A checklist for teachers to support ‘greening the curriculum’

Sustainability, or Climate Change, education has an increased profile in the face of the climate and biodiversity crisis as people continue to reflect on the role of education in addressing this challenge.  Although many people advocate for new qualifications, or radical changes to current ones, these changes are likely to be slow, may not happen at all, or may be relevant to only a few students who take particular courses. As well as the push for this kind of change we need a way to embed sustainability across all of our teaching for all students, now. This is one way to embed sustainability in education at a fast pace that can have a broad reach. It doesn’t need the DfE to direct it and it doesn’t need specifications to change (although both of those things would be a positive step forward). All it needs is for teachers to be supported, enabled and enthused to work sustainability contexts and skills development into their current teaching. This session will share how we are doing this at Hills Road Sixth Form College with the aim of encouraging and supporting others to take on this task too. Outcomes: This session will explore the creation, and initial implementation, of a tool for supporting teachers to embed sustainability into their teaching. Running at Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge, this project involves teachers from a wide range of subjects to develop a tool that is useful for teachers of all subjects and transferable to any age range of student. You will develop new ideas for how the teaching of any specification (across the sciences and beyond) can be enhanced to support students to: •Be more informed about sustainability issues •Be more engaged with the journey towards sustainability •Develop skills that will help them play a positive role in the journey to sustainability You will take away a simple checklist to support the ‘greening’ of your teaching, that of your department, your school, or the teachers you work with.