In 2022, the Department for Education (DfE) revealed plans for all schools to have a designated sustainability lead by 2025 - which is now only a year away.
I became sustainability coordinator, alongside a colleague working in the same role, back in 2019, in the international school where I’m also a full-time class teacher. When she left last term, we needed to hire a replacement.
This got me thinking about the key interview questions to ask to ensure candidates understand the role and establish why they would be a good fit. Here are six that we came up with and that I think could help any school looking to appoint in this space as the 2025 deadline comes into view.
1. Can you describe an impactful educational sustainability project you were involved in?
Like any position, previous experience is advantageous, and we were looking for someone who could describe, with passion, personal involvement with an educational eco-project.
Recognising the reality that many schools have not yet embraced extensive sustainable change, we were looking for someone who had shown initiative previously - even if the project described was small scale.
That said, the ideal candidate would be able to highlight the learning that took place as well as any wider impact - such as increasing school recycling rates or greening an area of the playground. To identify a reflective practitioner, a follow-up question about the challenges faced was added.
2. How do we bring sustainability into our curriculum?
Without a timetabled lesson, sustainability needs to be built into other subjects. We wondered about the interviewee’s approach - would they want to emphasise the scientific understanding necessary to understand climate change and the biodiversity crisis or how STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) subjects allow for exploration of solutions?
Maybe they were more drawn towards teaching human and physical geography or global citizenship? Did they take a wider view and mention the role of literacy and the arts in communicating the need for action on environmental issues?
For us, the best answers would involve integrating sustainability into the curriculum at every opportunity. We encouraged candidates to describe examples of sustainability-themed lessons they had taught to establish whether these cross-curricular links were relevant and well thought through.
3. How would you motivate colleagues to introduce sustainability education into lessons?
Introducing meaningful change into any curriculum is tricky, especially when teachers are pressed for time and the subject matter is complex.
We were looking for answers that showed a supportive attitude and that they understood they would have to work alongside peers to embed long-term change rather than issuing guidance and expecting it to be followed.
Would they offer training? Or suggest straightforward schemes of work and activities that staff could implement with ease? Was their enthusiasm infectious and likely to inspire?
4. How do we avoid eco-anxiety in children?
The reality of our environmental crisis can be emotionally tough for children. As such we wanted to ensure that the appointee would be sensitive to this and be able to present the science in an age-appropriate way, as well as willing to explore, in class, any anxiety triggered by it.
Even better, we wanted to see that they understood how to empower pupils to take meaningful action on sustainability by organising environmental improvements and programmes in school. A chance to be part of positive change in this way is said to reduce eco-anxiety.
Such projects also allow pupils to develop leadership skills. This is in line with England’s strategy on sustainability and climate change, which includes plans for a climate leaders’ award.
5. How would you talk to a parent who doesn’t see the relevance of sustainability education?
We asked this because while climate change science is no longer up for debate, questions can be raised by parents about a school’s policy response.
The successful applicant might stress wider educational benefits of learning about sustainability - such as critical thinking, data collection and analysis, debating, communication of complex ideas and so on, the idea being that learning about sustainability can foster a range of transferable skills, useful for later in life.
6. What opportunities can you see to develop sustainability education further across the school?
Developing sustainability in education is an ongoing process and we were keen to hear how our school could progress further. What gaps would a fresh pair of eyes see? What practices could be improved? What would they want to work on first and had they planned how to do this?
Ultimately, appointing the right sustainability lead is vital to ensure schools equip young people with the skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to meet their future needs while protecting the planet for generations to come.
Ewen Mcleish is classroom teacher and sustainability coordinator at St Andrews International School in Bangkok. He has an MSc in education for sustainability
