There is no Planet B: how Channing School is making a difference in North London

In February this year the BBC reported how we were nearing the +1.5C global warming limit much sooner than expected, and with news reports describing climate talks at COP29 as “not fit for purpose”, it is easy to feel disheartened about the present and future state of our planet.

At Channing, one quote we keep returning to is taken from The Lorax by Dr Seuss: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” Although they may not yet be responsible for global decisions about our environment, our Sustainability Officers Bella and Olivia and our 30 Eco Reps are working hard at understanding the key issues and making informed local decisions, helping the school community to make a difference wherever we can, both now and into the future.

This year we have achieved the challenging Green Flag Award (with distinction) for the second year running. We continue to support the charity Just One Tree which plants trees in deforested areas, and currently have a Channing forest of over 2000 trees. The Eco Reps have taken several whole school assemblies on issues such as Climate Change, fast fashion and deforestation, all in order to raise sustainability to the centre of attention for both students and staff. We are now implementing a new school policy to offset flights and new PSHE lessons on environmental issues have been incorporated in Years 7 and 8. Our recent sustainability week hosted two guest speakers on sustainable jewellery and sustainable food and an eco craft workshop. We also had two clean air days and sales of cakes and second hand clothes. On these issues Channing does not work alone; we are part of the London Schools Environmental Network which shares ideas and resources and organises regular forums for discussion. One such event is Mock Cop, where schools from the Highgate area send students as delegates to discuss the same issues as are being discussed in the real COP. We were grateful again to send 7 students from Years 11-13, each representing a different country. When it comes to sustainability there is a real feeling of schools working together to reach a shared and extremely important goal.

For sustainability to work in a school setting everyone has to be involved. The students are obviously extremely important, but the school grounds staff, cleaners, kitchen staff, administration, reprographics team, teachers and senior management each have a role in making a difference. Managing this all together is a real challenge – sometimes we seem to have big successes and other times we find rubbish in the recycling bins, lights left on and windows left open. Although making progress in sustainability sometimes feels like taking faltering steps, the school is committed to carrying out its commitment to make a difference as we stated when we declared a climate emergency last year, striving to reduce our carbon footprint and keep sustainability near the top of the agenda.

Key takeaways that schools can action to become more sustainable based on Channing School’s experiences include to:

Get everyone involved from pupils, teachers and parents to cleaners, catering staff and Governors.
Appoint Eco Reps from the student body to lead the way.
Embed climate education across the school via assemblies, PSHE, etc.
Don’t be downhearted if things don’t always improve immediately, it takes time to change behaviour.
If possible, appoint someone to the role of coordinating sustainability within the school, and allocate them some time each week to do this.
Give as many people the opportunity as possible to talk about sustainability: students and also staff from all different areas in the school.
Get in touch with local schools and organisations near you and see what they are doing. People are happy to share resources because you are working towards a common goal. LSEN is a great example of this.
Allocate whole school assembly time and PSHE lessons to sustainability. If these can be delivered by the students, so much the better.

Written Sarah Walker, Sustainability Lead at Channing School

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