Reading Girls’ School Climate Action Workshop

ICN was delighted to run a Climate Action Workshop with 87 hugely engaged students from Reading Girls’ School Year 8, and forming part of their wider STEM day programme.

Students showed they had a good understanding of the issues around climate change.  They also thought carefully about the concept of climate change being a ‘super wicked’ problem: fossil fuels are causing temperatures to rise but fossil fuels drive our economy and fuel the way we live.  Before the session began students were asked whether they felt it was important to act on climate change.  Although 75% of the group thought that it was, only 25% of the group said they felt that they could themselves make a difference through climate action.

The workshop set about helping students to generate their own ideas and plans for action.  14 groups of students worked in teams to discuss four key challenges where we can all make a difference and particularly in school: Energy; Food and food waste; Transport; What we buy and use.

The teams explored what potential action and projects could take place in school and prepared to present their ideas to their peers.  There were some brilliant slogans:

·         Energy: “CO2 is challenging the environment – so we will challenge it”

·         Food waste: “Veg is the new edge”

·         Transport: “A bike a day keeps global warming away”

One team delivered a poem, another acted out their idea, and we saw some striking artwork.  Groups voted for the ideas they felt were top priority and were doable at school. They included awareness raising campaigns, questionnaires about popular food, vegetarian information sheets, walking and cycling campaigns, incentives to recycle, unwanted clothes collections.

Feedback from all participants showed a marked improvement in their confidence to take forward actions themselves. When asked again at the end whether they thought they could make a difference through climate action, 75% of students now felt they could.

Reading Girls’ School is introducing a ‘pledge’ time for classes to work on community/charity type issues and this has been earmarked as an ideal forum for spreading the word and for taking forward some of the ideas and initiatives. The students are also moving towards the creation of a STEM Fair at the end of the academic year (7th July 2020) where action on climate will be one of the exhibits.

Some of the participants from the year group will be part of RGS’s team at the ICN Reading Model Climate Conference on 6th December, for more opportunities to think critically about climate change and gather inspiration for their own action planning to make a difference.