Should schools bother to teach children about sustainable development or environmental issues? What about taking action on these issues? Do we really have time? And what is there to gain?
The simple answer is that you can do it, and the benefits are many, varied and not always what others might expect.
Sustainable development can be difficult to grasp, but everyone, no matter how young, has a right and a responsibility to understand how their actions and choices affect the environment, people and wildlife both locally and globally.
That’s why, at St Colm’s High School in Draperstown, just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland, we’ve taken a structured approach to teaching sustainable development since 2006. We wanted to inspire and support young people to embrace environmental responsibility. But there were a number of other reasons why we decided to take the plunge.
Community focus
When we began, there was a culture of underage drinking in the local park. It was dangerous for children to play there because of the broken bottles and the littering on the main street at weekends was unacceptable.
Northern Ireland has the highest rate of suicide in the UK. Sadly, Draperstown has suffered greatly from deaths owing to suicide - including some past pupils of our school.
By valuing our young people’s contributions to the environment, helping them develop skills to manage difficult times and giving them pride in their town, we felt we could bring about real change.
The local village also needed better recreation and walking areas, more opportunities for older people and more positive ways of getting young people involved.
So, we started projects focusing on three major topics: litter, biodiversity and health and wellbeing.
We carried out litter blitzes in the park and town. We also created two trails, one for health and another showcasing biodiversity. Local families planted trees for the loved ones they’d lost in a special area of remembrance. Plus, we ran a successful “exercise in the great outdoors” event for staff, pupils and local people.
Our annual Health Fair allows the community to have health checks and gives an extra boost to our SPHE curriculum. We encourage mental health organisations to come along - and pupils take part in their activities. We have close links with Steps - a local mental health charity - and volunteers from the support network Men’s Shed have helped on many school projects.
It all plays a critical part in improving the mental health of students and local people. We’ve made significant steps in reducing teenage drinking and litter, and in improving community pride - but it is an ongoing challenge.
Happy children
Our pupils benefit from eco-involvement. They’ve developed life skills such as planting trees and hedges, painting fences and learning how to live more sustainably and economically. They’ve addressed audiences in school and in the local community - and even presented their eco-campaigns at Stormont. All this improves their public speaking and helps them to develop as confident leaders.
The inclusive nature of our activities helps to draw out children who may find school life challenging. In a conventional setting they can feel isolated, but with eco-activities children from different year groups naturally come together. There’s no discrimination, as everyone can plant, paint, dig, water, go outside and take part. Plus, the fresh air, physical activity and friendships are hugely beneficial.
Successful schools
All these things help to develop happy children - and if children are happy, they’ll be in a better position to succeed. Attendance, confidence, results and engagement increase. Our school was the top non-selective school at A level in Northern Ireland in 2016 and placed third out of all schools in 2017. Pride in both social and academic attainment is filtering down into how our pupils behave and achieve generally.
Since September 2017, we have worked with four local primary schools to coordinate eco-activities, improving the appearance of the parish and raising awareness locally. We work with local charities, youth clubs and community groups, as well as sports clubs, shops and local businesses. These links have helped to strengthen relationships with local feeder primary schools and have also helped the community to appreciate our children here at St Colm’s.
What’s more, our work has attracted national recognition. Since we were first awarded Green Flag status by the Eco Schools programme in 2007, the school has enjoyed phenomenal publicity. We became an Ambassador Eco School in 2016, one of only 13 in Northern Ireland. National competition successes during the past decade include eight all-Ireland Eco-Unesco Young Environmentalist Awards. Recently, the World Wildlife Foundation nominated us for a Green Heart Hero Award.
Personal pride
I have also benefited personally, not only from excellent continuing professional development in leadership training at Queen’s University Belfast, but also from having the chance to do something new and different. I’m very proud of the pupils, my local community and our eco-warrior reputation.
In July last year, I was invited to the House of Commons to receive an Enthuse Celebration Award for excellence in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) teaching. I had many messages from pupils, past and present - and parents to congratulate me and to tell me that the eco-activities or awards they had been involved in had improved their education.
And that’s the greatest honour of all - making a difference to the lives of those you teach.
Clare Devlin is a chemistry teacher at St Colm’s High School in Draperstown
