This week I chaired the Tidy Britain All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), along with Keep Britain Tidy and a number of parliamentarians in order to discuss the best way to campaign to embed climate change in education.
'Eco-Schools' provide a framework to achieve these goals and the meeting outlined how the programme can reduce carbon emissions at scale, tackle eco-anxiety and prepare the next generation for sustainable jobs and lifestyles.
The need for a collaborative approach involving schools, MPs and local authorities is key. I urge parliamentarians to becomes champions for Eco-Schools in their constituencies and in Parliament. Here in Thirsk and Malton, I speak with young students regularly and it's always one of the main issues that crops up. This highlights how education around sustainability is even more necessary.
I suggested at the meeting that the APPG write to education ministers to demonstrate how we weave and embed the programme into the existing curriculum in England, as it has been in Wales and Scotland.
Guest speakers at this event were: Allison Ogden-Newton, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, Peter Kyle MP, Shadow Schools Minister, Lesley Jones, President of the Foundation for Environmental Education and Chief Executive of Keep Wales Tidy and Graham Frost, from the National Association of Head Teachers.
