CHERWELL SCHOOL’S SUSTAINABILITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY

By Mr Cappleman

Our rationale for whole school action on Sustainability and Biodiversity

As a school we understand and accept the threats we face due to the current climate and biodiversity crisis. We believe they compel us to take more coordinated and wide reaching action in order to meet our obligations to help build a sustainable future. Our school has taken a number of significant steps towards sustainability in recent years, but we understand the considerable challenges facing the whole of humanity, and the need to go much further, acting in our locality to decisively embed change in the ways we individually live and collectively operate as a school.

The context of this work:

At Cherwell school we have already made a number of significant steps over the past decade. Our promotion of sustainable transport to and from school, installation of solar panels with our local partner Low Carbon Oxford North, installation and restoration of gardens to support biodiversity and most recently our installation of LED lights across the school are some of those successes. In education, we have developed strong learning opportunities across the curriculum and support that with increasing extra-curricular provision. In 2018 we were awarded Eco-Schools Green Flag status in recognition of the work we have done. As soon as the shock of the pandemic subsided we started to formulate action plans to move towards the next level of our schools work on sustainability. We now have a Sustainability Development Group’ which meets termly and includes the Headteacher, Eco-schools Coordinator, School and Site Development staff and Sixth Form student representatives. We have been focusing on four areas for development, curriculum, external areas, buildings and school systems in 2022-23:

• We planned and delivered the planting of 22 new trees and 600 new native hedgerow plants across three new hedgerows with Year 7,8,9, 12 & 13 students across our two sites in

• In 2022 we planted two disused areas with flowers supportive of pollinators. The planting was so successful that in 2023 we organised for staff and student volunteers to grow and plant sunflowers around the garden spaces of our school to celebrate our school’s 60th Anniversary by supporting pollinators.

• We are currently working on the issues of recycling and waste reduction across our sites, formulating plans for a Sixth Form trial before a whole school launch.

With our academy trust, ‘The River Learning Trust’, we are working on plans to evolve wider sustainable operating practices, which include long term plans to decarbonise our buildings. We are pleased to announce that due to the work of RLT colleagues all our electricity has been purchased from a green energy supplier for the past year in addition to the energy we already get from our solar panels. Over Summer, the program of replacing the old single glazed 1960’s windows will continue, with the replacement of the windows on the north side of the teaching block.

Future Developments

We are currently evolving a ‘10 year Nature Restoration Plan’ to build on the successes above and to take action to help tackle the biodiversity and climate crises. Our plan is to plant our grounds to support wildlife and provide cool shade for students in hot Summers along with building habitats such as bug houses, bird and bat boxes etc;

We aim to start a ‘Cherwell Young Naturalists Group’ from September 2023 to help build the engagement of our students with the natural world. This is part of our work to evolve education to equip students with knowledge and skills they will need for the growing green economy. As a school we plan to trial the forthcoming GCSE in Natural History, which is currently due for first teaching in 2025.

By Mr Cappleman