustainable Schools is designed to support schools on their journey to sustainability. It covers a whole range of areas, including food and drink, energy and water, travel and traffic, purchasing and waste, and buildings and grounds. It includes guidance and a training pack for school governors, a bursar’s guide to sustainable school operation, resources for teachers and an audit tool to help schools evaluate their impact.
- The Growing Schools programme encourages schools to use outdoor environments – the school grounds and beyond – as a cross-curricular learning resource. It focuses in particular on food, farming and the countryside. It aims to ensure pupils get first-hand experience of the natural world and that outdoor learning activities are integrated into everyday teaching in nursery, primary, secondary and special schools.
- An early awareness of the world is important for helping young children learn about sustainable development. The new single framework for learning, development and care for children under five, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), starts from September 2008. Knowledge and Understanding of the World is one of the six EYFS areas of learning.
- The guide Schools for the Future: Design of sustainable schools includes 10 case studies of school buildings that have been designed with sustainability in mind. The book aims to inspire architects, contractors, building commissioners and school teams involved in new build or refurbishment projects.
- The Global Gateway website is an international gateway to educational partnerships between schools and colleges across the world. It is managed and run for the Department by the British Council.
