Green Day 2008
More than 30,000 pupils in cities across England will be taking part in Britain’s first ever ‘Green day’ on 5 June, 2008.
The project has been designed to bring alive the connections between climate change and the built environment. Targeted at students in key stages 2 and 3, Green day gives schools the chance to explore how environmental issues link subjects across the curriculum, and have a trial run at putting the new key stage 3 curriculum into practice. It is also a practical way to make the schools themselves more sustainable.
Green day is a fun way of engaging young people in a serious issue. Pupils are invited to wear an item of green clothing to school (a journey they make on foot or bike, of course). Teachers can then introduce the idea of learning through buildings and places into lessons throughout the morning, before whole school activities involve pupils in the afternoon. It gives each school a flexible way to explore how the design of their building and grounds could be more environmentally-friendly; maths lessons will be used to calculate students’ carbon footprint, and in geography lessons they will design a sustainable city.
Some schools will have a ‘Green day out’ with pupils visiting eco-housing projects, allotments and energy centres.
Matt Bell, CABE’s director of education, comments: ‘‘The response from schools to the Green day project has been extraordinary. There is clearly a huge appetite for practical ideas which help young people make the connections between climate change and the
buildings and places around us. Climate change is in some respects a young person’s issue. And the built environment offers a fantastic resource for a school to become both more sustainable in the way it runs and more creative in the way it teaches and learns.’
‘Green day’ events are being promoted by CABE and organised by the individual schools in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Nottingham in partnership with CABE and the local education authority.
More than thirty schools across Birmingham will be taking part in a ‘Green day’ as their contribution to the Climate Change Festival, which is being run by CABE and Birmingham City Council and held in Birmingham between 31 May and 8 June.
