Greening the Curriculum
Integrating sustainability across subjects makes learning relevant and impactful. Science can explore renewable energy and ecosystems, geography can examine resource use and climate impacts, while English, history, and art can address environmental narratives and creative expression. Practical strategies such as project-based learning, outdoor activities, and cross-curricular themes build confidence and engagement. By prioritising collaboration, planning time, and access to high-quality resources, schools can overcome challenges like time pressures and limited staff confidence, ensuring sustainability is embedded meaningfully and inspires future generations.
Head Heart Hands Approach
The Head–Heart–Hands approach helps schools create meaningful sustainability learning. Head focuses on critical thinking, exploring environmental issues and challenging assumptions. Heart builds emotional connection through experiences that foster care and respect for people, places, and nature. Hands turns learning into action with practical projects like gardening, recycling, or energy-saving initiatives. Together, these elements encourage students to think deeply, feel connected, and act purposefully, shifting perspectives from seeing nature as a resource to valuing it as a community. By integrating inquiry, reflection, and hands-on activities, educators nurture informed, compassionate, and proactive learners ready to lead positive change.
Organisations and support
Teach the Future’s Tracked Changes Project uses a “tracked changes” approach to amend England’s national curriculum, integrating climate and sustainability across subjects. It provides guiding principles, subject-specific revisions, executive summaries, and reports to support eco-curriculum reform.
Teaching for Sustainable Futures is Centre for Climate Change
and Sustainability Education's programme with a suite on modules on how to encorporate climate education across the primary and secondary curriculum.
Ministry of Eco Education provides UK schools with sustainability-focused curriculum frameworks, teacher guides, CPD, and resources on energy, food, transport, nature, society, and waste. It offers accreditation, case studies, expert sessions, and impact reports to embed climate education nationwide.
ThoughtBox supports school leaders and teachers by offering the Triple WellBeing® curriculum and climate curriculum toolkits, providing ready-to-use, crosscurricular lessons that integrate sustainability, global citizenship, and wellbeing.
WWF UK’s Schools Resources hub offers free teaching materials on climate, nature, and sustainability. It includes lesson plans, assemblies, posters, and activities for all ages, plus themed packs for events like Earth Hour and curriculum-linked eco-learning.
Transform Our World is a free online hub for teachers and youth leaders, offering sustainability resources, lesson plans, campaigns, and events. It connects educators globally to share ideas and inspire climate action through collaborative projects and practical classroom tools.
Twinkl’s Sustainability Hub offers schools and teachers comprehensive support: curriculum-linked resources like lesson plans and Eco Adventurers, CPD and carbon literacy training, a carbon footprint calculator, estate greening guidance, and global case studies.
The Sustainability Support for Education page on Green Skills and Curriculum provides guidance for integrating climate literacy, future-focused skills, and sustainability principles across subjects.
The Earth Day Education Resource Library provides free, high-quality environmental education resources that support teaching and environmental advocacy. It offers lesson plans, toolkits, and activities to help individuals or schools promote climate and nature action.
Earthwatch Education supports teachers with a free online community offering 200+ curriculum-linked resources, videos, and guides. They also provide professional development through Teach Earth training, workshops, and a year-long programme, helping educators confidently deliver outdoor learning and climate education.
Primary
The Harmony Project supports schools by providing resources, training, and curriculum guidance rooted in nature-based learning and sustainability principles. It offers practical tools, lesson ideas, and frameworks to embed ecological thinking across subjects, helping educators create holistic, climate-conscious learning environments.
Better Planet Schools offers primary school staff free, year long modules with lesson plans, presentations, assemblies and eco club activities. Interactive resources, prize draws, crew badges, mini modules and guidance support pupil led energy, waste, biodiversity and climate initiatives across UK settings nationwide actively.
CAPE have created a number of curriculum packs guiding the teaching of climate change through primary Geography, Science and Art.
Secondary
OCR’s new Level 3 Sustainability Enrichment Qualification helps students develop knowledge and skills for sustainable futures. It covers climate change, resource management, and ethical decision-making, supporting green careers and complementing A-levels or vocational courses with practical sustainability learning.
Engineering UK’s Climate Schools Programme supports secondary school staff with free, curriculum-linked English, science and geography resources: editable lesson and activity plans, slide decks, assemblies, theme-packs, CPD tips and a welcome pack. All materials are quality assured and flexible to adapt.
