Schools play a vital role in preparing young people for a sustainable future, beginning with building strong climate literacy among staff.
Building Climate Literacy
High-quality sustainability training helps make climate literacy part of everyday school life. When staff understand climate change and biodiversity loss, they feel more confident answering students’ questions and weaving sustainability into lessons and wider school activities. Training can also give staff space to talk about worries or uncertainty around climate change, helping them support pupils.
Whole School Approach
Sustainability works best when it is shared across the whole school rather than sitting with one person. Staff across planning, teaching and estates can then embed it into everyday practice. Flexible training options such as online learning, CPD sessions or peer learning help staff build knowledge and connect learning to their roles.
The Climate Action Planning Toolkit
Our Climate Action Planning Toolkit supports school staff to take action on topics areas such energy, nature and waste. It empowers staff, aligns with Department for Education policy, reduces environmental impact and inspires students. A great place to start for your sustainability journey!
Training
Climate Fresk is a 3-hour scientific workshop about the causes and impacts of climate change. It boosts staff understanding and confidence and can be online or in-person.
Another option is carbon literacy training, which equips staff with climate knowledge and practical actions. It promotes whole-school engagement and a low-carbon culture.
Let’s Go Zero provides free online training and workshops covering a wide range of areas, including carbon zero planning, key sustainability areas, procurement, green skills, adaptation, curriculum and more.
This UCL page offers free, research-informed CPD through a short film and a subject specific modules. It supports school staff training by enabling individual or group enrolment.
One Resilient Earth's Climate Resilience for Educators course is free and covers teaching, emotional resilience, and climate anxiety.
The Ministry of Eco Education provides free curriculum-aligned resources, online training, mentoring, and CPD for all school staff.
The WWF offer free CPD covering whole-school sustainability, systems thinking, student-led learning, climate action, and sustainable careers.
Aligned with PSHE, Citizenship, Health & Wellbeing curricula, the British Red Cross offers free CPD for secondary educators in two 90 minute courses.
This fully funded course covers water scarcity, conservation actions, and behaviour change, so that participants can become accredited water literate.
The level 2 Environmental Sustainability Course is fully-funded by the Government. It covers sustainable development, energy and waste management, transport and more.
Biodiversity Literacy Training™ is an interactive course developed by the University of Edinburgh, that Students Organising for Sustainability can deliver to the HE and FE sector.
