Sustainability at Thomas Coram
Thomas Coram CE School and the Castle CE Federation recognise climate change as a defining challenge for today's children and future generations. We are committed to supporting the UK's net-zero ambitions and delivering the Department for Education's Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, while ensuring that pupils engage with climate issues in a way that is truthful, age-appropriate, and grounded in hope rather than fear.
What is Climate Change? 
The dictionary definition is:
A change in global or regional acclimate patterns, in particular a change apparent from mod to late 20th Century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produce they the use of fossil fuels.
There are many factors that can make the Earth warmer and colder including:
- greenhouse gases caused by human activity,
- deforestation, where more than half of the world’s surface has been ploughed and paved,
- ozone layer trapping heat closer to the Earth’s surface
- different types of air pollution which have different effects on the atmosphere.
The challenge of climate change is formidable. For children and young people to meet it with determination, and not with despair, we must offer them not just truth but also hope. Learners need to know the truth about climate change – through knowledge-rich education. They must also be given the hope that they can be agents of change, through hands-on activity and, as they progress, through guidance and programmes allowing them to pursue a green career pathway in their chosen field (DFE 2023).
Through their learned and lived experiences our children will develop a broad knowledge and understanding of the importance of nature, sustainability and the causes and impact of climate change and to translate this knowledge into positive action and solutions. Creating an environment from an early age where we can connect to nature is essential for self-enforcement in protecting and valuing nature’. Ensuring our children will:
- spend time in nature and learn more about it
- become actively involved in the improvement of their local environment
- know that regular contact with green spaces can have a beneficial impact on their physical and mental health.
Our Eco Teams play an active role in driving this initiative, we support them to:
- inspire their enthusiasm to help drive positive change
- increase their practical knowledge of sustainability and climate change
- give young people a sense of agency where anxiety stems from climate concerns
- create a sense of pride in their education setting
- enable them to share their knowledge and enthusiasm in their local communities
- enable them to engage their parents, carers, and wider community in sustainability and climate
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